Posted on Aug 17 2010 @ 8:44 PM

MARIETTA CITY SCHOOLS: Hickory Hills Elementary Arts Academy, under the leadership of Principal Diana Mills, has demonstrated remarkable strides in student achievement. ArtsNOW began partnering with Hickory Hills in 2007 to transform the school into an integrated arts academy, fully embracing ArtsNOW implementation school-wide. Last year (2008-2009) was the first year of full implementation and we focused all professional learning activity on the integration of the arts into math – school wide. The result in student success was unmistakably a result of teacher implementation of ArtsNOW teaching strategies all year long!

In fact, Hickory Hills experienced impressive gains on the 2009-10 Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) as their school wide scores reflected a 12.5% growth in math as compared to the prior year . Important subgroups also gained as English Language Learners experienced 21% in math and children in the “economically disadvantaged” subgroup improved by 21.5% in math vs. last year.

Hickory Hills was presented with a Title I monetary award for closing the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged students in both reading and math. In addition, the Marietta City School System was recognized by the state as the Title I Distinguished school system for medium-sized districts. As a result, the system rigorously analyzed data to then recognize one school that had made the greatest contributions to the system's success and selected Hickory Hills.