By Ryan Steuer | Magnify Learning CEO
What if the biggest opportunity to transform student learning isn’t a new curriculum, technology platform, or grant—but a different way of empowering teachers and students?
Across K–12 education, administrators face a familiar challenge: preparing students for a rapidly changing world while supporting teachers who are already stretched thin. Schools are expected to strengthen academic achievement, develop future-ready skills, build meaningful community partnerships, and create learning environments where every student can succeed.
That’s a tall order!
But Project Based Learning (PBL), especially when connected to Career and Technical Education (CTE), provides a powerful framework for accomplishing these goals.
The key isn’t simply implementing more projects. It’s building systems where teachers collaborate across disciplines, students repeatedly practice authentic skills, and school leaders make decisions alongside the people they serve.
Dr. Donna Stewart-Lewis, founder of Ethos Academies and a longtime CTE teacher, instructional coach, and administrator, offers valuable insights into what makes these systems work.
Here are three leadership strategies that can help transform PBL from an instructional approach into a sustainable culture of learning.
1. Break Down Silos: Make Interdisciplinary PBL a Schoolwide Priority
One of the greatest untapped opportunities in K–12 education is what happens when teachers stop planning exclusively within their subject areas.
Think about it.
In the professional world, challenges rarely fit neatly into one academic discipline. Engineers communicate. Entrepreneurs analyze data. Healthcare professionals solve problems using science, technology, and interpersonal skills.
Yet schools often organize learning as though these disciplines exist independently.
PBL creates opportunities to change that.
When teachers collaborate, students benefit
Dr. Stewart-Lewis describes an interdisciplinary project involving a world languages teacher and a game design teacher.
Their challenge? Develop an app to help newcomer students navigate school and community resources.
Suddenly, language instruction wasn’t simply about vocabulary and grammar. Game design wasn’t just about coding.
Together, the disciplines addressed an authentic problem affecting real students.
The world languages teacher later shared that she had never experienced anything quite like the collaboration. It brought her content to life in a way she hadn’t previously imagined.
Imagine the possibilities if this kind of collaboration became the norm instead of the exception.
Students could develop environmental solutions through science and engineering, launch community awareness campaigns through English and digital media, or design businesses that integrate mathematics, entrepreneurship, and world languages.
The learning becomes connected because the world is connected.
Administrators must create the conditions
Here’s the leadership challenge: Interdisciplinary collaboration doesn’t happen consistently just because we encourage it.
It requires intentional structures.
The teachers in Dr. Stewart-Lewis’s example participated in a structured professional learning experience that included regular collaboration, coaching, feedback, and compensation for time spent working beyond their contractual hours.
As Dr. Stewart-Lewis emphasizes, principals need to “embed it in the day.”
That means treating collaborative planning as essential instructional work, not an optional extra.
What administrators can do:
- Identify two or three teachers from different disciplines who are interested in developing a shared project.
- Protect collaborative planning time during the school day.
- Provide instructional coaching and opportunities for teachers to test ideas.
- Compensate teachers appropriately when collaboration requires additional work.
- Celebrate interdisciplinary projects by sharing student products and community impact.
Leadership takeaway: Don’t ask teachers to build interdisciplinary PBL on their own time and then wonder why collaboration isn’t sustainable. Build collaboration into the system.
2. Move Beyond Checkboxes: Develop Professional Skills Through Repeated Practice
Most school administrators recognize the importance of preparing students for life beyond graduation.
That’s why many schools offer mock interviews, career fairs, industry credentials, job-shadowing opportunities, and professional presentations.
These experiences matter.
But there’s a fundamental difference between exposing students to professional skills and helping them develop those skills.
One experience doesn’t create lasting competency. Repeated practice does.
Professionalism should be practiced, not just taught
Consider the typical high school mock interview.
Students prepare for a few days, dress professionally, answer questions from an adult, receive feedback, and move on.
It’s valuable, but what happens afterward?
Are students continuing to practice communication, problem-solving, and professional interaction throughout the year?
Dr. Stewart-Lewis makes an important observation:
“The difference between a novice and an expert is practice.”
This is where PBL has a distinct advantage.
Instead of treating professionalism as an isolated lesson, PBL creates recurring opportunities for students to communicate with authentic audiences, defend their ideas, respond to feedback, and revise their work.
For example, imagine a student who spends a semester developing a solution for a local business.
Throughout that project, the student might:
- Interview a business owner to understand the challenge.
- Collaborate with teammates to research potential solutions.
- Present preliminary ideas to industry professionals.
- Receive critical feedback and revise the proposal.
- Deliver a final presentation explaining the solution and its impact.
That’s not simply career readiness instruction.
That’s career readiness in action.
Give students opportunities to create real change
Dr. Stewart-Lewis shared another example from her classroom: a project called Reversing the Cursing: Profanity is Insanity.
After observing concerns about inappropriate language on campus, she challenged students to explore the issue.
Students investigated when young people began using profanity, developed surveys, created awareness materials, and presented their findings to other classrooms.
What began as a classroom concern evolved into a student-led effort to influence school culture.
Students weren’t just learning about professionalism. They were practicing leadership, communication, research, and civic responsibility.
And they could see the impact of their work.
For administrators, this raises an important question: Are we assessing students primarily on what they know, or are we giving them meaningful opportunities to demonstrate what they can do?
Rethink how success is measured
Industry-recognized credentials and standardized assessments can provide useful information about student learning.
But passing an assessment doesn’t automatically mean a student can transfer that knowledge into a professional setting.
School leaders should look beyond completion rates and examine evidence of actual application.
Consider incorporating student-led conferences, public presentations, authentic project portfolios, and multiple rounds of industry feedback.
These experiences help make professional competency visible.
Leadership takeaway: Stop treating career readiness as a checklist of activities. Create a continuum of professional practice that begins in elementary school and grows progressively more sophisticated through graduation.
3. Lead With Your Teachers and Students, Not Just for Them
Here’s a question every administrator should consider:
When was the last time you asked students and teachers what they actually need before launching a new initiative?
School improvement often follows a familiar pattern.
Leadership identifies a priority, secures funding, develops an implementation plan, and communicates expectations to teachers.
Sometimes it works.
Other times, teachers feel overwhelmed, students don’t understand the purpose, and the initiative struggles to gain traction.
Dr. Stewart-Lewis challenges administrators to reverse that process.
“Talk to kids. Talk to teachers before you do anything.”
It’s simple advice with significant implications.
Build ownership before implementation
Imagine your district is considering a new CTE pathway or expanding Project Based Learning across multiple grade levels.
Instead of immediately developing the rollout, start with conversations.
Ask teachers what instructional barriers they encounter. Ask students which learning experiences feel most meaningful. Invite both groups to identify challenges and opportunities.
Then use those insights to inform decisions about programming, professional development, partnerships, and funding.
This doesn’t mean administrators abandon their responsibility to lead.
It means leadership becomes more collaborative, informed, and responsive.
Dr. Stewart-Lewis suggests asking students where they see themselves in the future and what schools can do to prepare them for the world of 2035 and 2040.
That’s a fundamentally different conversation than simply asking students whether they like their classes.
It positions them as partners in designing their education.
Model the vulnerability that PBL requires
High-quality PBL asks students to embrace uncertainty, experiment with solutions, seek feedback, and learn from mistakes.
Shouldn’t educators and administrators model those same behaviors?
As Dr. Stewart-Lewis explains, educational innovation requires innovation and vulnerability.
Teachers don’t need to have every answer before beginning an authentic project. Administrators don’t need to develop perfect implementation plans without input.
Both need the willingness to listen, adapt, and improve.
That mindset is especially important as schools navigate emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Rather than simply avoiding unfamiliar tools, leaders can help teachers and students learn to use them ethically, responsibly, and effectively.
The goal isn’t to eliminate uncertainty.
It’s to develop the confidence and skills to navigate it.
Start small and build momentum
Transformational leadership doesn’t always require a massive initiative.
It can begin with a student advisory group, a collaborative teacher planning session, or a single interdisciplinary project.
What administrators can do:
- Establish regular opportunities for student and teacher feedback.
- Invite students to help evaluate proposed learning initiatives.
- Use teacher input to determine professional learning priorities.
- Align grant opportunities with identified instructional needs rather than allowing funding alone to drive decisions.
- Pilot new approaches, gather feedback, and improve before expanding.
Leadership takeaway: The people closest to the learning experience often have insights that traditional planning processes overlook. Give them a meaningful voice before making decisions that affect their classrooms.
Conclusion: Build a PBL Culture That Prepares Students for the Future
The future of education won’t be shaped solely by new technologies, revised standards, or additional programs.
It will be shaped by the learning cultures school leaders choose to build.
When administrators protect interdisciplinary collaboration, teachers can create richer and more authentic experiences.
When schools prioritize repeated application over isolated activities, students develop transferable skills that prepare them for college, careers, and life.
And when leaders invite teachers and students into meaningful decision-making, PBL becomes something the entire school community owns.
The good news?
You don’t have to transform your entire district tomorrow.
Start with three questions:
- Where can we create protected time for teachers to collaborate across disciplines?
- How can we give students more opportunities to practice and demonstrate professional skills throughout the year?
- Whose voices are missing from our school improvement conversations?
Choose one question. Bring together a small team. Identify one practical action you can take this month.
Because meaningful school transformation rarely begins with a perfect plan.
It begins with people who are willing to work together, learn together, and build something better.
Ready to strengthen Project Based Learning in your school or district?
Explore the collaborative communities, leadership roundtables, and practical resources available through Magnify Learning’s PBL Networks.
The future of learning isn’t something we wait for. It’s something we build together.
Click here for more information on the PBL Solo Community for Teachers.
Click here for more information on the PBL Movement Online Community for Schools and Districts.
Click here for more information on Magnify Learning’s Workshop options.
Click here to schedule a PBL Model School visit.
To watch a webinar customized to your context, visit us at pblwebinar.com
If you have PBL heroes in your district, have them apply to be a part of our nationwide network tackling current issues in education innovation by going to pblnetworks.com