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When he got the chance to transfer into one of five new small schools opening here last year in a restructured high school, Timothy S. Cagwin didn鈥檛 miss a beat.

Feeling stifled at his old school, the 39-year-old English teacher was particularly attracted to the new schools鈥� plans to focus on 鈥減roject-based learning,鈥� a pedagogical approach high on the list of high-school-reform ideas championed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other like-minded philanthropies, academics, and critics of the status quo.

Like school leaders elsewhere amid the ongoing national push to improve U.S. high schools, those at the new community of schools believed that the approach would rally both teachers and students to work toward new, higher levels of learning.

Yet at Mr. Cagwin鈥檚 new school and the others formed from the restructuring of the 1,900-student Olympic High School, the hoped-for change in teaching did not get off to a fast start. Despite his high hopes, Mr. Cagwin wound up putting few of his plans into action.

鈥淥ver the summer, I worked really hard to make [projects] happen, but when the year started, standardized testing seemed to squeeze its way in,鈥� he recalled.

Mr. Cagwin鈥檚 halting debut with project-based learning was not unusual.

So, starting last spring and for a week in August, teachers from each of the five schools鈥攑art of the 132,000-student Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district鈥攇athered with an outside coach to recharge their commitment and draw up learning blueprints for the new school year.

That such reinforcement was needed comes as no surprise to experts in project-based learning. Given that textbooks or guides that lay out day-by-day lessons tend to rule in the standard classroom, making a success of PBL typically requires teachers to embrace new attitudes, hone new skills, and risk failure, said Michael Simkins, a former principal and teacher in California who has led PBL workshops for years.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a tall order,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t demands a lot of intelligence on the part of teachers, and skills they may not yet have.鈥�

That teachers can meet that challenge has been suggested by several innovative schools that have spawned copies around the country. Those include the Minnesota New Country School in Henderson, Minn., the schools in the Big Picture Company network that originated at the 鈥淢et鈥� school in Providence, R.I., and those run by the High Tech High charter-management organization based in San Diego.

Proponents see the method as helping to remedy a lack of 鈥渞igor and relevance鈥� in high school coursework, which they believe contributes to the nation鈥檚 dropout problem. But making the approach live up to that promise, and even selling it to teachers, has been easier said than done.

Asking Good Questions

Project-based learning presents students with real-world problems that ideally can be solved only by application of the knowledege and skills that have been set for them to learn. Typically, students work in teams to meet explicit standards, just as adults do at work.

The first and sometimes highest hurdle teachers new to PBL must leap is to stop worrying so much about 鈥渃overing the material,鈥� said Pamela Wise, the school coach dispatched by the Coalition of Essential Schools鈥� Northwest office in Seattle to run the professional-development sessions at the Olympic site. CES Northwest awarded a grant, with money from the Gates Foundation, that is supporting the Olympic High conversion. (Gates also provides funding for 91直播鈥檚 annual Diplomas Count report.)

In the view of the CES, a network of schools aiming for both personalization and intellectual challenge, less is more. That is the toughest principle to enact, longtime associates of the coalition say, because teachers are steeped in the something-for-everyone curriculum of the traditional American high school and intimidated by district- and state-enforced testing.

But even with a belief in depth, teachers face a lot of design work if their projects are to teach content as well as process efficiently. Ideally, they鈥檒l approach the task with a thorough knowledge of one or more fields and settle on a question central to the content they have in their sights.

The project then becomes the students鈥� way of answering the question, according to Eeva Reeder, a mathematics teacher at Mountlake Terrace High School near Seattle, whose work was featured in Ms. Wise鈥檚 workshop. The learning sticks, Ms. Reeder has written, 鈥渂ecause [students] have created something using their new knowledge.鈥�

Settling on 鈥楶erformances鈥�

Educators must learn to think like assessors, envisioning student 鈥減erformances鈥� that can certify that students have mastered the relevant curriculum, Ms. Wise stressed at the workshop in Charlotte.

The performances can take many forms, from a traditional essay to a complex group task that involves making a plan and presenting it publicly.

The dozen teachers who gathered for the workshop had begun in the spring to read through the produced by the Buck Institute for Education, a nonprofit organization based in Novato, Calif.

They then formulated the questions that would propel their projects. Their goal was to complete the planning for one project by the end of the workshop week, and then launch it by Oct. 15.

Marie Ullrich, about to start her second year of teaching, planned to ask her juniors in an honors English course about 鈥渢he American dream鈥�: What鈥檚 meant by the term? Is the dream attainable? Is it desirable? Among other assignments, she planned to have her students write reflections on interviews they were to conduct with immigrants to the country.

Veteran biology teacher Lori Jones wanted her students to address the ethical issues around the various ways of altering genetic material. The teacher planned to assign her students to craft skits and present them in class, as part of showing that they understand the workings of DNA, the building block of genes.

Ms. Wise reminded the teachers that once they have worked out the questions and 鈥減erformances,鈥� they must pay attention to 鈥渟caffolding鈥濃�攁ll the smaller lessons and tasks that get students ready for a final assessment. All the assignments need 鈥渞ubrics鈥濃�攕coring guides that spell out for the students exactly what constitutes acceptable and higher work along each dimension involved in the tasks.

鈥淭eachers forget they can鈥檛 just expect this magic thing to pop up,鈥� Ms. Wise cautioned. 鈥淜ids have to have exposure to it and time to practice it; you need a two-minute presentation [before] a 10-minute one.鈥�

鈥楢ll the Little Pieces鈥�

Teachers typically struggle over the rubrics. So at midweek, Ms. Wise had scheduled a morning dedicated to the scoring guidance. Small groups of teachers critiqued one another鈥檚 rubrics in a structured way.

Suzanne A. Newsom, an English teacher in the arts-themed school at Olympic, wanted students to write an original story about a hero on a journey using their study of Homer鈥檚 Odyssey as the base. The idea was for students to grasp the ancient story pattern and understand its enduring appeal.

鈥淚 wonder if the supporting documents couldn鈥檛 be turned in earlier and graded separately,鈥� one of the other teachers suggested to Ms. Newsom. That way, students would get critical feedback earlier.

The teachers praised Ms. Newsom鈥檚 treatment of the aspect of the work she called 鈥渋nterdependence.鈥� Students will be graded in part on the quality of their peer editing, which they must show by turning in their corrections and commentary.

鈥淚鈥檝e used rubrics a lot, and they weren鈥檛 so specific鈥� in the past, allowed Ms. Newsom, a 22-year classroom veteran. With the revisions, she said, 鈥渟tudents will know more about how to get what they want.鈥�

Science teacher Jeanne E. Smith was less worried about rubrics and more concerned about making her project efficient. She spent the workshop revising a project, which she had used in her 9th grade Advanced Placement course in environmental science, that asks students to find out how to control the fire ants that have invaded the region.

Last year, she had the students come up with questions for a survey about the problem and present their solutions in community meetings. Now she plans to pare down those activities鈥攕ubstituting for the presentations will be a contest for the best article, which a local newspaper has agreed to publish鈥攖o make more time for field work.

鈥淢y intent is for students to see the ants in their ecosystem, maybe do an experiment where they set bait for regular ants and for fire ants,鈥� said Ms. Smith, whose worried mien and pile of materials testified to her conscientiousness. 鈥淵ou have to ask where you want students concentrating their time.鈥�

Dedicated time and feedback from colleagues can make all the difference in the quality of projects, said the teachers, whose group would have been larger except for the competing professional demands that tend to go with new schools. The PBL pioneers plan to keep meeting this year and have agreed to open their classrooms to others in the school.

Despite her progress, Ms. Smith, who had a 25-year-career in the chemical business before becoming a teacher, represents how far project-based learning has to go to take hold at Olympic. She鈥檚 been mulling over the approach in her chemistry classes, where the state鈥檚 end-of-course test looms large. So far, no projects.

鈥淚t will take a lot of work to see how to pull a project together,鈥� she sighed. 鈥淚 think I assumed [PBL] would come a little more naturally, but now I鈥檓 seeing its almost like a business plan鈥攜ou have to pull all of the little pieces together.鈥�