Julia Steiny: Advanced Math & Science Charter School, Part II1
Julia Steiny follows up her first piece on the AMSA Charter School with an examination of how the... Read More
The Global Search for Education: More on Arts
Thought leaders in The Global Search for Education series have consistently argued that an education without the arts is incomplete. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities report, Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools, made a powerful case for why education in the arts has never been more important than now. The report [...]
“Arts education strategies play a significant role in closing the achievement gap, improving student engagement, and nurturing creativity and innovative thinking skills” – C. M. Rubin
Thought leaders in The Global Search for Education series have consistently argued that an education without the arts is incomplete. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities report, Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools, made a powerful case for why education in the arts has never been more important than now. The report showed the link between arts education and student achievement in other subject areas. Beyond empowering students to create art and appreciate all art forms, the study illustrates how arts education strategies play a significant role in closing the achievement gap, improving student engagement, and nurturing creativity and innovative thinking skills essential to the 21st century.
What do we mean when we say that beyond skills and knowledge, an arts education better prepares students for the 21st century? If you have been through the complex, interactive, dedicated, soul searching process that comes from playing a role in a dance, musical or theatrical production; if you have embraced the discipline, resourcefulness, inventiveness, passion and persistence it takes to create an original manuscript or work of art – then you will know what it means to have used all of your brain and you will be better prepared to compete in the global economy.
So where are the model American schools that are doing this today?
Upon visiting the Educare Center in Oklahoma City (home to one of the 68 schools in Oklahoma’s A+ schools network), U. S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan commented, “Oklahoma’s A+ school-network nurtures creativity in every student – and a recent evaluation shows not just that the program increases student achievement but boosts attendance and decreases discipline problems as well.”
Sir Ken Robinson describes Oklahoma’s A + School network as “a groundbreaking program emphasizing the arts as a way of teaching a wide variety of disciplines within the curriculum.”
I had the privilege of speaking with Jean Hendrickson, Executive Director of the Oklahoma A+ Schools Program, an education movement that more and more American schools are replicating.
Please tell me about A+ schools: the early beginnings in North Carolina to Oklahoma, the vision, and lessons learned to date.
The A+ Schools’ initiative began in North Carolina in 1995 when the Keenan Institute for the Arts recruited 25 North Carolina schools into a study to determine what might happen in schools if the arts were a central component of school reform. The outcome of that 4-year study showed that schools steeped in the arts and supported with collaborative networks and ongoing professional development produced great results. Test scores were good, the climate was marvelous, teachers felt respected and supported, and communities (regardless of demographics) were engaged in the schools.
Oklahoma A+ Schools began its first Five-Day Summer Institute training in 2002. Fourteen schools completed the initial year. We now have trained more than 68 schools statewide. The schools span the state and have students from early childhood through high school. They are rich and poor, urban, suburban, and rural, large and small, public, private, and charter. In short, they represent the demographics of the state, truly affirming the value of an approach to school that systematically frames the kind of educational environment that should be present in order to motivate, educate, and celebrate every child and every teacher in the school, regardless of the demographics.
“A groundbreaking program emphasizing the arts as a way of teaching a wide variety of disciplines” – Sir Ken Robinson
What does the program believe an arts curriculum should look like in primary and secondary school education?
The framework for OK A+ Schools has eight essential components that bind all of our schools together. We believe that all schools must commit to working within a framework that uses all eight A+ Essentials systematically as they address the work of school. They are:
Arts, Curriculum, Experiential Learning, Multiple Learning Pathways, Enriched Assessment, Collaboration, Infrastructure, and Climate.
For the Arts Essential, OK A+ Schools supports arts everyday for every child. It is important for multiple art forms to be present within the school experience, including visual art, music, dance, and drama, along with creative writing and design. Because the resources at schools can differ considerably, with some schools having arts specialists in four arts disciplines and other schools having no arts specialist in any discipline, we do not dictate how the arts are specifically addressed. The fact is, regardless of the level of resources, it’s important that schools are held accountable for providing arts teaching, both in the disciplines themselves and in connections to other disciplines (arts integration). Schools start with their mandated curriculum and work from there. For example, in public schools in Oklahoma, visual art and music are required to be taught in a sequential manner to all students, beginning in kindergarten.
By using our second Essential, Curriculum, OK A+ helps schools lay out a sequence of study that includes the arts and that ties to other curricular areas over the course of the year. This process inevitably reveals gaps in instruction that then help schools target areas for which they will need professional development. OK A+ Schools can provide A+ Fellows who are specialists in various arts disciplines to train teachers in the basics of the arts disciplines and help them make connections to other curriculum. This process, over a period of about three years, builds the capacity of a school to provide arts education while highlighting the value of arts specialists as part of the school’s instructional team.
The goal is to have an arts curriculum that is relevant and provided daily so that the arts become a natural and connected part of daily learning. By the end of the school’s three-year implementation period, we expect to see the four major art forms in evidence throughout the school. This is the expectation in both primary and secondary schools. At the secondary level, the individual preferences of the students are more in evidence and practiced in specific classes (visual art, dance, photography, and so on.) Again, the courses vary according to the community, but we still expect interdisciplinary work to be evident and for teachers of math, the humanities, and the sciences to regularly incorporate the arts and collaborate with arts staff.
“The goal is to have an arts curriculum that is relevant and provided daily so that the arts become a natural and connected part of daily learning” – Jean Hendrickson
How has the A+ program enhanced schools that have embraced it? Why are these schools better than they were before?
Our researchers have documented higher achievement scores, better attendance records for both students and teachers, a general sense of joy and well-being, greater parent involvement, and fewer discipline issues than other schools in the state.
One of our principals put it this way:
There are more opportunities for the kids to demonstrate their strengths and teachers are more open to the variety of ways kids can demonstrate their learning. Teachers know they have permission and expectation to evaluate student knowledge in different ways.
A teacher reported to one of our researchers: This is the happiest I’ve been since I became a teacher.
Another teacher commented to a researcher: Kids come to school excited about new challenges. They know they can be successful at something and often ask, “What are we learning today?”
Can you give me some examples of how the A+ program is used to enhance curriculum?
One of my favorite examples of how the A+ process enhances the curriculum again comes from an anecdote from one of our researchers. He tells of walking into an elementary school classroom to make an observation and take field notes. The class was busy with a project that looked like they must have been making dolls of some kind. He asked a student who informed him they were concluding a study of Native American peoples and were creating their own kachina-type dolls. The researcher asked the student if this was a social studies class or an art class. The student replied, “Both!”
Jean Hendrickson and C. M. Rubin
(Photos courtesy of the Oklahoma A+ Schools Program)
In The Global Search for Education, join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Leon Botstein (US), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (US), Dr. Madhav Chavan (India), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (US), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (US), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Professor Ben Levin (Canada), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (US), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon, Dr. David Shaffer (US), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (US), Yves Theze (Lycee Francais US), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (US), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C.M. Rubin has more than two decades of professional experience in development, marketing, and art direction for a diverse range of media businesses. She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice In Wonderland.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
Tuesday
November 22nd, 2011
Filed Under
A+ Schools Network Arts Education C. M. Rubin Education Reform Jean Hendrickson Keenan Institute for the Arts Sir Ken Robinson The Global Search for Education
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Comments
So often even the most conscientious educators forget why they do what they do. In this age of high stakes tests and schizophrenic accountability it is easy for educators to loose focus on what is truly important, the student. Oklahoma A+ Schools Executive Director Jean Hendrickson mentioned the effectiveness of A+’s work best when she said, “Our researchers have documented higher achievement scores, better attendance records for both students and teachers, a general sense of joy and well-being, greater parent involvement, and fewer discipline issues than other schools in the state.” All of these are reasons to adopt the A+ curriculum, yet she speaks of a “sense of joy and well-being” that is present among the students and faculty. And she is right. The curiosity to learn and teach through creative experience is alive and well in all A+ schools. These schools are doing education right. I salute all A+ schools, teachers and students. You are a bright light for our state and nation on exemplifying what education ought to be.
I am so pleased that this has been proven to be possible and to serve as a great example for all who have precepts in line with no child left behind. This is not a world of standardized tests and high stakes accountability. That is the antithesis of what is happening in the OK A+ schools.
This is such important work! I am a principal who has had the privilege of leading 3 schools into the Oklahoma A+ Schools Network. It is powerful what the arts and other essentials of the framework can do for student learning.
As a veteran teacher, I am so blessed to be part of the Oklahoma A+ Schools Network. During the completion of my Master’s Degree this Spring, I was able to share with my cohort the framework and many of the ideas I learned through A+ Professional Development. I am anxious to lead my own staff through this process some day soon!
You and your fellow teachers are among the core upon which the A+ system will grow in the years ahead. There is a great need for these methods to be shared with other places in the years ahead.
Those of us involved in the OKA+ Schools’ network are guided by our commitment to education that expands the imagination and stimulates the creativity that is present in every human being. The process is not a silver bullet, by any means. It is hard work, dedication, and willingness to be courageous advocates for all children in our schools, all of the time! Hard work, but fun work, made easier when we collaborate and share our successes and our failures in the spirit of mutual learning.
Congratulations to you on this invaluable work. I believe these are the human capabilities that will be essential to our nation’s success in this century.
I am extremely impressed with the substance of this program, from the training of teachers to the curriculum to the satisfaction of the students. Important for this story to be told and retold.
The NC A+ Schools Program, parent of OK A+ Schools, can add another key success to the benefits of arts-based education – longevity. Originating the A+ Program in 1995, NC still has 19 of the original 25 A+ Schools actively engaged in the NC A+ Schools Network. A teacher at one of our NC A+ Schools said it this way “A+ is the hardest work I have ever had the priviledge of taking part in for the immediate and long tern benefit of my students and myself!”
Visiting the classooms, full of happy, busy, smiling children proves the value of this remarkable program; The research confirms what every one knows: these kids thrive andperform far better than those in the other classrooms. What is stopping us from doing the best for our children???
I have been a believer in the value of the arts in the disciplines of science and math for several decades. It is so satisfying to see entire school districts transformed by this principle.
The question of why this philosophy of education cannot be adopted by other parts of the US is perplexing. Our education systems seem too fragmented for any one philosophy to prevail. But what can be done is the system by system work, must like NC begot OK which begot AR.
The A+ network in North Carolina is still thriving and growing as well. At the Arts Based Elementary School in Winston-Salem we use the catalytic wisdom that children intuitively dance, sing, act, and draw their ideas and questions and observations. Why would any responsible educator bypass those native languages in favor of “sit still and listen?” When individual creativity is honored, students are encouraged and inspired to learn more. They want to be at school. They think of themselves as artists and scholars. And this makes it more rewarding to teach them, which continues the cycle of positive energy.
There are two elements that truly fuel the process in A+ Schools. They are the parts that originally attracted the researchers to A+. First, there is the recognition that the difference maker in the process is the individual teacher in each classroom. The implementation of the A+ Frameworks recognizes that teachers will engage students in learning activities they believe to be most effective. When they have been given the professional development and opportunity to see the ways in which learning in, about and through the arts can empower student learning, teachers are naturally attracted to include the arts within the curriculum. Second, the A+ Framework recognizes that truly understanding anything requires the learner to view it from multiple perspectives. Educational endeavors often make attempts to facilitate learning that involves a scientific perspective, but rarely support artistic perspectives in the same manner. When the teachers and children in A+ Schools say they understand their world differently, it is perhaps a recognition that both perspectives allow for a more complete understanding. What a goal for public education!
As a teacher in one of the original NC A+ schools and as an A+ Fellow, I have spent years focused on arts instruction and arts integration. I have had the pleasure of watching the light bulbs come on with both children and adults with the realization that the arts enliven math, language arts, science, and social studies, by exploiting natural connections in the curriculum. More and more educators are understanding that the best ways to engage children in learning are with a hands-on cooperative classroom environment, such as A+ models. I applaud A+ from its beginnings in NC, its contagious spread in OK and AK, to its continued growth and refinement as a continuously improving work of living art.
As an student of educational systems around our country and the world, I am so encouraged to hear more about this program and to read the comments of those who make it work. It is a model that could bring great improvement to our school systems.
Learning through and with the arts fosters twenty-first century skills like collaboration, communication, problem-solving, creative thinking, and innovation. I am an NC A+ Fellow and a teaching artist– a mime–and I use movement and theater in the classroom to teach writing and history. It is so exciting to see the kinesthetic learners light up in my classes. They are the ones who are being told to sit down. But they learn best through movement and repetition. Students who learn best by thinking aloud and interacting with others are often told to be quiet. When they have the opportunity to work in collaborative groups on a creative project, they get to engage with the subject matter on their terms.
I shall be a follow up on some of the schools in this program…fyi
It is often the teachers in A+ Schools who become the greatest advocates for creative, arts-infused learning, for they recognize that their students have been ill-served by the constraints of traditional education. As a NC A+ Fellow since its inception, it has been my delight to share with them the tools to develop arts-rich integrated lessons and units firmly grounded in the state curriculum.
I saw a recent presentation by the head of the NCEE about what has to be done to keep up with the leading countries of the world in terms of education. The principal conclusions were first, improving the quality of teaching thru various ways, and putting the emphasis on getting a few states to show the country how it needs to be done. The A+ system, with its emphasis on interdisciplinary curriculum and teacher capabilities, is an opportunity for the states of NC and OK, as well as for our nation.
I think there also needs to be a tremendous support and funding from the federal level to get this show on the road. I think the US is disadvantaged because education decisions are made at the municipal level…hence the disparity between school systems and the difficulty of making broad geographic change.
The quality of the teacher and the teaching is acknowledged to be critical to the success of this program. OK A+ has clearly done a wonderful job in building a high quality teaching team. The most successful systems around the world are anchored on great teaching.
It will be up to states like Oklahoma to establish teacher requirements and standards. I hope they understand the significance and that their unions will go along.
I would love to get a better understanding of the quantitative measures of success for this program. I will mention the T word. What impact has been seen on standardized test scores, or is that irrelevant here?
Of course, standardized test scores are the opposite of what is being emphasized here. But I would also be curious as to what, if any impact was seen there. Or if there are better tracking tools that have been used, what are they?
The standardized test score results have been measured each year of the study, (go to http://www.aplusok.org/research) and the results are good. Not only do the averages of the OKA+ Schools exceed the averages of the districts in which they reside, but they also exceed the state’s average. Not all of our schools are measured by the state (private schools, early childhood sites), but we’re pleased that we can show that being more creative and joyful does not have a negative impact on test scores! In fact, the opposite occurs.