Taken from
A PORTRAIT OF PERSUASIVE POTENTIAL
The Evaluation Study of ArtsNow: 2007–2008

Prepared by
David E. Myers, Ph.D.
Professor and Director, School of Music
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN

November 12, 2008

CASE STUDY SCHOOLS

What is the quality of implementation of ArtsNow in selected schools implementing the model of arts leadership teams and in-school creativity workshops?  What successes and challenges are associated with implementation? 

Four schools that evidenced consistent coherence with the principles and strategies of ArtsNow were selected for site visits.  The visits consisted of interviews with administrators and teachers, classroom observations, and reviews of student work. 

HUNTLEY HILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (DEKALB COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM)

Huntley Hills Elementary & Montessori School enrolls 350 students. Sixty-six percent are non-white and 49 percent are eligible for free or reduced lunch. The school uses a Montessori "school within a school" approach. Because of the Montessori emphasis on engagement and integrated learning that includes creativity and the arts, ArtsNow was considered a "great fit" with the school's philosophy. Teachers from 1st and 4th–5th grade classrooms, the principal, and an art teacher attended the August 2007 workshop. A review of CRCT scores indicates that the school consistently scores well on percentages of students meeting or exceeding standards across subjects and grade levels.  The school has satisfied Adequate Yearly Progress expectations since 2006.

Participants described the ArtsNow Foundational Training as "professional and inspiring." They appreciated the rich resources that were provided, as well as the high quality of presenters and the user-friendly arts integration strategies. During pre-planning for the 2007–2008 school year, the ArtsNow attendees shared their experiences with other teachers. The school established a monthly Arts Day, during which all teachers focus on arts-academic integration. The school's strings specialist began to incorporate writing about music as a way of integrating with Language Arts concepts. While the "reflective" work was useful, students' music performance declined, so this approach was abandoned. The teacher would like more ideas about how to integrate string instruction with academics in ways that do not sacrifice the students' musical development.

The philosophy of Huntley Hills's principal with regard to school improvement is that "we must work smarter, not harder." This meant that ArtsNow had to "fit" into the school, not feel like an "add-on." The school approached this by identifying unifying themes that could incorporate dance, drama, music, and visual arts. The themes were related to the Georgia and Dekalb standards and were determined by teachers. Once the themes were identified, the monthly Arts Day focused on the themes by involving all four art forms and the arts specialists. Educators at Huntley Hills believe that arts integration is best achieved by classroom teachers and that arts specialists should remain primarily responsible for arts content. To facilitate the Arts Day work, teachers utilized regular Wednesday afternoon planning times, which feature cross-program planning.

Workshop participants reported that getting educators to understand arts "integration" as opposed to arts "activities" was a lengthy process that did not really begin to show results until the spring of 2008. Discussions occurred in 5 to 6 faculty meetings around the differences between turning Arts Day into a day of activities vs. integrating arts in support of identified standards. Huntley Hills requested the assistance of ArtsNow staff to support educators in understanding arts integration and tying lessons to the standards. The school also worked with ArtsNow staff to enlist AmeriCorps volunteers to help with a Corporate Arts project.

A culminating arts event at Huntley Hills was the "Panoply of the Arts," an all-school evening celebration of the arts. A grant from the Georgia Council on the Arts allowed the school to collaborate with the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts, the Atlanta Ballet, and the Synchronicity Theatre Workshop to hold arts presentations simultaneously with the school's annual concert by the band, choir, and orchestra, and an instrument "petting zoo." ArtsNow participants found this to be a "very successful and fun evening" that emphasized to parents and the community Huntley Hills School's commitment to the place of the arts in the curriculum. 

The educators and principal at Huntley Hills found it challenging to implement ArtsNow at the levels they had hoped. They are considering possible changes in 2008–2009, including more collaboration between arts specialists and classroom teachers and more regular meetings of their arts leadership team. Consistent with other data, they found that dedicating sufficient time to realize potential benefits was difficult in view of many other expectations.

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