Free Resources for Educators
Welcome to our new PBL Library, your source for free resources like rubrics, planning tools, toolkits, handouts, strategy guides, and more.
Our Library is currently UNDER CONSTRUCTION, so you'll find a few of our favorite resources here now, but over the coming months, we'll add even more.
Start Planning Your PBL Project With Confidence
The Project Planner is a step-by-step form for confidently designing a Gold Standard PBL unit, helping teachers capture and organize goals for student learning, entry events, driving questions, major products, and daily lessons. It provides a common framework so teachers can collaborate and share projects using shared language. The planner covers three parts: Project Idea, Project Path Overview, and Project Calendar. It also links to templates for a project rubric, project information sheet, and a sample family letter.
Assess More than Content
These five research-based success skills rubrics—covering critical thinking, collaboration, self-directed learning, complex communication, and creativity—were developed with the National Center for Improvement of Educational Assessment, grounded in a comprehensive literature review of each skill. They give teachers clear, research-based definitions and formative feedback tools for guiding instruction and student reflection. Rubrics are available for K-2 (including a primary/early-reader version), 3-5, and 6-12 grade spans, and can be adapted locally with attribution.
Evaluate Projects Against Gold Standard PBL
Use the Project Design Rubric to evaluate and strengthen your projects against PBLWorks' Essential Project Design Elements. With clear definitions and real-world examples for each dimension, the rubric shows what separates a basic "project" from rigorous Gold Standard PBL—helping teachers new to PBL grow from beginner to expert. Use it individually or with colleagues to design projects, give formative feedback, and reflect and revise your practice.
Evidence Framework Toolkits
Explore the research-based tools that we've developed to support Gold Standard Project Based Learning.
Evidence Matters
District PBL Evidence Framework Toolkit
Track effective implementation on key indicators of PBL that “move the needle” on academic and success skills.
Evidence Matters
School PBL Evidence Framework Toolkit
Track effective implementation on key indicators of PBL that “move the needle” on academic and success skills.
Project Path
Support Inquiry through Every Project Phase
Keep the Project Path close at hand as a quick-reference map of your project, from launch to reflection. This one-page PDF walks through the four phases of a Gold Standard PBL project, highlighting the questions students are considering at each stage and how teachers can support their inquiry along the way. Print it, pin it up, or tuck it into your planning binder—it's a handy at-a-glance guide for staying on track and keeping your team aligned as the project unfolds.
Essential Project Design Checklist
Quick-Check Your Project's Design
Use the Essential Project Design Elements Checklist for a quick, user-friendly check on your project's design. Based on the Project Design Rubric, it helps you confirm that a project includes all the essential elements of rigorous, effective PBL. Use it before, during, and after designing projects to keep quality in check—and lean on it as a simple way to communicate what PBL really means to teachers, administrators, and other audiences.
Project Based Teaching Rubric
Assess Your Project Based Teaching Practice
The Project Based Teaching Rubric describes beginning, developing, and Gold Standard levels of Project Based Teaching Practices for K-12 teachers, with detailed, concrete indicators that show what it looks like to teach in a PBL environment. Teachers and school leaders can use the rubric to reflect on current practice and plan for professional growth—individually or together.