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Arts in Education—Professional Development for Arts Educators

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2008 Awards

Twenty-four (24) new awards were made in FY 2008.

Grantee Name: Fort Thomas Unified School District
Project Address: P.O. Box 28
Ft Thomas, AZ 85536
Project Director: Dr. Leon Ben
Phone: (928) 485-9423

The Southeast Arizona Arts in Academics Project will involve over 1200 grades K through 12 underserved children and youth and their teachers who live in small rural communities along the Arizona-Mexico border. All participating schools have at least 50% or more students who are low income (ranging from 63.3% to 94.18%) according to the Arizona Department of Education, NSLP Free/Reduced as Percent of Total Eligible Report.

Our youth represent a diverse population. Approximately 47% are San Carlos Apache and live in extreme poverty on the reservation; 38% are Mexican-American whose extended families reside on both sides of the United States-Mexico border; and 15% of the youth are Anglo living on small ranches.

Arizona Arts in Academics will develop students' ability to use modes of artistic communication to investigate, concentrate, observe, and express themselves and their ideas about themselves and what they have learned. Our proposal represents a comprehensive approach encompassing four strategies:

  1. Create student and teacher enthusiasm and support: Utilize the expertise of artists in residence, college faculty, and technology to expand learning opportunities;
  2. Develop Professional Development and Curriculum Development: Through a rigorous professional development effort, prepare forty teachers from seven schools in strategies for integrating forms of art into regular classroom instruction, map the art curriculum and align it to the Arizona Art Standards, and Develop and use assessments that evaluate mastery of the art standards;
  3. Foster community enthusiasm: Showcase student works, develop and expand partnerships, sponsor special performances involving parents and community members; and
  4. Continually monitor and evaluate status, quality of activities, and impact.

Student Outcomes and Objectives

Outcome 1: Participating students will demonstrate increased skills, knowledge, and understanding of the four forms of art.

Objective 1.1: By the end of the project, participating students will meet or exceed the Arizona Academic Standards in the Arts as determined by their ability to create art.

Objective 1.2: By the end of the project, participating students will meet or exceed the Arizona Academic Standards in the Arts as determined by their ability to use art in context.

Objective 1.3: By the end of the project, participating students will meet or exceed the Arizona Academic Standards in the Arts as determined by their ability to evaluate or draw thoughtful conclusions about the significance of art.

Outcome 2: Participating students will demonstrate improved academic achievement, social maturity and respect for others, especially those from different cultures.

Objective 2.1: By the end of the project, participating students will demonstrate mastery of the Arizona Academic Standards required by the State Board of Education for on time graduation.

Objective 2.2: By the end of the project, participating students will demonstrate significant increase in social maturity and respect for others.

Enabling Objectives:

Outcome 3: Teachers will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to engage students in learning the arts and will incorporate the arts into regular instruction.

Objective 3.1: The percent of teachers able to identify correctly the Forms of Art that are appropriate to their classroom needs will be 100% for years 1, 2, and 3.

Objective 3.2: The percent of teachers who have lesson plans that incorporate Forms of Art into their regular instruction will be 40% for year 1; 60% for year 2, and 100% for year 3.

Objective 3.3: The percent of teachers who appropriately and effectively use Forms of Art in their regular instruction at least three times during the school year will be 30% for year 1, 60% for year 2, and 100% for year 3.

Outcome 4: Schools and communities will have the infrastructure and cultivated commitment to ensure that arts remain part of the core curriculum.

Objective 4.1: Arts in Academics will form active Advisory Council that disseminates project information in the community.

By accomplishing the above, our school communities will increasingly appreciate the value of what the learning and use of "art" means in the lives of our children and youth and build a culture to sustain Arts in Academics.

Grantee Name: Alameda County Office of Education
Project Address: 313 West Winton Ave
Hayward, CA 94544
Project Director: Louise Music
Phone: (510) 670-4174

The proposed project, Arts Integration for Equitable Outcomes Teacher Action Research Initiative (TARI), is a strategic partnership led by the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) to create capacity in Alameda County school districts to apply tools, frameworks and professional development that have been piloted with forty schools, and the arts provider organizations that they partner with, over the last five years. The purpose is to create a systemic professional development program for teachers and teaching artists that aims quality learning in and through the arts at the learning needs of students in all content areas, with a special focus on students that are performing at far below basic levels, and with a special eye to sub-groups of students such as English language learners. The design provides multiple opportunities for arts teachers, teaching artists and non-arts teachers to plan together, enrich instruction, and assess student learning in the arts using the Studio Habits of Mind and the Teaching for Understanding frameworks.

Participating partners are the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) Project Zero, San Leandro Unified School District, the Arts Education Initiative (a consortium of 6 universities and colleges led by UC-Berkeley and including the California College of the Arts), and arts providers with professional development expertise and teaching artist programs in place.

In 2007 the California Standardized Test Scores plateaued. The incremental improvements, made over the last decade as part of dedicated efforts to help students achieve on state tests, were insufficient. More than 40% of the African American and Latino students who enter the 9th grade in California still will not graduate with a high school diploma four years later, and only 12-14% will graduate having met the requirements to attend a California state university. (Friedlander, Darling-Hammond).

The Alameda County Office of Education develops leadership of arts learning educators and advocates to articulate the value of learning in the arts, recognizes the arts can build on the history and experiences every child brings to school, and supports using arts to expand students' horizons and deepen learning across the content areas. Essential to this effort are quality arts integrated environments that embrace the learning styles and experience of every child and create multiple entry points for diverse communities of students to be successful today as they learn in the arts, and to connect those successful learning experiences to investigations in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies through standards based learning in music, dance, drama and visual arts.

There is a need for a systemic culture of teaching and learning that can respond effectively and coherently to school and district needs. To accomplish this, the Arts Integration for Equitable Outcomes Teacher Action Research Initiative will build on five years of accumulated knowledge, experience and evaluation of use of these frameworks to create a common language to support arts learning and arts integration countywide. It will extend professional development in the thinking frames into new districts, add the component of teacher action research, and go deep by addressing specific groups of learners—far below basic students and English Language Learners.

Grantee Name: Aspire Public Schools
Project Address: 426 17th Street, Suite 200
Oakland, CA 94612
Project Director: Mike Barr
Phone: (510) 251-1660

Aspire Public Schools will strengthen teacher instruction by training 4th-8th grade teachers in Oakland and East Palo Alto, CA to use innovative media arts tools to teach the core curriculum. Arts, Language Arts, Social Studies, and other humanities teachers will receive intensive training, coaching and follow up from arts education leader and AEMDD grantee Streetside Stories. 36 teachers, who include 18 4th and 5th and 18 6th-8th grade teachers, will receive 18 hours or more of initial professional development in one of two professional development tracks (basic media or digital storytelling); 16 hours of one-on-one coaching by Streetside educators during program implementation; 5 hours of facilitated peer-to-peer learning at a year-end workshop, and 5 hours of peer mentoring for most participants. The project will train an additional 40 teachers in a culminating conference in partnership with the Alameda County Office of Education. The Oakland and East Palo Alto schools served by the grant work predominantly with low-income youth of color. The percent of students receiving a free or reduced price lunch ranges from 67% to 93%, as documented in the proposal.

Teachers' Edge Goals, Objectives, and Outcomes:

Develop and deliver a challenging, standards-based media arts and technology education professional development program that builds teacher instructional capacity: Teachers will be prepared to design lessons for, teach, and model media arts instruction and integrate innovative media arts instruction with curricula in language arts, arts, and the humanities, including social studies and foreign language; 36 Teachers will receive at least 38 hours of training, and each participating teacher will develop and implement a 12-16 hour standards-based media arts lesson.

Integrate sequential, challenging media arts instruction into core arts, language arts and humanities curriculum, building student achievement in arts and in core subjects: Students will demonstrate increased achievement in language arts, visual and performing arts, English language acquisition, and humanities standards; Students will receive sequential, skill-building instruction that increases media skills over time; A minimum of 1,000 students will take part in digital media lessons and each will create a media arts - digital story or blogging and photography- project; Student achievement to increase significantly, measured by Language Arts standardized tests.

Permanently expand the capacity of Bay Area Aspire Schools, the Aspire network, and other schools in Alameda County, to offer quality media arts instruction to students: Teachers will support other educators through mentoring, Aspire learning communities, and peer-to-peer training; A replication strategy will be created to carry the project on at Aspire, in the larger community, and to disseminate learning nationally; At least 33% of all teachers at each school will be able to implement digital storytelling lessons and peer mentor other teachers, and 3/4 of participating teachers will plan to offer media arts lessons after the project period ends.

Grantee Name: Imperial County Office of Education
Project Address: 1398 Sperber Road
El Centro, CA 92243
Project Director: Antonia Zupancich
Phone: (760) 312-6533

The "USA Project, Using Sequential Art in Professional Development for Arts Educators" proposes to train classroom teachers to create sequenced graphic novels (comic books) to positively impact student learning outcomes in art while simultaneously impacting English language arts and mathematics, with special emphasis on helping English learners move to higher levels of English fluency.

The following are the objectives and outcomes of the project:

Goal 1. Teachers will use drawing, sequential art, and comic books in their classrooms.

Objective 1-A: By June of each year, 25 teachers from the target districts will have participated in 51 hours of training in drawing, sequential arts, and creating sequenced graphic novels (comic books) with story plots based on topics from the core subjects.

Objective 1-B: By June of each year, 25 teachers from the target districts will demonstrate an understanding of arts standards.

Objective 1-C: By June of each year, 25 teachers from the target districts will integrate drawing, sequential art, and comic books in their classrooms.

Goal 2. Student learning outcomes will improve academic results in the core subjects of English language arts (ELA) and mathematics.

Objective 2-A: By June of each year, 5% of students in classrooms of project teachers will show improvements on California Standards tests (CTS) in the core subjects of ELA and math when compared to their previous year's scores.

Objective 2-B: By June of each year, 5% of the students in classrooms of project teachers will show improvement on the core subject CSTs when compared to a control group of students from non-project classrooms.

Goal 3. English learners will advance on the CELDT stages, especially from Intermediate to Early Advanced or Advanced.

Objective 3-A: Each year, the number of English learners progressing from Intermediate to Early Advanced or Advanced in classrooms of project teachers will increase by 5% when compared to control group classrooms.

With a two-part approach that includes a standards-based curriculum and easy access to USA project-developed materials, we will build in sustainability for our programs to last beyond the grant period. The USA project design also includes easy access to project materials through online tools.

Twelve Imperial County school districts will participate in the USA project, making a total of 1265 K-12 Imperial County teachers eligible to be served by our grant. In recruiting teachers from this number, we will place special emphasis on our art teachers and teachers who work with English language learners. We propose to train three cohorts of 25 teachers each, one cohort per year, for a total of 75 teachers over the life of the grant.

Grantee Name: Pasadena Unified School District
Project Address: Hudson Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91109
Project Director: Marshall Ayers
Phone: (626) 795-6981, ext. 353

The Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) in partnership with the Armory Center for the Arts, a local non-profit arts organization founded in 1947, proposes to provide focused professional development training in the visual arts to 96 third, fourth, and fifth grade elementary school teachers at 18 Title I qualifying elementary schools over a three-year grant period. Students impacted in all participating 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms will total an estimated 2,880 over a three-year period. Within the 18 eligible elementary and K-8 Title I schools to be served by this project, 81.4% of students participate in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. The PUSD serves 20,826 students overall, nearly 2,500 of whom are students with special needs ranging from physical to social-emotional. ATC therefore intends to reach the approximately nine elementary classroom teachers who are assigned to Special Day Classes (SDC).

The goal of the Artist/Teacher Collaborative is to build classroom teachers' capacity to deliver the PUSD's newly adopted visual arts curriculum (SRA Arts Connections) while also making connections to themes in the adopted English Language Arts curriculum for grades K-5 (Open Court Reading). A key component is the establishment of a collaborative relationship between the classroom teacher and the artist so that they develop the extension into other curricular areas. The Artist works also as a mentor/coach for the classroom teacher during the instructional time of the visual art lessons. Project objectives are to:

  1. Implement a professional development model in the visual arts led by experienced teaching-artists who train and mentor elementary school teachers to successfully deliver a standards-based arts education curriculum to their varied student populations;
  2. Encourage sustained integration of art in grade level curriculum by building teacher confidence in their own art instructional skills, by fostering a greater understanding of the positive impact of art education on student intellectual and skill development and as a vehicle to build knowledge and interest in other subject areas by drawing cross-curricula connections;
  3. Utilize information gained from three years of formal evaluation conducted by an independent evaluation team to refine effective strategies for integrating visual arts curriculum into the elementary school classroom by classroom teachers;
  4. Provide students with a higher quality art education experience as a result of teacher participation and greater arts education competency gained through ATC.

Armory Teaching-Artist Specialists, under the direct guidance of the Armory's Director of Professional Development and the PUSD Arts Education Coordinator, will lead this art education training program. Armory Teaching-Artist Specialists are all practicing artists with advanced degrees chosen for their teaching ability to administer this program. They will collaborate with participating PUSD classroom teachers in grades 3-5 to develop skills and strategies that support effective and sustained delivery of California and national standards-based arts education instruction, in alignment with the SRA Art Connections curriculum adopted by the district in 2007.

An average of 32 teachers annually will cycle through the three-year program in cadres of 16 each semester. Teachers within each school will be organized into grade level teams, each team being assigned to an Armory Teaching-Artist Specialist. An Armory Artist-Assistant will be assigned to each classroom to support the implementation of in-class lessons. These Artist-Assistants are practicing artists as well as teachers-in-training and will benefit from observation, practice and personalized mentoring. Components of the Artist/Teacher Collaborative include:

Researchers from the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) will lead the independent evaluation of this three-year project. CRESST brings over 40 years experience in educational assessment, research, and evaluation to the project, including work focused specifically on education in the arts and evaluation of arts based programs. The proposed evaluation will integrate both quantitative and qualitative data to investigate the impact of the professional development program. The outcomes we expect as a result of this project are:

  1. Increased teacher knowledge and improved practice in arts based instruction;
  2. Increase in the number of teachers, as well as their level of, integrating the arts into their content area instruction;
  3. Completion of an evaluation by an independent evaluator that measures program impact on student learning outcomes and development of a sustainable model for arts education professional development.
Grantee Name: San Diego County Superintendent of Schools
Project Address: 6401 Linda Vista Road
San Diego, CA 92111
Project Director: Leslie Hays
Phone: (858) 292-3758

Directly serving a low-income, disadvantaged district in south San Diego County and disseminating a replicable professional development product to the state of California and the nation, the San Diego County Office of Education (LEA) will provide professional development on integration of the arts through the core curriculum. The Picture This Expansion Pack project is build upon the foundation of "Project Picture This," highly effective Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grant, 2006-2010. "Project Picture This" successfully designed and developed a blended (face-to-face and online dissemination) professional development program in media arts and video production in the classroom; the Picture This Expansion Pack will build on that success.

National School District is a K-6 district with 93% Hispanic and Filipino students, of whom 64% are English learners and 85% receive free and reduced price meals. The National School District participated in "Project Picture This" in 2006-2007, and during that year demonstrated impressive academic improvement in the treatment classrooms when compared to the control classrooms. The San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) is determined to leverage what was learned in "Project Picture This" into the integration visual, performing, and media arts into core subjects. This goal will be accomplished through professional development involving multi-day summer training sessions for classroom teachers and blended environment follow-up sessions throughout the year. The focus will be on media arts year 1, visual arts year 2, and performing arts year 3, with 15 K-6 teachers a year participating, for a total of 45 over the life of the 3-year project. The district has 11 schools receiving free and reduced price meals, with percentages as follows: Central, 85%, El Toyon, 85.1%, Integrity, 79.7%, Ira Harbison, 84.9%, Otis, 84.8%, Kimball, 84.8%, Las Palmas, 84.9%, Lincoln Acres, 85%, Olivewood, 84.9%, Palmer, 85%, and Rancho de la Nacion, 84.9%.

Project goals include: providing a professional development series on arts integration for K-6 teachers working with diverse populations; integrating visual, performing, and media arts into classrooms via professional development; improving teacher confidence, content knowledge, and pedagogy in the teaching of the arts; and preparing teachers to improve student learning outcomes in core academic subjects through arts integration. A cadre of teachers in the National School District will serve as co-developers to help create the online, multimedia product that can be used to train teachers. Picture This Online, a fully replicable online professional development curriculum in media arts, visual arts, and performance arts, will be freely available to teachers anywhere.

Grantee Name: WVSA School for Arts in Learning
Project Address: 1100 16th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Project Director: Lawrence Riccio
Phone: (202) 296-9100 x217

In the new era committed to leaving no child behind, it is vital that all educators reach a higher standard within the classroom to help children achieve elevated levels of academic proficiency. Educators at the WVSA School for Arts in Learning, Public Charter School (SAIL) will implement the DCPS educational standards adopted in March 2005, and apply current, research-based educational practices to assist students in successfully meeting educational goals and improve achievement outcomes in state assessments. In short, SAIL seeks to create a professional development model called Arts Work! for other elementary and middle schools to emulate.

The School for Arts in Learning, located in downtown Washington, DC, serves children in grades K-6 (93% African American, 5% Hispanic, and 2% Asian). In fall 2008, SAIL will add grade 7, and in fall 2009, grade 8. 55% of SAIL students have been determined to have special educational needs. Many children reside in the most economically depressed wards of the city and 73% are eligible for the National Free and Reduced Lunch program.

After ten years of successfully educating DC's youth through the arts, SAIL educators seek to deepen their understanding of and to implement the new DCPS educational standards and the knowledge and skills necessary for teaching a standards-based arts curriculum in a technologically rich environment. Our proposed professional development model, Arts Work!, will be based on a partnership between SAIL and Johns Hopkins University, with support from VSA arts, the DC Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative, the DC Association of Chartered Public Schools, and Trinity University. SAIL and its partners will collaborate to create this model for other educational institutions and agencies interested in duplicating SAIL's innovative, arts-based approach to education as a means to promote higher levels of achievement in core academic area content.

Grantee Name: Duval County Public Schools
Project Address: 1701 Prudential Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32207
Project Director: Pat Cascone
Phone: (904) 390-2617

According to the study, "Critical Links," the arts can indeed have an effect on all students, but are found to be particularly beneficial to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and for students who typically have learning difficulties in schools. As the state's 7th largest school district with more than 40% of its students on free and reduced lunch, Duval County Public Schools, like so many of the nation's large urban districts, face enormous challenges in strengthening schools with large populations of students from low-income families. These students, many first-time English speakers or those assigned to special education courses, often score lower on standardized tests, resulting in achievement gap challenges.

For many years, art/music programs have been reduced, giving way to more defined courses deemed to provide a more direct link to improving achievement gaps. As the state's educational budget challenges exist, schools will continue to limit learning opportunities to discrete disciplines and focus on the coverage of content rather than the development of broader skills and understandings that apply to many contexts.

The establishment of arts integration in Duval County is used as a way to incorporate art forms into teaching core disciplines. From single art lessons to school-wide reform efforts, arts integration has proven to enrich students, teachers and schools in pockets throughout the district. With the "All the School's a Stage" model presented in this proposal, Duval County can expand its integrated arts practices to more than 24 schools throughout the district, providing educators with more meaning relative, and collaborative work that will provide students with greater academic rigor and higher academic achievement levels.

Objectives

Implement a professional development mentoring model by training a corps of 45 elementary and middle school Integrated Arts Ambassadors in Brentwood (100% f/r), Lake Forest (73% f/r), and M.L. King (100% f/r) elementary schools and Lake Shore (61.7% f/r), Paxon (76% f/r), and Ft. Caroline middle schools (51.5% f/r) who will partner/share best practices with partnering Title 1 schools including West Jacksonville (94% f/r), R.H. Pearson (86.9% f/r), and Woodson (85.1% f/r) elementary schools, and Northwestern (84% f/r), Butler (82.4% f/r), and Southside (56.3% f/r), reaching more than 150 teachers in 24 schools over a three-year period Eliminate and reduce arts education isolation and expand collaborative experiences among core curriculum teachers and art educators throughout and among elementary and secondary art-based and non arts-based schools (Artist in Residency visits)

Strengthen teachers' capacity to improve student experiences and achievement levels with creative and rigorous standards-based arts education/interdisciplinary lessons (Integrated Arts Artist-in-Residency) conducted in targeted elementary and middle school.

Grantee Name: School Board of Orange County
Project Address: 445 West Amelia Street
Orlando, Florida 32801
Project Director: Theresa Douglas
Phone: (407) 317-3303

The purpose of this project is to develop a comprehensive arts integration professional development program for OCPS administrators, arts teachers, classroom teachers, Orange County artists and community arts organizations. The faculty and students of the University of Central Florida Arts Integrated Elementary Education Program (UCF) will be primary partners.

This program, based on rigorous standards in the arts and other curricular content, will be implemented in three high poverty schools that reflect the culturally diverse population of OCPS. Parents and families of students in target schools will participate and will provide input. A unique three-way partnership of OCPS, artists and arts organizations and UCF will provide support and direction to "ABC". Consultants in arts and education will help design and implement the professional development, evaluation, and assessment. An ABC website will be developed and the program will be replicable. Dissemination to other school districts is planned.

This standards-based program will be measured using a mixed method design that will provide internal and external validation of the professional development model and will measure the impact of the arts integration approach on teaching and learning in and through the arts. The long-term sustainability of the project will be heightened through the development and implementation of District and school-based policies; the emphasis on development of school-based leadership for arts integration; the lengthy, embedded, and customized nature of the professional development; the involvement of community arts organizations in the delivery of the program and development of curriculum materials to support arts integration.

ABC will improve people, programs, place, and process. Target schools will become exemplary models of teaching and learning excellence in and through the arts for the nation.

Grantee Name: Atlanta Public Schools
Project Address: 130 Trinity Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Project Director: Dr. Beverly Hall
Phone: (404) 802-2820

The Department of Learning Excellence of the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) is the official applicant for this grant, Professional Development for Arts Educators—Atlanta. The Atlanta Public Schools has been named a Title I Distinguish District by the Georgia Department of Education. Our district has 89 schools. All schools except Smith, Jackson, and Brandon Elementary schools have been identified as Title I schools with 74.91 % of students who are on free or reduced lunch. The target population for the first year of the grant is 65 state certified elementary, middle and high school music and visual arts teachers in APS. Over the life of this grant, approximately 200 arts teachers will be served.

Arts instruction in APS is sequential and standards-based. Research repeatedly indicates the positive impact that quality arts programs have on student academic achievement. The proposed professional development program will focus on: improving the instructional practices of our arts teachers; enhancing the Georgia Quality Core Curriculum in the arts by coordinating them with the National Arts Education Standards, the Arts-Specific Cognitive Achievement Measure, and the Visual/Musical Thinking Strategies; and improving student performance in the arts, academic coursework, and on standardized tests.

The outcomes of the se objectives will impact arts teachers: reconnecting them with their creativity; with increased ability to improve and assess student achievement; with improved instructional delivery; and who can articulate the benefits of arts instruction to all stakeholders. While APS provides professional development for all teachers, funding limits preclude ongoing professional development targeting arts instruction. If awarded this grant, the district can successfully develop and implement quality, ongoing professional development to improve the quality of arts instruction, thus impacting student achievement in the arts and other academic areas. This will be accomplished through ongoing student and teacher assessments, workshops, retreats, focused work sessions, critical reflection/best practices sessions, and the use of national consultants and specialized workshops from leading arts agencies.

Grantee Name: Des Moines Independent Community School District
Project Address: 901 Walnut Street
Des Moines, IA 50309
Project Director: Dr. Jim Verlengia
Phone: (515) 242-8392

The Des Moines Independent Community School District (Des Moines, Iowa) will partner with Drake University, Grand View College, the Iowa Arts Council, Iowa Public TV, Heartland Area Education Agency, and the Des Moines Art Center to create FAME: Fine Arts Model for Education. Using the Arts for Academic Achievement model developed by the Minneapolis Public Schools, the findings of Stevenson and Deasy in Third Space: When Learning Matters, and research from national groups such as the Arts Education Partnership, FAME will fund a comprehensive professional development program to support arts educators in implementing a rigorous arts curriculum aligned with national standards and collaborating with classroom teachers to integrate the arts into other core curricular areas.

FAME will serve approximately 96 K-12 art, music, dance, and drama teachers and 350 classroom teachers in 40 high poverty elementary, middle, and high schools where the free/reduced price meal enrollment ranges from 50% to 93%. Major components of FAME are:

The result will be a model of professional development aligned with the learning needs of low-income students that can be replicated in other schools across the country.

Grantee Name: Berwyn South School District #100
Project Address: 3401 S. Gunderson Avenue
Berwyn, Illinois 60402
Project Director: Anthony Cundari
Phone: (708) 795-2300 x4018

Art Reflecting Teaching Standards in Berwyn (ARTS-Berwyn) is a partnership of the Berwyn South School District 100; the Chicago Teacher's Center of Northeastern Illinois University (CTC)—an internationally recognized expert in standards-based art instruction integrated into core academic content; The Berwyn Arts Council, Theatre Aguijon, the Chicago History Museum, the Old Town School of Folk Music, the National Museum of Mexican Art. These partners reflect the exponential growth of Berwyn's Latino population from 35% to 74.5% of district enrollments and the District 100's priority of addressing the cultural context of this expanding new majority of its students.

The proposed project will build capacity in District 100's six elementary and two middle schools to meet the Illinois Learning Standards in the Fine Arts while integrating arts instruction throughout the academic curriculum. All eight schools have low-income enrollments that exceed 50% as follows: Emerson (K-5) at 59.4%; Hiawatha (K-5) at 79.4%; Irving (K-5) at 54.4%; Komensky (K-5) at 79.0%; Pershing (K-5) at 68.8%; Piper (K-5) at 71.6%; Freedom (6-8) at 69.6%; Heritage (6-8) at 67.5%.

Thirty K-8 teachers will increase their ability to integrate the arts into core curriculum content areas by summer 2011. In Year 3, these 30 teachers will introduce 30 new Berwyn teachers to the process. In all, approximately 40 teachers will be from grades K to 5 and 20 from grades 6 to 8. Project students will significantly increase their ISAT scores in core content areas (reading and math); and the percentage meeting or exceeding grade level in the arts will significantly increase as a result of arts-integration classroom activities. By September 2011, systems will be developed and structure created to ensure continued arts integration practices in Berwyn District 100 in order to ensure sustainability. By September 2011, local arts partners will be actively supporting standards-based art and core academics instruction in the eight district schools.

Grantee Name: Wichita Public Schools USD 259
Project Address: 201 North Water
Wichita, KS 67202
Project Director: Mr. Shawn Chastain
Phone: (316) 973-4440

The Wichita Public Schools and Wichita State University will form a new Fine Arts Partnership to provide needed arts educators staff development to assure standards based music instruction to students in Wichita public schools with 50% poverty or more. Ninety-one teachers serving an estimated 23,000 students will become active participants in Accentuating Music, Language and Cultural Literacy through Kodály Inspired Instruction (AMLCL).

Kodály trained music leaders (Jo A. Kirk, Ella Joy Nelson, Steven R. Oare, and Gabor Viragh) from across the United States will come to the great plains to help Wichita teachers develop music skills and strategies to improve standards based instruction in a 10 day summer Institute at Wichita State University, fall workshops, and spring workshops over a period of three years. Arts educators will be specifically trained in Kodály strategies which stress the visual matching of note and syllable in a specific sequence that is more defined and more consistent than other methods of music instruction. Through participation in AMLCL, USD 259 music educators will gain additional skills and pedagogical knowledge that will enhance and strengthen their music programs, stimulate cultural awareness, and increase cross-curricular literacy. Research has shown that students who participate in a Kodály Inspired Music Curriculum program perform at a higher level on sequencing skills, spatial abilities and academic achievement patterns including decoding and language arts processing.

Dr. Randy Ellsworth and Dr. Larry Gwaltney from the Center for Research and Evaluation Services, College of Education, Wichita State University, will act as lead evaluators and direct a team that will provide evaluation services to determine if a high quality, replicable, research based professional development program designed to strengthen teachers' capacity to deliver a standards based vocal music program to students attending low income schools will enhance student academic achievement and ensure all students meet challenging vocal music content standards.

Grantee Name: Lafayette Parish School System
Project Address: PO Drawer 2158
Lafayette, LA 70502
Project Director: Burnell LeJeune
Phone: (337) 521-7112

Lafayette Parish School System, in collaboration with outstanding national and local partners, proposes a Professional Development for Arts Educators grant entitled Art Smart. Art Smart will serve a minimum of 120 (at least 40 per year) K - 12 teachers educating more than 18,000 high needs students attending 25 low-performing schools in Lafayette, Louisiana. Each participating elementary, middle and high school exceeds the minimum low-income eligibility criteria with a combined average of 70.17% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch.

Art Smart will be the sole source of content-rich professional development available to teachers in Lafayette schools and will greatly expand the availability of services dedicated to improving teacher knowledge of the arts, teacher mastery of arts-based instructional techniques and teacher ability to integrate the arts into academic programming. Art Smart goals and objectives reflect the key GPRA performance indicator identified by the U.S. Department of Education as critical for evaluating the results of the grant program: The percentage of participating teachers who receive professional development that is sustained and intensive. Art Smart will work toward the following goals: 1) Enhance teachers' content knowledge of the arts; 2) Provide teachers with innovative teaching techniques to implement engaging arts education lessons; 3) Equip art and classroom educators with the skills to integrate art education and instruction in the core academic subjects of English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies and 4) Increase student achievement in the arts and in core academic subjects through art-based learning.

Project services will improve the quality and diversity of art education and integrate the use of arts to teach core academic subjects to Lafayette students, grades K - 12. Art Smart activities focus on connecting various art media (visual and performing arts) to key academic topics aligned with Louisiana State Content Standards. Art Smart components include: a) Art Immersion Weeks and Summer Institutes in partnership with the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education and; b) Smithsonian Art Seminars presented at targeted schools by a team of Smithsonian Institution educators; c) Art Forum discussion groups in partnership with LPSS, Acadiana Arts Council and local artists; d) Arts in Education Conferences hosted by national and regional arts organizations.

Lafayette Parish School System will contract with EduShift, Inc. to implement a process and outcome evaluation program providing for measurable quality improvement throughout the duration of Art Smart.

Grantee Name: Special School District #1
Minneapolis Public Schools
Project Address: 807 Broadway Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
Project Director: Patricia Teske
Phone: (612) 668-5346

The FACETS program is a collaboration of the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) and the University of Minnesota to provide the district's music and visual arts specialists in 30 high poverty K-5/K-8 schools with the beliefs, knowledge, pedagogical tools and learning community support they need to ensure that all their students achieve the state and national music and visual arts standards. An aggregated snapshot of these schools reveals that of 13,947 students, 82% live in poverty, 87% are students of color and 36% are English language learners.

The project will be led by Patricia Teske, MPS's Comprehensive Arts Coordinator (807 NE Broadway, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55413, Pat.Teske@mpls.k12.mn.us, 612-668-5346). A University of Minnesota partnership will involve Dr. Scott Lipscomb, Associate Professor, School of Music (100 Ferguson Hall, 2106 4th St S, Minneapolis, MN 55455, lipscomb@umn.edu, 612-624-2843) and Dr. James Bequette, Assistant Professor, College of Human Development & Education (30A Peik Hall, 159 Pillsbury Drive SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, bequette@umn.edu, 612-625-5286).

FACETS will 1) utilize community collaborations to help build a curriculum that addresses the gaps in music and visual arts teachers' comprehension of their students' social contexts and the impact context has on living and learning, 2) provide strategies, supports and measures of arts learning excellence that teachers in high poverty schools need to assist all of their students in achieving success in music and/or art and 3) provide opportunities for arts leaders to become agents of change in and across MPS. Using the best in professional development practices set forth by the National Staff Development Council (2001) and the power of professional community for improved instruction and student achievement (Smylie & Wenzel, 2003), FACETS builds on the success and discoveries of MPS's previous professional development initiatives in the arts.

The project begins with a pilot followed by three additional cohorts over the following two-and-a-half years. Teachers will commit to eight face-to-face workshops complemented with facilitated online follow-up, job-embedded assignments, reflection and engagement in a peer community of study for 90-100 hours over 18 to 24 months. In addition, FACETS offers the opportunity for coaching, and, for those who are ready to take their learning school-wide, participation in the Music-in-Education National Consortium's Arts Learning Leadership model. Links to district-wide "no-excuses" reforms and the potential for performance pay increases add incentives for participation. MPS anticipates that of 67 eligible music and visual arts specialists, 50 will complete the 90-100 hour basic training, 17 will choose to participate in additional coaching and three will choose to engage their schools in the Arts Learning Leadership model, which touches at least nine additional educators. The staggered starts of various cohorts will mean involvement of 30 teachers in year 1, 58 teachers in year 2 and 61 teachers in year 3.

The University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Instruction will evaluate whether participating music and visual arts teachers 1) strengthen their beliefs about the potential for all students to achieve rigorous academic standards in music and visual arts; 2) strengthen their beliefs about their ability to help all students to achieve rigorous academic standards in music and visual arts; 3) improve their comprehension of their students' social contexts and the effect context has on living and learning; 4) increase their use of standards-based instruction and assessment that are effective for students in high-poverty schools, students who are English language learners and students who are African American, Somali, Hmong, Chicano/Latino and American Indian; and 5) develop and participate regularly in a community of learners that supports long-term practice improvement and increased teacher resiliency.

Grantee Name: Bronx Lighthouse Charter School
Project Address: 1001 Intervale Avenue
Bronx, NY 10459
Project Director: Jeffrey Tsang
Phone: (646) 915-0025

The Arts Are Vital Project (the PROJECT) is a bold arts integration professional development program that responds to the following emerging needs:

The PROJECT will involve 6 charter schools. Random selection processes will be used to identify target teacher trainees and classes (of participating teachers), and control groups. The PROJECT will train 72 grades K-5 classroom teachers (24 per annum); involve 72 classes (over 3 years), and serve almost 1,500 pupils (480 per annum).

The applicant LEA - Bronx Lighthouse Charter School and the 6 collaborating charters all display low-income data in excess of 50% (ranging from 69 to 96%) per Title I, Section 1113(1)(5). Learning Through An Expanded Arts Program, Inc. (Leap), which has a 30-year history in arts education, will collaborate on the initiative.

The PROJECT will be scientifically assessed under an evaluation design that compares gains in New York State standards-based English language arts skills between target and control pupil on a pre and post program basis. Grades K - 2 will use the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) or Terra Nova and/or Early Childhood Language Assessment Series (ECLAS) examinations. Grades 3 - 5 will use the New York State reading test. Arts skills involve student abilities in creating, performing, and participating in the arts (NYS Standard 1); knowing and using arts materials and resources (S. 2); responding to and analyzing works of art (S.3); and understanding the cultural dimensions and contributions of the arts (S.4). Standards-based arts skills will be assessed on a pre- and post-program basis involving target and control youth on a sample basis; skills growth over the project period will be measured using Holistic Rubrics for Standards-Based Assessment in the Arts, grades Pre-K - 2 and grades 3 - 5. These rubrics are based on the conceptual framework in Assessing Expressive Learning developed by Charles M. Dorn, Stanley S. Madeja and F. Robert Sabol (2004).

The PROJECT is based on on-going scientific research (involving a randomized target and control group evaluation) conducted by Leap and the New York City Department of Education over the past 5 years involving more than 10,000 low-income K - 2 pupils. The research was supported by the federal government under an Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant of $800,000 and $500,000 in local funding raised by LEAP. Hard data from that project show that target pupils out-scored control pupils in 19 of the 23 literacy skills assessed (i.e., displayed statistically significant greater pre- to post-test achievement gains using a valid and reliable instrument.)

The collaboration among the 6 charter schools marks a coming together to address an important need recognized by each of the participating charter schools. Scientific affirmation of the arts as central to both arts and core academic learning will encourage expanded arts-focused teaching and learning in charter schools across the country.

Grantee Name: Board of Education
Buffalo, New York
Project Address: 408 City Hall
Buffalo, New York 14202
Project Director: June Barrow
Phone: (716) 816-3966

The Buffalo City School District, in partnership with the Art and Music Education Departments of the State University College at Buffalo, wishes to strengthen District arts teaching, especially of students from underrepresented groups in our neediest schools. We propose to create and implement The Buffalo Urban Arts Teacher Academy (BUATA) which will provide professional development that will strengthen and enhance the conceptual knowledge and pedagogical skills of music and art education teachers in the BCSD, and will provide the nucleus for future development of a standards-based instructional curriculum. The Academy will be directed by a Program Manager and Steering Committee made up of BCSD administrators, university content and evaluation specialists, and representatives from cultural institutions. Lessons and units of study created in this program will be standards-based and utilize artist residencies and trips to cultural events.

Project objectives are linked to both teacher and student outcomes. Outcomes will be evaluated three ways: through BUATA staff evaluations of the aggregated examples of teacher participants' standards-based lesson planning and assessment use; through evaluator analysis of teacher participants' performance on a standardized assessment of key arts knowledge similar to the NYS Content Specialty Tests; and through independent consultant reviewers' examinations of student artifacts from participant teachers' classes. The project's first objective is for teachers to prepare and teach lessons that align with the four NYS standards in the arts: participant teacher lessons that are rated "exceeds standards" will increase 10% over baseline; teacher results on the CST-like assessment of knowledge will increase; and student artifacts will evidence increased use and understanding of standards. Second, teachers will increase the use of "best practices" for assessing student achievement of the arts standards: the percentage of teacher participants whose use of such assessment tools is at an "exceeds standards" level will increase 10% over baseline. Finally, teachers will effectively incorporate cultural resources to support standards-aligned instruction: 80% of teachers will evidence ability to execute lessons connecting those resources, class activities, and State standards; and more student artifacts will reflect the influence of cultural resources.

Stark numbers describe the District's need and the project's potential effect. Year 1 targets 15 schools from which 40 teachers-20 art and 20 music-will be served. Years 2 and 3 will each add 12 teachers. Year 2 and 3 schools, likely numbering 3-5, will be chosen at the end of year 1 from among the 42 other eligible buildings with 50%+ poverty rates. The 15 year 1 schools serve 9,100 students. Three are designated high schools, serving 1,608 in grades 9-12, while the other schools include a varied mix of grade levels. Those 12 schools serve 5,104 students in Pre-K-grade 5 and 2,388 in grades 6-8. According to 2007 NYS BEDS data for the District, the lowest building-wide percentage of students from low-income families (eligible for free and reduced-price lunches) among those 15 schools is 92.5%.

Grantee Name: Mount Vernon City School District
Project Address: 165 North Columbus Avenue
Mount Vernon City, New York 10553
Project Director: Angela Addesso
Phone: (914) 665- 5181

Innovative Alternative Strategies for Educators of Visual Arts: a professional development art education program in partnership with the Westchester Arts Council, that will prepare 21 art teachers of the Mount Vernon City School District at the elementary, middle school and high school levels to learn, acquire and utilize creative skills and innovative teaching strategies that can be applied to teaching core curricula more effectively. The participating art educators will provide services to all 16 high-poverty schools in the district; where a total of 9,002 students are enrolled; and where 6,232 (69.2%) are below the poverty line, grades K-12.

This high-quality and innovative professional development in art education program will strengthen the capacity of art teachers to deliver standards-based arts education and to raise student academic achievement in the arts and other subject area.

This professional development program will focus on the use of innovative instructional methods and current knowledge from education research and focus on the development, enhancement, and expansion of standards-based arts education. It will also feature the integration of standards-based arts instruction with other core academic areas. The art educators will also collaborate with teachers of core academic subjects to facilitate the integration of art with the core subject areas, using an interdisciplinary approach.

This program is aligned with State and national standards and is intended to improve teaching and to improve student academic performance.

The program will provide for national and state standards-based activities that include monthly workshops for the visual arts educator presented by art experts in the field. Two nine week professional development art education strands will be provided each year of the program, plus time devoted for reflection on training received and how art integrates with other content area classrooms. In the first year, the two strands will include: ceramics/pottery; printmaking/mix media/mask making; and reflection time, interspersed during and at the end of the two strands, for all grade levels. In the second year, the two strands will include: quilting/fiber arts; murals/painting; and reflection time interspersed during and at the end of the two strands for all grade levels. In the third year, the two strands will include: bookmaking/paper making; sculpture/3D arts/installation arts; and reflection time interspersed during and after the two strands for all grade levels.

In addition, mentors from the Westchester Arts Council, who are experts in the field of visual arts, will model and demonstrate innovative strategies and approaches on an intensive and regular basis of high-quality and sufficient duration, 181 hours/year, to all 21 of the art educators of the Mount Vernon City school district. They will plan with the art educator, demonstrate innovative strategies, the art educator will model the strategies, and then a follow up and reflective activities will take place with the art educator participant during and at the end of preceding strands. The mentors will closely monitor the progress of each art educator participant on an individual basis.

Field trips to museums and other artistic centers of interest will also be project highlights. Project goals, objectives, activities and outcomes will be disseminated nationally and on a statewide basis through the school district and Westchester Arts Council's websites, presentations at national and state art education conferences, through e-mail, compilation and distribution of an art education compendium, video taping of training sessions, and other effective dissemination modes.

Grantee Name: New York City Department of Education District 20
Project Address: 715 Ocean Terrace-Building A
Room 314
Staten Island, NY 10301
Project Director: Maria Palma
Phone: (718) 420-5628

The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) Community District 20, in collaboration with ArtsConnection, a recognized model arts education organization, seeks funding to implement Artful Learning Communities: Assessing Learning in the Arts a high quality professional development model that will strengthen the skills and capacity of New York City arts specialists to: 1) assess standards-based learning in the arts; 2) monitor and improve student achievement; and 3) disseminate strategies and tools both locally and nationally. This initiative will target 96 art specialists and their 48,000 students, attending grades 3 through 8, at high-poverty schools in South Brooklyn in an effort to improve teaching and learning in the arts.

Artful Learning Communities: Assessing Learning in the Arts (ALC) is designed to address a critical need for in-depth training of New York City teachers in both formative and summative assessment practices aligned to challenging standards. These skills are critically important in New York City, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein continue their push for accountability and evidence of student learning. Student achievement and assessment of standards-based learning have become national priorities for educators, and yet arts specialists have received little or no training in assessment practice.

As we move toward a culture of evidence, specialists need to define, systematize and communicate to school leadership how their assessment practice leads to increased student achievement in the arts if they want the arts to be essential to the education of literate children. Indeed, the field of arts education has only recently begun to examine the kind of assessment practices that this project will address with teachers: standards-based; integrated in the arts learning process; accessible to students as feedback, and to teachers as a gauge for effective instruction. By using New York City schools as a laboratory, and by building replication strategies directly into the program design, the Program Partners believe the ALC Project will build local capacity to improve teaching and learning and can serve as an important model for nationwide use.

The ALC embeds its professional development in inquiry and teacher practice through the development of eight professional learning communities— in theater, music, visual arts and dance, each with a group for elementary grades and another for middle school grades. A cadre of master specialists will be trained as peer coaches to lead inquiry and to ultimately mentor and train other specialists. The ALC project will engage teachers and schools in a variety of research-based methodologies over three years—action research, intervisitations, lesson study, and application of direct instruction in assessment strategies and tools. By the end of the project, participating arts specialists will have designed and implemented assessments aligned to standards, improved student achievement, and developed a tool kit of proven assessment tools that can be disseminated locally and nationally. Further, eight lab sites will be established in New York City schools to continue training and dissemination after the term of this grant.

Grantee Name: New York City Department of Education District 75
Project Address: 400 First Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Project Director: Katherine London
Phone: (212) 802-1585

District 75, which serves 23,000 students with special needs in New York City, in partnership with the Manhattan New Music Project (MNMP), is seeking funding for a three year, interdisciplinary arts initiative. Based on our long-standing collaboration with MNMP, we propose Communication and Socialization through the Arts (CSA), a professional development program for arts and classroom teachers of students on the autism spectrum.

CSA is a professional development program designed to address communication and socialization challenges of students with autism, using arts-based approaches. Through a series of professional development workshops and extensive in-school support, participating teachers will learn skills and strategies across all arts disciplines (drama, music, dance, and visual arts) to improve communication and socialization skills. Arts teachers will benefit not only by incorporating these strategies into their arts activities, but also by developing an increased awareness of their student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals, and the role of arts classes in supporting IEP achievement. Classroom teachers will benefit by exposure to arts-based strategies designed to improve student outcomes, thus increasing their ability to create differentiating plans for achieving each student's IEP goals.

Our standards-based professional development model focuses each year on a group of 48 teachers, representing arts and academic teachers from 16 District 75 school sites, who will attend a series of intensive professional workshops. These workshops will offer both activities and strategies, and opportunity for reflective practice and peer input. Participants will also receive ongoing school-based support in the form of partnership with MNMP's teaching artists. At the end of each program year, participating teachers and teaching artists will develop best practices for integrative arts education based on their classroom experiences, creating a lasting resource for all educators.

Program evaluation will be conducted by Dr. Rob Horowitz, a nationally recognized arts and education researcher and recent contributor to Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, published by the Arts Education Partnership.

Grantee Name: Intermediate Unit #1
Project Address: 333 Market Street
Harrisburg, PA 17126
Project Director: Jamie Kasper
Phone: (717) 525-5058

The purpose of the "Arts Educator 2.0" project is to create a community of learners through the use of new and emerging technologies. "Arts Educator 2.0" learners will be served through an ongoing differentiated staff-development program, which will offer learning opportunities that directly address each participant's individual needs. The community will be comprised of a minimum of twenty K-12 visual arts and music educators teaching in the three counties served by Intermediate Unit 1 (IU1) in western Pennsylvania. Participants will be selected from applicant schools serving a high-poverty student population, defined as meeting the 50% free or reduced lunch criteria.

Current research suggests that the creation of a self-directed learning community holds the most promise for improving instructional practices, meeting the demands of NCLB legislation, retaining highly-qualified staff and increasing student engagement, thus improving student achievement. "Arts Educator 2.0" participants will be immersed in the most current 21st century instructional practices, including inquiry-based, collaborative, differentiated and dynamic teaching and learning. They will then be asked to take the model they experience as learners and use it to drive their own instruction.

"Arts Educator 2.0" will capitalize upon the documented successes of the PA Governor's Institute for Arts Educators (GIAE) in laying the foundation for the creation of robust standards-based units of instruction in the arts. Participants will examine existing instructional units, identifying key attributes such as rich and compelling tasks, formative and summative assessment and links to the Pennsylvania reading and math assessment anchors. Experts in the creation of these various parts of a unit of study will lead learning opportunities for participants through the use of IU1's Internet 2 videoconferencing tools.

The "Arts-Educator 2.0" project will begin with a kick-off event to be held at IU1 and with subsequent site visits to each participant by a visual arts or music mentor. The mentors will observe participants and conduct post-observation briefings to discuss and identify ways in which IU1 will support the future professional development of each educator. These observations will serve as baseline data to allow participants to create differentiated instructional plans. Where similar needs are observed in participants, they will be grouped together into learning communities to maximize the instructional offerings. Mentors will continue to conduct site visits as the project progresses to both support change in practice and to document the effectiveness of IU1-led trainings.

As the project continues, participants will be introduced to other distance-learning technologies through IU1's partnership with Blended Schools. Differentiated coursework and group learning environments will be created for participants in Blended School's Blackboard content management system. IU1 will also contract with various arts content providers, such as Arts Education Collaborative (AEC), Gateway to the Arts, and Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), as participants and mentors identify particular learning interests and needs. These partners will provide participant-tailored trainings, either in face-to-face or videoconference sessions as available.

The program evaluator will gather formative and summative assessments using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. The utilization of Blackboard classrooms as a primary means for communication, collaboration, instruction and assessment will capture various pieces of key data, which will then be used to evaluate the program's effectiveness. The mentors will keep anecdotal records of the participants' progress throughout the project, and the program evaluator will examine the archived classrooms and mentor documentation data in the creation of the "Arts Educator 2.0"'s final evaluation report.

Grantee Name: Fort Worth Independent School District
Project Address: 100 North University Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
Project Director: Tracy Marshall
Phone: (817) 871-2452

Project HQ-ARTS (High Quality Arts Research and Teaching Standards) will engage K-12thgrade Fort Worth ISD art educators and other instructional staff in a high quality professional development program in music, dance, drama, and visual arts in 101 of the district's highest poverty schools including 72 elementary, 22 middle and 7 high school campuses. The goal of the project is to develop, enhance, and expand standards-based arts education programs impacting over 800 teachers and 62,000 students each year of the grant by integrating standards-based arts instruction with other core academic area contents with professional development activities that can be replicated across the district and the nation.

Project HQ-ARTS includes five mutually supportive components: 1) the creation of a cadre of teacher leaders at each site who will receive intensive professional development, including participation in a one-week HQ-ARTS Institute for fine art teachers and instructional staff, 2) a two-week Texas Christian University Summer Institute for Art and Music, 3) ongoing onsite training opportunities for teachers of the target sites, to ensure that all teachers have the foundation of knowledge of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in Fine Arts and the integration of standards-based arts with other core academic area content, 4) certification in Kodály methods (Level 1, 2, & 3), and, 5) participation in professional conferences like those sponsored by Texas Music Educator Administrators Conference and Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts.

The partners collaborating with Fort Worth ISD throughout the three years of the grant will include over 40 outstanding and well-respected art organizations from the Fort Worth arts community. The primary partners to the project include: Texas Christian University, Arts Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County, Imagination Celebration, Bass Hall Performing Art Fort Worth, Fort Worth Opera, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Rose Marine Theatre, Casa Mañana Theatre, Kimbell Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum, and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

To ensure successful implementation of Project HQ-ARTS, Fort Worth ISD serves as the fiscal agent, monitoring grant activities on a day-to-day basis to ensure that proposed project objectives are completed on time and within budget.

Grantee Name: McAllen Independent School District
Project Address: 2000 North 23rd Street
McAllen, Texas 78501
Project Director: Diana Montes
Phone: (956) 618-6048

The purpose of the "Arts Educator 2.0" project is to create a community of learners through the use of new and emerging technologies. "Arts Educator 2.0" learners will be served through an ongoing differentiated staff-development program, which will offer learning opportunities that directly address each participant's individual needs. The community will be comprised of a minimum of twenty K-12 visual arts and music educators teaching in the three counties served by Intermediate Unit 1 (IU1) in western Pennsylvania. Participants will be selected from applicant schools serving a high-poverty student population, defined as meeting the 50% free or reduced lunch criteria.

Current research suggests that the creation of a self-directed learning community holds the most promise for improving instructional practices, meeting the demands of NCLB legislation, retaining highly-qualified staff and increasing student engagement, thus improving student achievement. "Arts Educator 2.0" participants will be immersed in the most current 21st century instructional practices, including inquiry-based, collaborative, differentiated and dynamic teaching and learning. They will then be asked to take the model they experience as learners and use it to drive their own instruction.

"Arts Educator 2.0" will capitalize upon the documented successes of the PA Governor's Institute for Arts Educators (GIAE) in laying the foundation for the creation of robust standards-based units of instruction in the arts. Participants will examine existing instructional units, identifying key attributes such as rich and compelling tasks, formative and summative assessment and links to the Pennsylvania reading and math assessment anchors. Experts in the creation of these various parts of a unit of study will lead learning opportunities for participants through the use of IU1's Internet 2 videoconferencing tools.

The "Arts-Educator 2.0" project will begin with a kick-off event to be held at IU1 and with subsequent site visits to each participant by a visual arts or music mentor. The mentors will observe participants and conduct post-observation briefings to discuss and identify ways in which IU1 will support the future professional development of each educator. These observations will serve as baseline data to allow participants to create differentiated instructional plans. Where similar needs are observed in participants, they will be grouped together into learning communities to maximize the instructional offerings. Mentors will continue to conduct site visits as the project progresses to both support change in practice and to document the effectiveness of IU1-led trainings.

As the project continues, participants will be introduced to other distance-learning technologies through IU1's partnership with Blended Schools. Differentiated coursework and group learning environments will be created for participants in Blended School's Blackboard content management system. IU1 will also contract with various arts content providers, such as Arts Education Collaborative (AEC), Gateway to the Arts, and Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), as participants and mentors identify particular learning interests and needs. These partners will provide participant-tailored trainings, either in face-to-face or videoconference sessions as available.

The program evaluator will gather formative and summative assessments using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. The utilization of Blackboard classrooms as a primary means for communication, collaboration, instruction and assessment will capture various pieces of key data, which will then be used to evaluate the program's effectiveness. The mentors will keep anecdotal records of the participants' progress throughout the project, and the program evaluator will examine the archived classrooms and mentor documentation data in the creation of the "Arts Educator 2.0"'s final evaluation report.

Grantee Name: Puget Sound Educational Service District
Project Address: 800 Oakesdale Ave. SW
Renton, Washington 98057
Project Director: Sybil Barnum
Phone: (253) 778-7943

Arts Impact Teacher Training in Arts as Literacy is a collaborative including, Puget Sound Educational Service District (fiscal agent) and Seattle Public Schools in collaboration with local arts organizations. Arts Impact is a successful in-depth professional development program. Artist Mentors train and coach classroom teachers over the course of two years to teach standards-based arts core content and to infuse other academic areas with shared arts concepts.

Arts Impact Teacher Training in Arts as Literacy (hereinafter referred to as TTAL) will expand the existing Arts Impact program in the following ways: (1) develop a model that shifts from school-based implementation to district-wide implementation (2) develop teacher leader teams who will share training within their buildings and district through formal Learning Community Work Sessions; (3) train district Literacy Coaches in the arts and arts-infused learning to support arts-based literacy strategies throughout the district; (4) expand Arts Impact K-5 arts/literacy infused curriculum to support Seattle Public School's "Balanced Literacy" initiative; (4) develop new family communication tools to inform families about learning through the arts; (5) formalize a district-wide professional development plan that can be replicated across Seattle Public Schools (hereinafter referred to as SEATTLE). TTAL will train thirty classroom teachers and five district Literacy Coaches reaching 1,750 students over the life of the grant project. The project goals are: (1) Expand standards-based arts education in SEATTLE; (2) Strengthen and build capacity of teachers and schools to deliver standards-based arts education (3) Integrate standards-based arts instruction with other core academic area content, specifically literacy; (4) Create a sustainable and replicable model of professional development in the arts and arts-infused education for SEATTLE begins with SEATTLE's highest needs schools, while developing a model that can be applied district-wide ensuring that all students in SEATTLE have access to quality, standards based arts education. The five schools selected for participation have free and reduced meal percentages ranging from 72.4 to 81.3 and have no arts specialists.

Create a sustainable and replicable model of professional development in the arts and arts-infused education for SEATTLE begins with SEATTLE's highest needs schools, while developing a model that can be applied district-wide ensuring that all students in SEATTLE have access to quality, standards based arts education. The five schools selected for participation have free and reduced meal percentages ranging from 72.4 to 81.3 and have no arts specialists.


 
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Last Modified: 03/14/2014