What Does Place-Based Learning
Look Like?

The Rural Trust's Place-Based
Learning Principles

The Rural School and Community Trust has been a leader in articulating and promoting a vision of place-based learning in which:

• The school and community actively collaborate to make the local place a good one in which to learn, work, live, and play.
  
  
• Students do sustained academic work that draws upon and contributes to the place in which they live. They practice new skills and responsibilities, serving as scholars, workers, and citizens in their community.
  
  
• Schools mirror the democratic values they seek to instill, arranging their resources so that every child is known well and every child’s participation, regardless of ability, is needed and wanted.
  
  
• Decision-making about the education of the community’s children is shared, informed by expertise both in and outside the school.
  
  
• All participants, including teachers, students, and community members, expect excellent effort from each other and review their joint progress regularly and thoughtfully. Multiple measures and public input enlarge assessments of student performance.
  
  
• The school and community support students, their teachers, and their adult mentors in these new roles.