Moving Toward a Culture of Evidence: Documentation and Action Research inside CAPE Veteran Partnerships

This report is a culmination of three years of study of the impact on effective teaching of educators and artists engaging as partners in action research (inquiry based study of their own practice), in documenting the effects of arts integration on student learning (creating a "culture of evidence"), and in collaborating with other action research teams and with formal researchers to actively investigate qualities of teaching and learning at participating schools (what CAPE calls "layered research")

PAIR Final Comprehensive Report Part 1: Teacher Impact

Forty years ago, there was widespread belief that teachers and schools had little influence on students' achievement independent of their socioeconomic background and context. More recent studies of teacher effects at the classroom level, however, such as those using the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, have found that differential teacher effectiveness is a strong determinant of differences in student learning, far outweighing the effects of differences in class size and heterogeneity.Students who are assigned to several ineffective teachers in a row have significantly lower achievement and gains in achievement than those who are assigned to several highly effective teachers in sequence. Teacher effects appear to be additive and cumulative, and generally not compensatory. These issues have been the topic of much other research over the last 50 years . More and more research is conducted with teacher practice and professional development as part of the context for investigating student outcomes. That is what the PAIR project has done during this research initiative. The Partnerships in Arts Integration Research (PAIR) project was a three-year initiative focused on the intersections between arts and non-arts content learning in two mathematics and science, two world languages and two writing Magnet Cluster Schools in Chicago. This section of the final report will focus on the impact of the project on the teachers, with particular attention to the third year of the project in which documentation was more intentional and systematic in each school. The 6 PAIR schools were matched with 6 control schools also in the Arts Magnet Cluster Schools program in Chicago Public Schools. A Year-End Curriculum and Teaching Survey was administered to 4th, 5thand 6th grade teachers in all twelve schools during Year Three of the project. Other data were also collected from the teachers in the 6 PAIR schools, including professional development session surveys and attendance figures, portfolio conference transcribed comments, student work and teacher practice labels and documentation from work completed at professional development sessions (documentation panels and curriculum maps)

Partnerships in Arts Integrated Research

The PAIR (Partnerships for Arts Integration Research) complete final report is an evaluation of a four year, federal Department of Education funded Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) project administered by the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) in partnership with the Chicago Public Schools. This project brought together 3 pairings of school populations (a world languages focused magnet cluster school with a fine-arts focused magnet cluster school; a math and science focused magnet cluster school with a fine arts focused magnet cluster school; and a literature and writing focused magnet cluster school with a fine arts magnet cluster school) to work with teaching artists in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classrooms. Results from the six schools were compared with six control schools of similar status, resources, student population, demographic factors, and comparable levels of academic achievement prior to the start of the PAIR project.The PAIR research and evaluation focuses extensively on teacher impact and student achievement. Two principal investigators noted for their work in the fields of teacher education, student learning, and arts in education teaching and learning practices engaged in this research: Dr. Gail Burnaford, School of Education faculty at Florida Atlantic University, who examined the impact of PAIR on classroom teachers, and Dr. Lawrence Scripp, Director of the Center for Music-In-Education, Inc, who analyzed student arts integration and academic learning outcomes and their relation to PAIR teacher professional development outcomes and controlled for student demographic factors. Burnaford's and Scripp's cumulative findings on the impact of PAIR on teacher professional development, student learning and the intersections between teacher and student outcomes over the three-year time period of the project are presented in the three-part comprehensive report.Lawrence Scripp and Laura Tan Paradis (PAIR research coordinator) provide a brief summary of the project findings as an addendum to the comprehensive three-part PAIR Report

Contours of Inclusion: Frameworks and Tools for Evaluating Arts in Education

This collection of essays explores various arts education-specific evaluation tools, as well as considers Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the inclusion of people with disabilities in the design of evaluation instruments and strategies. Prominent evaluators Donna M. Mertens, Robert Horowitz, Dennie Palmer Wolf, and Gail Burnaford are contributors to this volume. The appendix includes the AEA Standards for Evaluation. (Contains 10 tables, 2 figures, 30 footnotes, and resources for additional reading.) This is a proceedings document from the 2007 VSA arts Research Symposium that preceded the American Evaluation Association's (AEA) annual meeting in Baltimore, MD

A Study of Professional Development for Arts Teachers: Building Curriculum, Community, and Leadership in Elementary Schools

This study was conducted in a large urban school district. Fifty-nine elementary schools, designated as Fine Arts Schools by the district, were organized as a Fine Arts School Network. The school district partnered with an external arts organization to deliver research-based, consistent and collaborative professional development to art, music, dance, and drama teachers over three years. This government-funded professional development initiative explored the impact of network-based intensive professional development for arts teachers in four specific areas: 1) their role in building community in their schools; their roles as community builders in their schools, 2) their role in building curriculum with non-arts teachers in their schools, 3) their role in building their own leadership capacities. The final area for investigation focused on the impact of network-based professional development for arts teachers on their home schools. Quantitative data, including surveys of participating arts teachers, and qualitative data, including curriculum projects, student work, online documentation templates, interviews and focus groups were collected and analyzed. Results indicated that arts teachers spent more time with their principals and with their non arts teacher colleagues as a result of the professional development they received. They also developed a deeper understanding of the value of an arts integration curriculum in which their own arts expertise contributes to the design of learning and teaching, particularly in the literacy areas of story elements, analytical writing, creative writing, and critique of arts experiences. The study also demonstrated how professional development contributed to arts teachers’ capacity to take leadership in their schools by serving on School Improvement teams, contributing to decisions regarding external arts partnerships, and implementing staff development. The study offered implications for schools districts regarding the importance of targeted professional development for arts specialists. Further, the study indicated roles for external arts partnership organizations in district-supported professional development, as opposed to a more familiar model of school-specific residencies. Finally, results indicated the potential for supporting arts teacher specialists in developing and implementing professional development and curricular projects in their own schools

A Study of Professional Development for Arts Teachers: Building Curriculum, Community, and Leadership in Elementary Schools

This study was conducted in a large urban school district. Fifty-nine elementary schools, designated as Fine Arts Schools by the district, were organized as a Fine Arts School Network. The school district partnered with an external arts organization to deliver research-based, consistent and collaborative professional development to art, music, dance, and drama teachers over three years. This government-funded professional development initiative explored the impact of network-based intensive professional development for arts teachers in four specific areas: 1) their role in building community in their schools; their roles as community builders in their schools, 2) their role in building curriculum with non-arts teachers in their schools, 3) their role in building their own leadership capacities. The final area for investigation focused on the impact of network-based professional development for arts teachers on their home schools. Quantitative data, including surveys of participating arts teachers, and qualitative data, including curriculum projects, student work, online documentation templates, interviews and focus groups were collected and analyzed. Results indicated that arts teachers spent more time with their principals and with their non arts teacher colleagues as a result of the professional development they received. They also developed a deeper understanding of the value of an arts integration curriculum in which their own arts expertise contributes to the design of learning and teaching, particularly in the literacy areas of story elements, analytical writing, creative writing, and critique of arts experiences. The study also demonstrated how professional development contributed to arts teachers’ capacity to take leadership in their schools by serving on School Improvement teams, contributing to decisions regarding external arts partnerships, and implementing staff development. The study offered implications for schools districts regarding the importance of targeted professional development for arts specialists. Further, the study indicated roles for external arts partnership organizations in district-supported professional development, as opposed to a more familiar model of school-specific residencies. Finally, results indicated the potential for supporting arts teacher specialists in developing and implementing professional development and curricular projects in their own schools

Renaissance in the classroom : arts integration and meaningful learning/ Edit.: Gail Burnaford; Arnold Aprill; Cynthia Weiss

xliv, 265 p.: ill, tab.; 24 cm

Renaissance in the classroom : arts integration and meaningful learning/ Edit.: Gail Burnaford; Arnold Aprill; Cynthia Weiss

xliv, 265 p.: ill, tab.; 24 cm