Partners in Education Project Grants for 2009-2010

A

Arizona 1995 Team

The Arizona 1995 Team will focus on deepening the level of arts integration lessons within specific units of study. To accomplish this, the team will examine the impact that arts integration has on student learning, using their Arts Leading Learning Model.

Arkansas 1991 Team

The Arkansas 1991 Team will develop an arts integrated math component for the Total Instructional Alignment (TIA) resource project. The TIA resource project involves the electronic categorizing and cataloging of a set of high quality, internet resources. These resources act in accordance with Arkansas learning objectives that are grade level and content area specific. When completed, TIA will provide instant access to free internet resources for all Arkansas educators, which will supplement and complement K-8 math, Algebra and Geometry learning objectives in Arkansas.

F

Florida 1997 Team

The Florida 1997 Team will continue its three-tier research project. In the first tier of the project, the team will continue research on the longitudinal impact of the arts focused on 16 seventh grade students. These students have received extensive Kennedy Center arts integration opportunities in grades one through five. The second tier of the project will provide focused, sequential professional development support for teams of teachers of these students. The project will continue to offer professional development opportunities in the third tier, where local teaching artists will be partnered with teachers to plan and implement arts integrated lessons with a project-based theme.

H

Hawai`i 1995 Team

The Hawai’i 1995 Team will conduct a third year of research at Pomaika’i, Hawaii’s only fully arts integrated public school. This project will initiate an arts integration collaboration project, where teaching artists and veteran teachers will work together on planning, teaching, and assessing an early learning writing unit. By providing professional development for teachers in multiple ways, the team will investigate the effectiveness of this model, as well as the impact that a comprehensive arts integrated curriculum has on students’ oral communication skills.

Hawai`i 2007 Team

Artistic Perspective: Developing Reflective Skills in Students, a larger initiative by the Hawai’i ARTS FIRST Partners, aims to fill gaps in training for teaching artists and classroom teachers statewide. Through a three-tiered approach, the project will enhance and expand artistic reflection practices in arts learning experiences. First, a teaching artist institute will be designed and taught by master-level teaching artists from each artistic discipline. A collaborative partnership between teaching artists and classroom teachers will follow, and each partnership will prepare curriculum and classroom methodologies that incorporate artistic reflection. Finally, classroom residencies that focus on implementing these practices will be established.

I

Iowa (Cedar Falls) 2003 Team

The Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, as part of the College of Education at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), will develop and implement an arts integration design for up to 320 pre-service elementary teachers. To accomplish this theory, practice, and education-based project, the Iowa 2003 Team will utilize significant resources to reach their goals and educate their participants: UNI professors will deliver information through readings and discussion; Kennedy Center teaching artists will provide lessons for pre-service teachers and K-5 students through an Expressive Arts and Science Methods week-long residency; and pre-service teachers will develop and implement an arts integrated lesson for students in grades K-5.

M

Maine 2007 Team

The Maine 2007 Team, in partnership with the Alaska 2007 Team, will use and adapt the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) framework to deepen their school wide commitment to reform and arts integrated instruction. Local teaching artists will be involved in a two-year professional development sequence for teachers and administrators, which will emphasize embedded classroom modeling. The project includes four weekend Arts Retreats. Throughout the year, teams will work with students in grades four through twelve in four schools, to produce a collaborative performance piece that reflects the similarities and differences between the fishing cultures at the heart of both communities.

Mississippi 2007 Team

The Mississippi 2007 Team will offer professional development training to teachers and administrators across the state. With the aim of focusing on middle schools and the arts, a one-day workshop for middle school principals and a two-day workshop for middle school teachers will be conducted. Kennedy Center teaching artists, Mississippi professional teaching artists, a member of the Mississippi 2005 Partners in Education team, Mississippi Arts Commission’s Whole Schools Initiative Director, a successful middle school principal, and the Fine Arts Coordinator from the Mississippi Department of Education will all contribute to the project. To follow up, the school of each principal in attendance will receive a visit from a local teaching artist, all of whom have received training from the Kennedy Center’s Seminars for Teaching Artists.

Montana 1991 Team

Engaging Learners: The Laurel Arts Integration Research Project aims to examine student engagement as a result of arts integration professional development and arts integrated teaching. Teachers of grades three through six from two Laurel schools will participate in professional development training led by Kennedy Center workshop leaders. This training will include three-hour and six-hour workshops as well as classroom modeling sessions throughout the school year. These teachers will also participate in professional learning communities, led by in-school arts coaches, where they will develop “Big Idea” units of study integrating the arts into their curriculum.

N

Nebraska 2001 Team

The Umoⁿhoⁿ Arts and Culture Research Project aims to improve educational outcomes for the Umoⁿhoⁿ Naton School’s (UNS) at-risk students. Through professional development and reflection, research and documentation of the impact arts integration has on student learning, a research project will investigate the impact of professional development on K-12 classroom practices. A research team, which will involve two teaching artists and two Partners in Education planning team members, will also be established. Another team of UNS teachers will participate in long-term professional development, research and the application of arts integration in the classrooms. The research team will examine what these participating teachers say, write and do in classroom practice.

Nevada 2001 Team

The partnership between the Smith Center for Performing Arts and Gilbert Magnet School for the Creative Arts will enable Gilbert to meet its vision “The Arts: A Way to Learn, A Way to Live.” With a focus on quality arts integration and its impact on student learning, Gilbert hopes to move towards becoming a host school for professional development in arts integration through coaching, modeling and mentoring. This project will provide workshops taught by Kennedy Center artists, which will act as a means to change the instructional practices of teachers and promote positive school-wide reform.

New Mexico 1999 Team

The New Mexico 1999 Partners in Education Team will provide a core group of teachers and teacher candidates with the foundation to effectively and efficiently implement arts integration into their classrooms. By building the skill set of four to five key teachers from two school sites, the team will provide a model for other educators and colleagues working at the same schools. This project plans for these sites to serve as models of effective arts integration and school improvement for their individual districts and the region as a whole.

V

Vermont 1992 Team

Words Come Alive! is a signature professional development program implemented by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. Through this program, teachers of the Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler School will learn effective ways to tie drama and movement techniques to their curriculum, deepening academic learning and building expressive skills. Selected workshops from the Kennedy Center as well as a variety of work by visiting local artists will supplement this training, and an evaluator will determine the overall effectiveness of this project.

W

Wisconsin 1993 Team

The Arts Education Initiative of The Overture Center for the Arts will be composed of three seminars, all of which will emphasize the fundamentals and tools needed to implement successful artist-in-residence programs within schools. This project will fund seminar leaders, teaching artists and other educators, with the hopes of maximizing involvement and knowledge within the community.