SCHOOL
REFORM, RESEARCH EXCHANGE, & "BEST PRACTICES" LINKS

The
Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) at Brown University
develops, shares, and acts on knowledge that improves the conditions
and outcomes of schooling in America, especially in urban communities
and in schools serving disadvantaged children.

  • In 1998, AISR co-hosted
    a meeting with the Chicago Learning Collaborative, called "Examining
    Student Work and School Change," out of which grew Looking
    at Student Work    , which is an association of individuals and
    educational organizations that focus on providing ideas and resources
    about a set of practices based on specific principles, including
    the belief that students’ work is serious and is key data about
    the life of the school.
  • The District
    Redesign     program includes School
    Communities that Work: A National Task Force on the Future of
    Urban Districts    , which will develop and promote innovative
    alternatives for supporting networks or communities of high-performing
    schools.
  • On June 18, 2001,
    AISR co-sponsored a conversation on small schools, race, and high
    school reform, which brought together researchers and practitioners
    with a broad range of interests and expertise to share personal
    and professional experiences. See the discussion summary, Small
    Schools, Race and High School Reform Meeting    .

Arts
Education Partnership is a national coalition of arts, education,
business, philanthropic and government organizations that demonstrates
and promotes the essential role of the arts in the learning and
development of every child and in the improvement of America’s schools.
The Partnership includes over 140 organizations that are national
in scope and impact. It also includes state and local partnerships
focused on influencing educational policies and practices to promote
quality arts education.

  • Third
    Space: When Learning Matters     (pub 2005) is the story of the
    profound changes in the lives of kids, teachers, and parents in
    10 economically disadvantaged communities across the country that
    place their bets on the arts as a way to create great schools.
    The Schools become caring communities where kids - many of whom
    face challenges of poverty, the need to learn English, and to
    surmount learning difficulties - thrive and succeed and where
    teachers find new joy and satisfaction in teaching.
  • Champions
    of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning     is a report
    based on compiled evidence of the enhanced learning and achievement
    that occurs when students are involved in a variety of arts experiences.
    This report is an excellent companion piece to Gaining the
    Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts That Value Arts
    Education (see below)    . Taken together, these reports provide
    arts education supporters with evidence of why the arts are critical
    to teaching and learning and how to build strong district-wide
    arts education. Both studies were developed by the Arts Education
    Partnership with the support of the GE
    Fund    , the John
    D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation    , and the President’s
    Committee on the Arts and Humanities    .
  • Critical
    Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development     is a compendium of arts education research studies that explores
    critical links between learning in the arts and other subject
    areas.

Arts
for Academic Achievement, a partnership of the Minneapolis
Public Schools and The
Perpich Center for Arts Education, is an example of another
public/private partnership that seeks to improve student achievement
in and through the arts.

Arts4AllPeople was launched by the Wallace
Foundation and a national advisory board of arts leaders and
funding partners dedicated to the quality, access, and health of
the arts for all people. The site is a resource for individuals
or groups committed to the arts and culture, who wish to share or
gain better insight into successful ways to build and enhance audience
participation. It was designed to facilitate the exchange of new
research, concrete ideas and "best practices" to promote
service to people as integral to the health of arts institutions
and to the life of their communities.

Different
Ways of Knowing (DWOK) is an adaptable, research-based, field-validated
school improvement partner for elementary, middle, and K-12 schools.
DWOK works with schools to identify what students are expected to
learn, the requirements of state and district accountability measures,
and on understanding current school improvement plans. A customized
approach is adopted for each school and district and involves working
with teachers, site administrators, and district officials.

Education
Development Center, Inc. (EDC) is an international, nonprofit
organization with 325 projects dedicated to enhancing learning,
promoting health, and fostering a deeper understanding of the world.
Its research encompasses child development, K-12 education, health
promotion, workforce preparation, community development, learning
technologies, basic and adult education, institutional reform, and
social justice. EDC is the parent organization of the Center
for Children and Technology (CCT).

Empire
State Partnership Project (ESP) unites the New
York State Council on the Arts and the State
Education Department in an effort to increase student achievement
through the New
York State Learning Standards by strengthening teaching and
learning in all disciplines, and integrating the use of arts and
cultural resources into educational practice across the curriculum.
ESP is also supported by The
Center for Arts Education, the New
York State Alliance for Arts Education and the New
York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

Gaining
the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts That Value Arts
Education is a report that responds to questions posed by
school and community leaders throughout the U.S. about public school
districts that have made literacy and competence in the arts one
of the fundamental purposes of schooling for all students, and is
the first national study to examine the implementation of arts education
throughout entire school districts. This report is an excellent
companion piece to Champions
of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning.

The
George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF) is a nonprofit foundation
that documents and disseminates models of innovative practices in
the nation’s K-12 schools.

London
Education Arts Partnership (LEAP) is a citywide model for sustained
arts education development that promotes a creative learning environment
through the arts. The partnership works with London boroughs, schools,
young people, artists and arts organizations, businesses, communities,
and universities.

National
Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary Federal
entity for collecting and analyzing data on education in the U.S.
and other nations. Search for publications through NCES’s Electronic
Catalog or use the Arts
Education subject index for publications about the arts. A PDF
of NCES’s report, Fathers’
and Mothers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools by Family Type
and Resident Status, is available.

National
Guild of Community Schools of the Arts is a service organization
for a diverse constituency of nonprofit, non-degree granting institutions
located in urban, inner-city, suburban, and rural communities throughout
the U.S.

  • Partners
    in Excellence     is a national initiative to identify and
    analyze best practices in exemplary K-12 arts education partnerships
    and foster their replication through dissemination and training.
    Two of these partnerships have been funded by The Center for Arts
    Education: Partnerships between the Lucy Moses School for Music
    and Dance with Manhattan School for Children and the New York
    City Opera with Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.

The
President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH), created
by a Presidential Executive Order in 1982, identifies issues and
develops initiatives in the arts and the humanities. PCAH bridges
the interests of federal agencies and the private sector, supports
special projects that increase participation, and helps to incorporate
the humanities and the arts into White House objectives.

Project
Zero, an educational research group at the Graduate
School of Education at Harvard
University, has investigated the development of learning processes
in children, adults, and organizations since 1967. Today, Project
Zero is building on this research to help create communities of
reflective, independent learners; to enhance deep understanding
within disciplines; and to promote critical and creative thinking.
Project Zero’s mission is to understand and enhance learning, thinking,
and creativity in the arts, as well as humanistic and scientific
disciplines, at the individual and institutional levels.

  • ARTS
    SURVIVE!     was a three year national study investigating why
    some arts education partnerships between schools and professional
    artists and/or cultural institutions survive and others do not.
    It worked to provide a greater understanding of what survival
    means to arts education partnerships, as well as determining what
    is essential to build and sustain them.

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