- http://www.neiu.edu/~middle/Modules/science%20mods/amazon%20components/AmazonComponents3.html
- http://www.aep-arts.org/
- http://www.artsedsearch.org/
- http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
- http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_2013/#/achievement-gaps
I focused tremendously on the theory behind arts education, because it is very important to me to understand the movement toward arts integration from a historical standpoint. I asked the question, why now? How did we get to a situation of such poor reputation of educational achievement in the first place? What indicators are leading the creation of Arts Integration? If Arts Integration is an attempt to solve problems indicated by national assessments, then it is important to know what these issues are.
The NEIU website had some lesson plan suggestions, and also led me to the other sites. AEParts is not really arts integration, although it does have a section for Arts and the Common Core. It also led me to the artsedsearch.org website. This website had many studies on there about various advantages that arts bring to the schools. AEParts also lead me to research what the NAEP test is and how it works. Interesting stuff, and it had sample questions. Now, I can use them to prepare students for the kind of tests that are rating our schools.
The NAEP results reflect well what CCSD struggles with as a whole. However, one concern that I noticed was that while across the board the math test scores were getting better, the gaps were only getting slightly smaller. Why is still a mystery to me, but hopefully over time the underlying causes of these issues will become apparent. One the strengths of Arts Integration is that it does seek to solve these issues by creating meaning in a common core subject for a student by integrating art with it.
Bill, I like how you focus on the theory behind arts integration. Even though all us here agree that arts integration is a good thing, you go the extra mile in considering its purpose.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the achievement gap, although I'm no expert, from what I've found it seems to me that the easiest way to close the achievement gap is to institute practices that help Hispanics and African Americans achieve at a faster rate than whites. From what I understand from what I've read and from my own experience, the achievement gap is largely present when students enter school, and it caused by social issues rather than the school. Tell me what you think of "Rethinking the Achievement Gap" on the following web-site: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/node/269.
I have not done any research on the recent history of Arts Integration, but as part of the work of the Via sual Arts TAsk Force that wwrote the Enduring Ideas Curriculum, we read about a nationn-wide research project that involved classroom teachers and arts teachers. I think it was called the TETAC Project. I forgot what the letters stood for. Anyway, in schools from diverse communities and in different parts of the country, the researchers found that when students studied a common theme in various classes or in multiple subjects they learned more and remembered it better. This was not exactly Arts Integration as we are trying to do it here and now. But it started the Enduring Ideas movement. In some schools teachers did collaborative lessons or units, each teaching their own subject, but all or both using the same theme or Enduring Idea. Students saw how the idea carried through different subjects, the way life really is, rather than having everything isolated. In other settings, especially in the elementary schools, each teacher taught the theme using several subjects, more like what we are doing. I think the TETAC project was done in the early 2000s, maybe 2003 - 2005??? Fairly recently anyway. I suspect that Arts Integration has been around a long time, just not well publicized.How much would we know about it now if not for the Kennedy Center's outreach programs?
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