Charter Schools Offering Project-Based Learning -- Minnesota Common Course Catalogue

Minnesota Department of Education sent this bulletin at 11/07/2011 10:48 AM CST

MCCC Announcement: For Charter Schools Offering Project-Based Learning

The Minnesota Common Course Catalogue (MCCC) team knows schools are busy working on local course indexes which is the first submission for the MCCC data collection, and we are developing the final three submissions which will complete the MCCC data collection:                

  • Calendar Information,
  • Staff Course Records and
  • Student Course Records.

As a result of our development with these subsequent submissions, we have discovered that coursework as well as credits and marks for project-based learning must be reported differently than traditionally scheduled courses.

PLEASE NOTE: These instructions pertain ONLY to project-based learning coursework in which students create their own projects—often multidisciplinary—with completion dates at the discretion of the student.

While traditionally scheduled classes can be indexed according to the MCCC classifications and scheduled into terms within a school calendar and periods within a school day, we understand this system will not work for project-based learning coursework. We have developed an adaptation for the fourth MCCC submission, the Student Course Record that will allow us to collect student coursework information from projects, including credits and marks in particular subject areas. We will share that adaptation as we offer statewide information sessions for the fourth submission, Student Course Records.

This means charter schools do not need to submit a local course index for their project-based learning option.   Charter schools that offer any traditional courses that can be scheduled into terms within a school calendar must index those courses and submit that index to the Minnesota Department of Education through the MCCC data collection.

We apologize for any inconvenience these late local course index instructions cause. As always, if you have questions, concerns or simply want to know why project-based learning must be managed differently, please feel free to contact us at mde.mccc@state.mn.us.  We will be happy to share more information with you.