Office of Innovation and Improvement

A recent study of middle-school students attending KIPP charter schools compared their performance in four core academic subjects over a three-year period and found that they gained between 11 and 14 additional months of learning over students in comparable traditional public schools. The study, “KIPP Middle Schools: Impacts on Achievement and Other Outcomes,” was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research (Mathematica), using multiple research strategies, including a rigorous, random-assignment methodology that compared students admitted to KIPP schools through its lottery system with students who applied to KIPP but were not admitted.

Swinging beats, improvisational melodies, and ear-pleasing harmonies are all hallmarks of jazz. The quintessentially American art form channels the feeling of freedom, invokes the spirit of creativity, and puts a premium on collaboration and teamwork, all inherent values of democracy and essential ingredients of the American experience.

More than 4,000 art educators gathered in Fort Worth, Texas, early this month to “draw connections to their communities” — the theme of this year’s annual National Art Education Association (NAEA) conference. And what a great way for these P-12 teachers of art, along with museum educators; university professors of art education; and school-, district-, and state-level arts and education administrators to also kick-off the month during which all the arts are recognized for their importance to a well-rounded education — Dance in the Schools Month, Music in Our Schools Month, Theatre in Our Schools Month, and Youth Art Month.

The Department is currently seeking peer reviewers for the FY 2013 Arts in Education – Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program (AEMDD) competition. Persons interested in serving as peer reviewers need to submit their resumes and a completed copy of the "AEMDD Peer Reviewer Checklist" to Clifton.Jones@ed.gov by Friday, April 12, 2013.

Today, Edutopia.org released a new video featuring one of OII’s i3 grantees — Bellevue School District’s Sammamish High School in Washington state. The video documents the transformation from the school’s use of traditional curriculum to problem-based learning. The district was awarded an i3 Development grant in 2010 for the development and implementation of a scalable, sustainable, 21st-century, skills-based program. This type of learning allows teachers to facilitate conversations and provide more effective classroom instruction; it also allows students to take more ownership in the learning process — how they connect to and learn the material, and how they put new knowledge into practice.