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ArtsConnection routinely revises its professional development methodologies through ongoing research and evaluation. Since 2005, ArtsConnection has partnered with the New York City Department of Education on two major professional development research initiatives supported by the United States Department of Education’s Arts in Education Professional Development for Arts Educators Program Art of Teaching: Promoting the Professional Growth of Arts Specialists (2005-2008) & Artful Learning Communities: Assessing Learning in the Arts (2008-2011).
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Artful Learning Communities: Assessing Learning in the Arts (2008-2011)
Building on networks developed through Art of Teaching, Artful Learning Communities: Assessing Learning in the Arts (ALC) targets 96 arts specialists and their 48,000 students at high poverty schools in South Brooklyn (New York City Department of Education Community District 20). ALC is designed to address a critical need for in-depth training of New York City teachers in both formative and summative assessment practices aligned to challenging standards. ALC will strengthen the teaching skills and capacity of the participating arts specialists to:
- Assess standards-based learning in the arts
- Monitor and improve student achievement
- Disseminate strategies and tools both locally and nationally
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The project will empower arts specialists to define, systematize and communicate to school leadership how their assessment practice leads to increased student achievement in the arts emphasizing that the arts are essential to the education of literate children. The kind of assessment practices that this project will instill in teachers is: standards-based; integrated into the learning process; accessible to students as feedback, and to teachers as a gauge for effective instruction. By using New York City schools as a laboratory, and by building replication strategies directly into the program design, ALC will build local capacity to improve teaching and learning and can serve as an important model for nationwide use.
Art of Teaching: Promoting the Professional Growth of Arts Specialists (2005-2008)
From 2006-2009, ArtsConnection worked with 400 arts specialists in 128 schools serving 137,700 students in New York City Department of Education’s Region 7 the entire borough of Staten Island and parts of Southern Brooklyn. The project sought to:
- Create a system of learning and support that built capacity for all arts specialists to provide comprehensive, sequential, standards-based instruction in visual arts, music, theater and dance
- Develop a cadre of 44 master arts specialists to form a “critical mass” of instructional leadership in the arts for the region
- Support the professional growth of new teachers and non-certified specialists
- Provide opportunities for veteran arts specialists to expand and deepen their teaching practice
- Design and implement a model for professional development in arts education that could be disseminated both citywide and nationally
Art of Teaching succeeded in creating a model for professional development and collaboration in the arts.
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PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS