Arts ABLE
Art Allies in Basic Learning & Excellence

Saint Paul Public Schools received a United States Department of  Education Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant in 2003.  Our grant is called Arts Allies in Basic Learning and Excellence, or Arts ABLE.

Phalen Lake Elementary School and J.J. Hill Montessori Magnet Elementary School serve as model “veteran” school sites with a seven year history of partnership with their arts organizations. Then five additional schools, Frost Lake Magnet School of Technology and Global Studies, Galtier Magnet Elementary School, Hancock – Hamline University Magnet School, Highwood Hills Elementary School and John A. Johnson Achievement Plus Elementary School, “expand” the Arts ABLE objectives and ten strategic elements.

Arts Allies in Basic Learning and Excellence Grant Program

In the fall 2003, Saint Paul Public Schools has implemented a 3-year Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grant (AEMDD) in 2003 to demonstrate the effectiveness of Arts Allies in Basic Learning & Excellence program. Arts ABLE was conceived locally through two “veteran” elementary school sites that partnered with two community arts organizations over seven years. The District has obtained reliable, longitudinal data on Arts ABLE that reveal the effectiveness of the two “veteran” school programs in raising the bottom quartile of low-performing students on standardized tests in the participating elementary schools, and reducing the number of students “below average.” Arts ABLE allows Saint Paul Public Schools to expand the experience of the two veteran schools to five more “expansion site” elementary schools, whose results will be thoroughly evaluated by an external evaluator.

The three objectives of Arts Allies in Basic Learning & Excellence model project are to:

The 10 strategic elements of objective two are: vision-making, school-wide assessment, relationship with a community-arts organization, building infra-structure, arts educator and professional development plan, effective staff development, curriculum mapping, customized “arts curriculum inserts”, and assessments of standards-based performance.

In 2004, an Arts ABLE video was produced to document and disseminate the progress of meeting the objectives of grant. Year II documentation includes a Saint Paul Public Schools website for dissemination. In Year III a product which reflects school and arts organization model design, will be created and disseminated.

The Saint Paul Public Schools Arts ABLE evaluation design employs a quasi-experimental approach. Five implementation schools are compared against five replication schools in addition to a second comparison group representing two elementary schools with a well-established arts model. The design includes examining student scores on the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) and the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) achievement test. In addition to the quantitative analyses, the five replication schools are also in the process of implementing 10 elements associated with arts-enriched teaching and learning environments for students. The schools provide qualitative and quantitative data to determine the degree to which these elements have been implemented.