Since August 2022, Handy Middle School in Bay City has embraced a whole-school project-based learning (PBL) approach across all subjects and grade levels. This initiative aims to boost student engagement, deepen learning, and cultivate critical 21st-century skills such as collaboration, communication, and problem-solving.

The impetus for this transformation began when Bay City Public Schools reopened after the pandemic. District leaders recognized the need to critically assess the impact of school closures on their students. In response, they established the Learning Recovery Task Force, comprising teachers and school administrators, to determine the best strategies to support students. “School closures and remote learning impacted our students in dramatically different ways in regards to inequities,” shared Bay City Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Patrick Malley. “We wanted to be really intentional with how the task force analyzed these impacts, and we looked at what other communities were doing in terms of best practices. That’s where the conversation about Handy Middle School surfaced.”

Handy Middle School, serving grades 6-8 with an annual enrollment of around 700-800 students, faced significant challenges both during and before the pandemic, including frequent changes in leadership. By the 2023-24 school year, the school launched a robust summer teacher preparation program to equip educators for high-quality PBL delivery. The school also implemented an exemplary advisory program called Crew, which fosters strong relationships and personal growth among students. Interdisciplinary teaming further enhances student-centered learning by integrating multiple subjects into cohesive projects. Additionally, dedicated team time allows teachers to collaborate on student support and personalize instruction, all within a supportive and engaging learning environment.

District Buy-In: Where to Start

The district’s process for evaluating and redesigning Handy Middle School was notably efficient, thanks to several key structures:

Create Transparent Goals and Communication

The district’s sense of urgency made it critical to establish a stringent timeline and structure, and district leaders leveraged this momentum to propel the task force towards change. During the task force meetings in the redesign analysis for Handy Middle School, the group created a Key Takeaways document as a tool to communicate to the community what they learned in each meeting. “It was encouraging how involved our community was during this process,” said Jake Voisine, task force member for the school redesign. “It helped us establish the question around what it means to be practicing 21st-century education, and how we align with that in regards to the future of learning.” The Key Takeaways document started as a resource that the task force shared with the school community, but the task force members quickly recognized it for the learning tool it was — a record of key learnings from the group and a roadmap for how they planned to address their findings.

Involve the Critics

Malley shares that the task force group was created very intentionally, since the group’s ability to make timely decisions was paramount — but they made sure to incorporate their community’s critics, as well as their champions, to understand the process and recommendations. “I knew we couldn’t pick people to go on school tours that would just support our vision outright,” said Malley. “We invited some of our more historically skeptical community members, including teachers and business leaders on our trips.” Malley shared that by incorporating them in the process, their concerns were heard and questions answered, and were represented in the redesign. The task force included initially tentative teachers who throughout the process became confident in the impact of the NTN Model. These teachers presented to the board alongside the group on their findings after a school tour, which helped showcase how the district’s vision for Handy Middle School might be achieved. “There’s no ‘magic fix’ when it comes to this work,” shared Voisine.

“It’s reasonable to be a little skeptical about a big change — change is scary. But this is the right move for our school and community, and I think the experience will speak for itself, and change a lot of minds.”

Find a School Design Partner

Malley’s team conducted a landscape analysis of different school models that focused on deeper learning, and created a checklist for the specific needs in Bay City that a partner needed to fulfill. “New Tech Network (NTN) was selected as the partner for this work because of the depth in expertise in not just the instructional practices, but in the classroom culture, and that’s what we really wanted to address,” said Malley. After connecting with NTN’s School and District Development team, Handy Middle School was on track to implement the project-based learning classroom model in the Fall of 2022. “Handy Middle School leaders are eager and committed to making a change for their students,” said NTN School Development Coach Missy Saldana, who conducted the leaders’ NTN Residency training in May of 2022. “These leaders are determined advocates for their students and are ‘all in’ moving forward in implementing change.”

A Fresh Outlook for the Future

“Joining New Tech Network provides us an opportunity to reframe many things about the school, not just project-based learning,” said Malley. “Eliminating the deficit mindset about kids is the first step to establishing a culture that makes sure everyone in that school is focused on next-level readiness for these kids.” As the sixth-graders at Handy Middle School start a new learning experience this year, they’ll have the opportunity to take these deeper learning methods with them when they enter an implementation in seventh and eighth grades and beyond.

Student-Centered Interdisciplinary Teaching: Strategies for Success

Handy Middle School demonstrates how interdisciplinary collaboration through project-based learning enables students to integrate and apply knowledge across subjects, leading to deeper understanding and improved skill transfer. This approach enhances the coherence of teaching inquiry skills and integrating resources and technology across subjects. Teachers, including library media specialists, ELL and special education instructors, and art specialists, collaborate to expand students’ knowledge and provide essential support, fostering a comprehensive learning environment. For your next professional learning community meeting, consider these strategies for interdisciplinary collaboration:

• Classification of Learning Strategies: Learning strategies can be classified into cognitive, metacognitive, and resource management strategies. Cognitive strategies involve direct manipulation of learning material, such as summarization and elaboration. Metacognitive strategies encompass planning, monitoring, and evaluating one’s learning processes. Resource management strategies focus on optimizing learning conditions, including time management and seeking help.
• Effectiveness of Learning Strategies: The effectiveness of learning strategies depends on various factors such as the learner’s age, the nature of the content, and the context in which learning occurs. For example, while summarization may be more beneficial for older students, younger students might benefit more from simpler strategies like rehearsal.
• Integration into Educational Practices: The conceptual model proposed suggests ways in which educators can integrate these strategies into their teaching practices to foster better learning environments. This includes providing explicit instruction on how to use these strategies and creating opportunities for students to practice and reflect on their use.

See Handy Middle School’s Interdisciplinary Teams’ Teacher Guide: Copy of HMS Interdisciplinary Teams – Teacher Edit

Reference: npj Science of Learning. “Learning strategies: a synthesis and conceptual model.” npj Science of Learning, 2016, https://www.nature.com/articles/npjscilearn201613.