| Arts ABLE - 10 Strategic Elements |  | Arts Allies in Basic Learning and Excellence entails the following 10 strategic elements of implementation. The program is a whole-school arts and education development effort that is results-oriented. Arts ABLE envisions and plans for sustainability from the start, especially in terms of increased teacher and parent involvement, and support from the community arts organization.
- VISION-MAKING
Staff, family, and community members in an Arts ABLE school collectively create a “big picture” regarding arts in the curriculum, and its importance and impact on students. This time and “buy-in” opportunity garners new enthusiasm and shared commitment required for long-term success and for accepting some of the challenges inherent in trying something new. Contributions from arts specialists currently on staff are vital to the vision-making process.
- SCHOOL-WIDE ASSESSMENT
An Arts ABLE school, with expert input, inventories its arts strengths and weaknesses in terms of a set of specific indicators research shows are generally present in schools where students have high performance in the arts and in the rest of the core curriculum. The school reviews its student achievement data, information on student arts performance, and other indicators, and sets clear, realistic objectives for annual change.
- RELATIONSHIP WITH COMMUNITYARTS ORGANIZATION
The school develops a strong relationship with a liaison of a stable community arts organization having knowledge and authority to commit organization’s resources – ideas, expertise, and funds to the school’s efforts. The org. has access to cultural resources -- artists, materials and experiences, which reflect the school’s cultural profile. (Community arts organizations partnering with replication schools in the proposed Arts Model project are: East Side Arts Council, ArtStart, Center for Hmong Arts and Culture, and Arts-US, which works in many African American communities.)
- BUILD INFRA-STRUCTURE
A school arts committee includes broad representation and “champions of arts change” who are often arts-interested or expert teachers and family members, able to mediate in the school culture, communicate well, and learn how to manage leadership transition to maintain continuity. An Arts ABLE in-school liaison is designated.
- ARTS EDUCATOR CONSULTATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Involvement in the program of at least one on-staff arts educator gives credibility and quality to the project, assuring that programming includes a focus on arts standards. The arts educator serves on the arts committee. The arts educator imparts expertise to classroom generalists. In Arts ABLE schools, the content of arts classes relates to other classroom’s content, and vise versa. The arts educator observes classes, meets at grade level with teachers, participates in curriculum mapping, and learns subject topics and timing in other classrooms. (If the school does not currently employ a specialist, the school commits to analyzing need for and purpose of such a staff member, and the feasibility of including a specialist in its “school improvement plan.”)
- EFFECTIVE STAFF DEVELOPMENT IN THE ARTS
Much of the staff development in Arts ABLE takes place on-the-job or job-embedded, that is, in the classrooms between teachers and artists, arts educators or other experts. All Arts ABLE educators need to become more familiar with arts standards, and arts infused concepts and language, and how to look at student work for evidence of learning through large-group staff development, and on-site follow-up with mentors and coaches. (Staff from Perpich Center for Arts Education’s Professional Development Institute will support this area of implementation in the replication effort.)
- CURRICULUM MAPPING
Through curriculum mapping or similar planning process involving the community arts organization liaison working with educators and artists in teams, the school analyzes its curriculum in terms of where arts can be infused to enhance the curriculum and make it more complete and engaging. Curriculum goals are set, and classrooms / grade levels identified where arts-fused curriculum inserts will be initiated and annually expanded.
- CUSTOMIZED “ARTS CURRICULUM INSERTS”
Arts ABLE teachers and community arts allies analyze existing school data, as well school reform efforts, and create a series of learning experiences in the arts that relate to instructional content and practice to blend new with existing activity. The community arts organization liaison identifies and introduces to the teachers arts-expert people (artists, arts educators, parent/ community artisans) who can meet the requirements. Teachers and artists/arts experts plan, implement and evaluate classroom activity that includes the arts in identified places in the curriculum.) They meet periodically in “critical friends” groups to reflect on and critique work.
- TALENT FROM FAMILIES
As one of its unique strategies, Arts ABLE schools identify and incorporate interest and skills of parents, guardians, and relatives of students who are artists and folk artisans from a range of backgrounds and cultures. Involvement of these “invested volunteers” enriches curriculum, validates culture, and forges deeper alliances between school and home life. Schools are mentored by veteran schools in offering “Arts & Family Culture Nights” and in recruiting family members as arts resources.
- ASSESSMENT OF PROGRAM PERFORMANCE, ARTS EXPANSION IN THE SCHOOL & STUDENT LEARNING
Assessment involves ongoing teacher and artist assessment of student achievement of arts standards and non-arts area standards as part of the teaching and learning cycle. An external evaluator will examine changes in student performance on nationally-normed, standardized tests. (An evaluation design provides more information.)
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