Arts Impacting Achievement

Logic Model for Arts Impacting Achievement

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INTRODUCTION

Arts Impacting Achievement (AIA) is a demonstration initiative of Beacon Street Gallery, Arts at the Center/Chicago Teachers´Center of Northeastern Illinois University and its´partners. The initiative involved three (3) elementary schools in Chicago and three (3) elementary schools in Elgin. The initiative was based on over 10 years of professional development and whole school change through arts integration. The goal of AIA was to document and assess the model for professional development in arts integrated practice.

FRAMEWORK

The AIA model is designed to address teacher change and practice with the goal of ultimately enhancing student learning. It was developed as an inquiry question : How can arts integration and teacher artist collaboration help improve instruction in a climate of failing schools in Chicago? Through its history, in the Lakeview Education and Arts Partnership (LEAP), a combination of processes, procedures, and structures have emerged to ensure rigor, flexibility, sustainability and replication.

A logic model was developed to describe the philosophy, framework, and anticipated outcomes associated with the Arts Impacting Achievement initiative (AIA). The AIA logic model describes the following: the conditions and context in which the AIA model is being implemented;the critical components or activities associated with the AIA implementation;the short-term and intermediate outcomes of enhanced teachers and elaborated learning environments;and the long-term outcomes of students´increased skills and abilities to demonstrate enhanced creating, performing, and responding to the arts and in the core curricular disciplines.

CONDITIONS

The AIA framework recognizes the conditions and context for three primary audiences: students;teachers;and, artists.

Achievement for students is often framed by the opportunities that are made available to them. Often students are not exposed to nor engaged in opportunities that support their development and growth. These opportunities include opportunities to effectively learn, opportunities to excel, opportunities for engagement and attachment and opportunities to demonstrate knowledge, create, respond, and perform. Most teachers entered the field because they want to teach. However, demands for accountability from multiple directions, lack of basic resources, and feelings of isolation make teaching a challenge. All too often teachers lack strategies for including all learners, they are often in need of supportive strategies for accurate assessment of student understanding and achievement, and at a most basic level are overwhelmed and overextended.

Art has been demonstrated to have transformative effects on learning and the learner, however, the bridge between art and the general classroom are often nonexistent. Many artists are not aware nor possess the guidance to effectively integrate their art form into the general classroom experience. At a fundamental level, many artists have a limited understanding of the connection between arts learning and the fulfillment of overall learning standards.

CRITICAL AIA COMPONENTS AND ACTIVITIES

The primary components of the AIA model are arts immersion, teacher/artist planning, implementation of arts integration into classroom instruction/units, and critical reflection by teachers and artists. Professional development on arts integration, collaboration, unit development, assessment and reflection is situated within best practice approaches to instruction in both literacy and art;and this professional development is on-going both in large groups and within the classroom context.

OUTCOMES

The anticipated outcomes of AIA are first recognized in enhanced classroom practice and learning/teaching experiences. Through their participation, teachers will: increase their understanding of arts integration;build expertise in using strategies that engage students;increase their knowledge of arts standards and processes;Increase their use of reflective practice;and, Increase their use of school and community resources. As a result of their applied professional development, teachers will be able to facilitate students learning through opportunities that promote engagement and motivation;critical thinking and other higher order thinking skills;and discipline.