In the Ideas.TED.com post, How can schools best prepare students for the future? Give them real work to do Ted Dintersmith makes the argument that if we enable our children to work on real-world projects with real-world partners and focus on solving those real-world problems then everyone wins. The Iowa BIG project connects students with over 100 local organizations including businesses, nonprofits, and policy groups and from this connection students spend most of their school day working on projects to improve the community. Of the over 500 graduates from the program, 97 percent who applied to college were admitted to their first choice so if we view getting into a college as a measuring stick than the program is working.
This is just one of many innovative programs that give students the opportunity to make a difference in the world by giving them choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities.
