Please Note: The available abstracts are for historical purposes only. All grants for FY2002 have ended.

ArtsConnection, Inc., New York, New York

The ArtsConnection works with three schools in two school districts--Community School District 9 in the South Bronx and Community School District 15 in Brooklyn--to further develop and field test their K-5 sequential model in dance and theatre arts. Arts Connection's model of professional development for teachers and artists helps to convey the academic benefits of arts-integrated instruction. The project examines the parallel learning structures between the arts and other core disciplines, especially language arts. Products include: K-5 Curricula for Dance and Theatre Arts, a Teacher's Guide for extending the arts into classroom literacy practices, and Principles and Practices for the Professional Development of Teachers and Teaching Artists.

Berwick Area School District, Berwick, Pennsylvania

The Rural Arts Infusion Project uses two distance learning technologies to expand arts learning opportunities for students in poor rural and inner-city schools and to support staff development activities for their teachers. Online cyber programs and video-conferencing provides opportunities for artists to work with educators in developing integrated arts study units for other academic areas. Video-conferencing is also used to expose grade 1 to 8 students to art museums and curators, performance centers, and artists. Four different online programs, for students and educators, represent the most current innovations in web-based capabilities. The evaluation design includes comparisons of student scores on the Pennsylvania's state assessment, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, school climate surveys, as well as recently developed web-based measures of the impacts of arts skills on academic achievement. In the second year, it will partner with public television station WBRA in Roanoke, Virginia, and test the model in a rural school.

The Galef Institute, Los Angeles, California

The Galef Institute partners with the Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and Kentucky school districts. This model addresses best practices by infusing multiple art forms of music, dance, drama, and visual and media arts into the curriculum with the goal of improving student achievement. Evaluation will be composed of both quantitative and qualitative aspects. This program has been field tested in more than 600 schools in 10 years of research. New artist/educator coaches will be trained in instruction and leadership to work in the classroom. Galef will form a National Faculty of artist/educator coaches to work with teachers to improve student achievement.

Mississippi Arts Commission, Jackson, Mississippi

The Mississippi Arts Commission, the State arts agency, is building on an initiative to integrate the arts into daily classroom instruction for all students. The Commission partners with 26 local school districts. The grant serves elementary and middle schools. This ongoing effort provides schools with increased opportunities to experience the intrinsic value of the arts--music, dance, drama, visual art, and folk arts--and to recognize the value of the arts as a tool for improving school instruction and school climate. The comprehensive statewide arts education program has been in place since 1992, using the arts to promote high quality learning across disciplines.

Puget Sound Educational Service District, Burien, Washington

Arts Impact is a consortium of three school districts led by Puget Sound Educational Service District partnering with arts agencies. The art forms addressed include visual arts, dance, theatre, and literature. All lessons taught to classroom teachers and by classroom teachers include learning targets, assessment criteria, and assessment strategies. This target setting is intended to impact a teacher's ability to teach new content. Students make study trips to museums and performances to reinforce concepts and to encourage students to use cultural institutions as ongoing learning resources. A summer institute, workshops, mentorship, and study visits are all components of the program tested in the pilot phase and found to be effective in design. An evaluator will compare learning assessments to document the aspects of the program that are the most successful. Statistical data from the assessment comparison will be distributed to the field. Baselines and control groups will be established and tracked as appropriate to the various comparisons.

Tucson Unified School District, Tucson, Arizona

The Tucson Unified School District works with three K-5 schools, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, University of Arizona, Arizona Opera Company, and the Tucson Arts Connection to expand an integrated curriculum for teachers and artists that focuses on music through all the grades. Based on recent studies of neurological development, the project uses music to reinforce linguistic and literacy skills with an additional emphasis on English language learners. Teachers, musicians, and artists work together to develop a sequential curriculum for each grade.

Warren County School District, Warren, Pennsylvania

Warren County School District, in northwestern Pennsylvania, is implementing a model that integrates arts instruction into the core curriculum in four schools. The public school district is working in partnership with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, the Arts Council of Erie, and the Warren County Historical Society. A total of four elementary schools are involved--two in the first year and two more in the second year. Multiple arts disciplines are taught within arts-integrated instruction, particularly within math and language arts.