REACH

As a result of our ArtsNow Foundational Training for School TEAMS - which began in February 2006, ArtsNow has experienced the following reach:

• 633 educators from 128 schools in 14 school systems participated the Foundational Training 
• 50%+ of all Atlanta Public Schools (50) have participated
  
• School teams participating from Atlanta Public Schools, Barrow County Schools, Cobb County School District, City Schools of Decatur, DeKalb County School System, Douglas County Schools, Fulton County Schools, Gainesville City Schools, Gwinnett County Public Schools, Hall County Schools, Marietta City Schools, Rabun County Schools, Sumter County Schools, and Walton County Public Schools
• Potential “train-the-trainer” impact to over 6400+ additional educators and 85,000+ children — every single day in their own classroom!
  

Download a list of schools and districts that have attended the Foundational Training to see the potential total impact this training has on educators and students.

IMPACT: ArtsNow EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT

ArtsNow recognizes that assessment of our professional development is critical. Until we are able to custom design a research model to directly measure our impact in students’ lives we view the four measurements below as indicators that ArtsNow is having a positive impact on teaching and learning:  
 
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
Preliminary findings from a three-year baseline study show that the majority of Atlanta Public Schools (APS) schools that implemented ArtsNow strategies outperformed schools that did not.  Of the 27 APS schools that actively implemented the ArtsNow Model at some point during the 2004-2006 school years, 92% met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status and 81% received distinguished improvement status in 2006. This compares to 75% of APS schools system-wide that made AYP status and 58% that received distinguished improvement status. 
 
In a specialized study by DeKalb County School System, of the 22 schools that attended ArtsNow Foundational Training, 70% returned to “train-the-trainer” as intended and 48% of these schools engage in regular, on-going weekly inclusion of the arts into the general curriculum!  
 
In a recent external evaluation of our work, “A Portrait of Persuasive Potential, The Evaluation Study of ArtsNow:  2007-2008” by Dr. David E. Myers, we know the impact of ArtsNow professional development on seasoned educators to be extremely beneficial.  (Average number of years teaching by respondents was 14.)

• All 155 of the total respondents agreed that ArtsNow was among the best professional development they ever received.
• On a scale of 1-6, all said at levels of 5.3 or higher that they gained knowledge, increased in comfort levels with arts integration, valued workshop leaders and activities and gained useful classroom applications. 
• Most expressed that the Foundational Training was “one of the best” and “one of the best prepared professional development I’ve attended in 25 years as an educator.”
• 5 months after a Foundational Training of 74 educators who responded to our survey, 79% reported using arts integration strategies regularly in their classroom and 86% still applied knowledge gained in the Foundational Training. 89% saw students more engaged when they used arts integration teaching strategies.
• All participants were completely enthusiastic about the potential of ArtsNow to affect positive change on school climate, student achievement and student engagement.