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Southeast Center for Education in the Arts

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Mt. Pleasant Middle School of the Visual and Performing Arts
Mt. Pleasant School

Mt. Pleasant Middle School of the Visual and Performing Arts is located in Mt. Pleasant, TN. Its mission to create a change in the children in Maury county through the integration of the arts into the curriculum. The Kids On Stage Foundation of Maury County has been a collaborative and supportive partner since the school opened in 2001.

The Southeast Center for Education in the Arts created a Professional Development Program in Arts Integration in response to research that has shown that effective professional development must be ongoing, experiential, and engaging; contain focused and relevant content; and become job embedded to effectively impact teacher change (Guskey 2000). The basic program included summer workshops and four onsite mentoring visits throughout the academic year.

SCEA staff acted as mentors and facilitators for learning communities of teachers who explored learning in, about, and through the arts. Teachers examined arts integration pedagogy, investigated instructional and assessment practices across grade levels and subject areas, and devised site-based curriculum aligned with state and national educational standards.

The program recognized that teachers bring varying levels of expertise to the table and invited them to work with their SCEA mentor in an individualized way. However, the collaboration between teacher and SCEA mentor branched out into the entire school. As teachers worked through the program, SCEA mentors facilitated many opportunities for teachers to partner and co-teach with their colleagues. As a result, teachers became more effective collaborators with their surrounding community.

A vital piece of this program was establishing an onsite Arts Leadership Team that consisted of arts and non-arts teachers and school administrators. The Arts Leadership Team provided a forum in which all educators had a voice in the management and execution of the arts integration initiative. Maintaining ownership among stakeholders was critical for the program’s long-term success.


Mt. Pleasant Teachers

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In the summer of 2010, SCEA began a two-year Professional Development Program in Arts Integration at Mt. Pleasant Middle School of the Visual & Performing Arts.