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 educators, classroom observations, and reviews of student work.

MILES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS)

Miles Elementary School enrolls 445 students. Ninety-nine percent are non-white and 86% qualify for free or reduced lunch. The arts leadership team consists of a math coach, a 5th-grade writing teacher, 2 kindergarten paraprofessionals, a physical education teacher, a music teacher, and an art teacher. The team was selected by the principal, who also attended a workshop. Most of the team attended the August 2007 workshop; 1 person attended the February workshops. The school designated Wednesday from 1:00 to 2:00 as Arts Time. CRCT scores at Miles are consistently strong, and the school regularly satisfies Adequate Yearly Progress standards.

Team members reported that there is a culture of collaboration at Miles. "We're very intertwined here," one of them said. Arts Time has been relatively "informal," generally used for "a lot of brainstorming." Educators felt that the use of Arts Time in the midst of testing provided a good "change of pace" for both teachers and students. In order to engage more faculty in ArtsNow concepts and strategies, the arts team planned a faculty icebreaker during preplanning. Each person was asked to develop a personal portrait, cutting out pictures that represented them. This was an activity learned in the August workshop. The team suggested that teachers might use a similar activity in their classrooms as a way of introducing students at the start of the school year. The leadership team, however, has not met during the year. Instead, individual members of the team tend to implement activities.

The school adopted several school-wide themes for curricular integration, including "Freedom and Change" and "Culture and Diversity." Team members noted numerous successful projects connected with these themes. In art class, students created quilt patterns, copying from the ones they studied in Social Studies that had conveyed secret messages to help runaway slaves escape. One educator reported on a project in which students were given words of songs that had been "broken apart." Using Language Arts skills, the students were assigned the task of organizing the words in meaningful ways. As they did so, they began to realize that the words could form different songs. They then sang the songs and interpreted the meanings, using dictionary skills to explore the meanings of words and then thinking about how the words conveyed ideas. 

Another example was of bulletin boards that various classes developed to represent many different people in a "community" and their different forms of dress, food, and occupations. In kindergarten, as part of an integrated science and art lesson, a visiting dentist stained a piece of tile with different kinds of food. Using language arts skills, the students then wrote about healthy teeth. In fifth grade, students studied land forms, considering the constructive and destructive forces at work when land forms are created. They then used visual art skills to construct three-dimensional land forms. Miles educators also have used bulletin boards to demonstrate the arts integration ideas they have developed in their classrooms.

Asked what the primary benefit of ArtsNow has been, team members agreed that it was "creativity." "This has given us many new ideas and encouraged us to be more creative in our school," one team member said. Another pointed to ways in which individual members of the leadership team and staff from ArtsNow have conveyed a "sense of spirit" around art. Examples included the drama club, a school mural, and the corporate art quilt.

The principal at Miles Elementary noted that he was initially "kind of vague and confused" about ArtsNow, but after attending the Foundational Training, he is now interested in sending more teachers. The arts leadership team endorses this idea: "We need to send all of our teachers to the workshops – that's the way to really get it." They also believe, however, that if arts integration is to be successful, the teachers must want to do it: "If they're dragging their feet or don't care, then it just won't happen." The leadership team would like to see more "core faculty" participating in leadership. They believe that would send a message to other teachers that arts integration is important, "not just something to have fun with, but something that makes a real difference for the students."

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