2018 AEP Annual Convening Concurrent Sessions

Learning From Two National Endowment for the Arts Research Labs
Priority Area: Raise Student Achievement and Success
PowerPoint Presentation

Two NEA Research Labs will present on how they partner with practitioners across art forms and how the arts affect student development and success. Presenters will discuss successful models of partnerships and how data collected and created can be used to further arts engagement and cognitive, social and emotional skills in children. The first part of the session will highlight a partnership with a large, multi-arts organization that has shown, causally, the positive effects of engaging in arts-focused field trips. The second part of the session will explore multiple school partnerships to investigate how theatre specifically relates to fundamental social-emotional skills in development.

Presenters: Thalia R. Goldstein, Assistant Professor, Applied Developmental Psychology, George Mason University; Jay P. Greene, Distinguished Professor, Education Policy, University of Arkansas; Patricia Moore Shaffer, Deputy Director, Research and Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts

Media Arts: Transforming Learning Environments for Student Success
Priority Area: Support Effective Educators and School Leaders
PowerPoint Presentation

This session will highlight several media arts programs and view examples of student work that demonstrate the power of student inquiry, leadership and partnership to transform the learning environment. As this new field takes steps to build common understanding of the student-centered, creative practices of media arts, participants will have the opportunity to engage in a practical and inspirational discussion about the programs and student work examples. This session will also discuss participants needs for professional development or other supports, as work to build the capacity of the educators designing media arts programs continues.

Presenters: Jamie Kasper, Associate Director, Arts Education Collaborative; Dain Olsen, Teacher, Belmont High School, Los Angeles Unified School District; Pam Paulson, Director, Professional Development and Resources, Perpich Center for Arts Education

Indiana’s State Arts Agency’s Investment in Arts Integration Research
Priority Area: Build Leadership Capacity and Knowledge
PowerPoint Presentation

The Indiana Arts Commission is in the process of completing a statewide, multi-year research program focused on the impact of arts integration on elementary students. This session will unpack how the IAC moved from a traditional arts education funding approach to an arts integration approach and why research was at the core of that decision. This session will also explain the six assessment tools developed specifically for the Partnering Arts, Communities and Education program — a multi-site, multi-discipline arts integration residency program — and the success and challenges of those tools.

Presenters: Stephanie Haines, Arts Education and Accessibility Manager, Indiana Arts Commission; Lewis C. Ricci, Executive Director, Indiana Arts Commission

Student Voices: Changing School Culture by Listening to Our Learners
Priority Area: Transform the Teaching and Learning Environment
PowerPoint Presentation

Student evaluations of their arts integration projects revealed urgent social issues and 21st century dispositions that changed the structure of teaching and learning in the Creative Classroom Collaborations (C3) Squared AEMDD project. As the impact of student voices on national school reform conversations increases, presenters will examine how arts engagement practices, peer-to-peer planning and partnerships with community cultural partners support new movements for student-focused schools.

Presenters: Loretta Corbisiero, Administrative Coordinator and Project Director, Eastern Suffolk BOCES; Laura Reeder, Associate Professor, Massachusetts College of Art and Design; Curriculum Coordinator, Creative Classroom Collaboratives

Navigating Into the Perfect Storm: Stories of Growth, Leadership and Innovation in Arts Education
Priority Area: Raise Student Achievement and Success
PowerPoint Presentation

In 2008, the Tuscaloosa City Schools endured major setbacks to arts in education programming because of the national financial crisis. Ten years later, the system now offers comprehensive arts programming, inclusive of dance and theatre arts in sixth through 12th grade. After years of groundswell advocacy and the readiness to seize opportunities, the school system and community leadership are all in for arts education. Tuscaloosa City Schools’ perfect storm of advocacy, community support and regional leadership created the opportunity to go boldly into the next decade with the arts leading the way to student success.

Presenters: Jeff Schultz, System Coordinator, Arts in Education, Tuscaloosa City Schools; Sandra Wolfe, Executive Director, Arts and Humanities Council of Tuscaloosa

How a National Residency Teaching Artist Credential Can Move the Field Forward: Lessons Learned From Young Audiences’ Pilot Case Study
Priority Area: Support Effective Educators and School Leaders

In 2016, Young Audiences Arts for Learning and its affiliates began exploring the need for and feasibility of launching a national residency teaching artist credential. To do this, it surveyed more than 200 teaching artists in the YA network and interviewed 19 stakeholders from federal and state arts and education agencies, arts education nonprofits, foundations and universities across the country. Informed by this input, YA formed a project working group to design and pilot a residency teaching artist credential within the YA network. In this session, YA project leaders outline lessons learned and next steps for the project within the YA network and beyond.

Presenters: Malke Rosenfeld, Teaching Artist, Arts for Learning Indiana; JoEllen Florio Rossebo, President and CEO, Arts for Learning Indiana; Calle Tinkham, Director, Artists Programs, Arts for Learning Indiana

Developing a Shared Language of Accountability in Arts Education
Priority Area: Transform the Teaching and Learning Environment

Equity in arts education requires not only access to arts education opportunities, but access to high-quality arts education opportunities. This session focuses on the contributions of community-based arts organizations to arts education ecosystems. In particular, the session will explore new ways of thinking about accountability that encourage and provide resources to help these arts organizations increase the impact of their contributions. Following a discussion of one model that aims to achieve this in Chicago, participants will be encouraged to reflect and consider approaches that best fit in their communities.

Presenters: JC Aevaliotis, Program Officer, Polk Bros. Foundation; Tom Bunting, Manager, Data Strategy and Products, Ingenuity; Nicole Upton, Director, Partnerships and Professional Learning, Ingenuity

Inclusive Arts for Educational Impact
Priority Area: Build Leadership Capacity and Knowledge
PowerPoint Presentation

Folk Arts in Education builds student knowledge and skills through traditional and meaningful community art practices. This session will equip education leaders with tools and resources to better serve their diverse student populations. Embracing the promise of culturally responsive education, this session will examine how applying folk arts education across content areas can transform educational equity efforts. Presenters include a principal who will share school-based examples of this work in action and a director of a national arts-service organization that publishes folk arts in education theory, resources and research.

Presenters: Pheng Lim, Principal, Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School; Lisa Rathje, Executive Director, Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education

Student and Teacher Voice: Using MAEIA Resources for Student Achievement, Equity of Access and Educator Effectiveness
Priority Area: Raise Student Achievement and Success
PowerPoint Presentation

In this session, the Michigan Arts Education Instruction and Assessment — a cross-sector partnership — and the Lansing Art Gallery and Education Center will lead a conversation on equity of arts access, arts assessment and student voice. Presenters will also introduce participants to MAEIA’s free online arts education instruction and assessment resources, including a searchable catalog of 360 arts education performance assessments in dance, music, theatre and the visual arts for teachers, administrators and out-of-school partners. Join this conversation on how to support teacher and student choice and voice in arts assessment.

Presenters: Ana Luisa Cardona, Arts Education Consultant, Michigan Arts Education Instruction and Assessment Project; Barb Whitney, Executive Director, Lansing Art Gallery and Education Center

Building a Creative and Effective Schoolwide Arts Education Partnership With Limited Financial Resources
Priority Area: Transform the Teaching and Learning Environment

When Valencia Academy of the Arts contacted The Music Center, it sought an arts partner to create an arts-integrated school, but had no funds and The Music Center had limited capacity. Nevertheless, a thriving arts partnership developed. For three years, this partnership has provided arts instruction for students and training for all teachers. This session explores key takeaways from this ongoing work, and details important choices and strategies that took the desire to provide arts education for all students and made it reality.

Presenters: Tarcio Vinicio Lara, Principal, Valencia Academy of the Arts; Keith Wyffels, Associate Vice President, Education, The Music Center

An Arts Assessment Model for 21st Century Skills Development
Priority Area: Raise Student Achievement and Success
PowerPoint Presentation

Commonwealth Theatre Center, a Jefferson County Public Schools (Ky.) arts partner, developed an arts assessment system based on 21st century skills development that can inform any content area or project/performance-based activity that seeks to assess those same skills. Using this system, CTC has collected five years of data on its conservatory program students, ages 5-18. This session will explore how this assessment system has provided CTC with a wealth of qualitative data detailing student success, as well as coveted quantitative data, allowing CTC to track student growth over time and demonstrate the benefits of sustained involvement in the arts.

Presenters: Julane Havens, Associate Artistic Director, Commonwealth Theatre Center Alison Huff, Managing Director, Commonwealth Theatre Center

Who Gets Arts Education and Where? Availability and Access to Arts Education in the Nation’s High Schools
Priority Area: Build Leadership Capacity and Knowledge

This National Endowment for the Arts-funded research study focused on understanding the contextual factors associated with the comprehensiveness of a high school’s arts education offerings. Using nationally representative data from the restricted-use data set of the High School Longitudinal Study, researchers sought to go beyond top-line numbers of arts access to understand common characteristics of schools that did and did not offer instruction in each of four arts disciplines: visual art, dance, drama and music.

Presenter: Kenneth Elpus, Associate Professor, Music Education, University of Maryland – College Park

Arts Education Initiatives in Urban Settings: Research and Practice
Priority Area: Raise Student Achievement and Success

Efforts to strengthen arts education in historically-underserved urban settings have involved forming broad coalitions. This session will share lessons and research from three such initiatives. Rousmaniere will provide implementation lessons from a mature initiative that has reached scale in Boston. Sehlhorst will discuss joint work with Lara Davis, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, about a mixed-method evaluation of access to arts education’s impact on teacher practice and student learning. Bowen will present joint work with Brian Kisida, University of Missouri, from an NEA-funded experimental evaluation of Houston’s district-wide arts initiative.

Presenters: Daniel H. Bowen, Assistant Professor, Educational Administration and Human Resource Development, Texas A&M University; Marinell Rousmaniere, Acting CEO, EdVestors; Gail Sehlhorst, Visual and Performing Arts Manager, Seattle Public Schools

What We Learned: A Process for Examining Documentation of Student Work
Priority Area: Support Effective Educators and School Leaders
PowerPoint Presentation

For two years, the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts program has embarked on a process of gathering teacher-created documentation of student work in arts integration. In this session, attendees will learn about the support teachers received to create the documentation, and examine the development and validation of the scoring rubric. Discover how the process of reviewing the documentation provides insight into teacher application of arts integration, as well as illuminating adaptations and strategies used for diverse learners. This session will also explore the process used for scoring the documentation and examine a comparison of the scores.

Presenters: Amy Duma, Director, Teacher and School Programs, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; Don Glass, Research Manager, Education Division, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

A Model for Student and Undergraduate Success: Creating Art in an Inclusive, Contemporary Craft Studio
Priority Area: Transform the Teaching and Learning Environment
PowerPoint Presentation

Join us to learn about an innovative partnership between ArtMix (formerly VSA Indiana) and Butler University that transforms the learning environment by utilizing an inclusive, contemporary craft studio. The studio, where students with disabilities and undergraduates create together, provides a setting for artistic, vocational, and social knowledge and skill development for all. University faculty and ArtMix teaching artists co-teach the program, which examines real and perceived disability, particularly as it relates to art, art-making and creativity. Participants will leave with an understanding of the rationale, planning and implementation of this program.

Presenters: Arthur Hochman, Professor, College of Education, Butler University; Linda Wisler, Vice President, Programs, ArtMix Inc.

The NAEA School for Art Leaders at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art: A National Model for Building the Capacities and Knowledge of Leaders in Arts Education
Priority Area: Build Leadership Capacity and Knowledge
PowerPoint Presentation

The National Art Education Association’s School for Art Leaders (SAL) at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a blended learning leadership development program. It provides professional learning experiences and training that contribute to the development of leaders in arts education at all instructional levels and in educational settings. This session introduces various leadership models, skills and activities SAL participants learn and use to expand their leadership knowledge and capacities. It will also briefly highlight preliminary findings from an ongoing longitudinal study of the SAL program and its graduates. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in leadership activities and discuss their leadership stories.

Presenters: Dennis Inhulsen, Chief Learning Officer, National Art Education Association; Robert Sabol, Professor, Visual and Performing Arts, Purdue University

Visit a Virtual Museum
Priority Area: Transform the Teaching and Learning Environment

VR’t Ventures’ mission is to archive museum exhibitions and make them accessible across the world through the use of mobile and virtual reality technology. VR’t Ventures uses a process called volumetric photogrammetry with laser scanning, which captures a space with an accuracy of less than 1 millimeter. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience a virtual reality visit to a museum — soon available for classrooms across the country — and see how future viewers will be able to visit the past in virtual reality.

Presenter: Linus Adolfsson, Co-Founder, VR’t Ventures

Learning from Two National Endowment for the Arts Research Labs
Priority Area: Raise Student Achievement and Success
PowerPoint Presentation

Two NEA Research Labs will present on how they partner with practitioners across art disciplines and how the arts affect student development and success. Presenters will discuss successful models of partnerships and how data collected and created can be used to further arts engagement and cognitive, social and emotional skills in children. The first part of the session will highlight a partnership with a large, multi-arts organization that has shown, causally, the positive effects of engaging in arts-focused field trips. The second part of the session will explore multiple school partnerships to investigate how theatre specifically relates to fundamental social-emotional skills in development.

Presenters: Thalia R. Goldstein, Assistant Professor, Applied Developmental Psychology, George Mason University; Jay P. Greene, Distinguished Professor, Education Policy, University of Arkansas; Patricia Moore Shaffer, Deputy Director, Research and Analysis, National Endowment for the Arts

Pursing Educational Dreams: The Mid-North Promise Program
Priority Area: Raise Student Achievement and Success

Launched by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and its partners, the Mid-North Promise Program (MNPP) is an Indianapolis neighborhood-based education and career initiative. Promise programs across the country typically provide local, place-based college support for graduating high school students from a specific school district, city or town. MNPP serves as a new national model, as it will be the first promise program focused on a neighborhood anchored by a cultural institution and the first to take a family approach by providing support for both children and adults from cradle-to-career — including college enrollment and workforce certifications. Having just completed its third year, MNPP will share insights and lessons learned through this collaborative initiative during this informative session.

Presenters: Tremayne Horne, Manager, Mid-North Promise Program, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis; LaTasha Sturdivant, Director, Community Initiatives, Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

Measuring the Arts: Strengthening States’ Infrastructure for Tracking and Improving the Condition of Arts Education
Priority Area: Build Leadership Capacity and Knowledge

Research demonstrates the benefits of arts education, yet few states report actionable information on measures of access and quality in arts education — such as who has access to K-12 arts classes, who takes them or who teaches them. This information plays a critical role in identifying and addressing gaps. Session participants will discuss how states can mine data systems to publish state-, district- and school-level information on essential arts measures. After reviewing a new report on state arts education data from the National Endowment for the Arts and Education Commission of the States, participants will explore strategies for improving arts data collection and reporting in their states.

Presenter: Claus E. von Zastrow, Principal, Education Commission of the States