National Initiatives
TRANSFORMING EDUCATION THROUGH THE ARTS CHALLENGE
Six regional arts education institutes in California, Florida, Ohio, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Texas formed the National Arts Education Consortium in 1996. The Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge (TETAC) was funded by a $4.3 million grant from the Annenberg Trust, matched by the Getty Education Institute for the Arts. Thirty-five partner schools in eight states were engaged in a five-year project to place arts education at the core of the curriculum and assess resulting student achievement.
The Southeast Center worked with administrators, teachers, artists, parents, and business partners from six regional schools:
Browns Mill Elementary School and Magnet for High Achievers, Lithonia, GA
Lusher Alternative Elementary School, New Orleans
Mandeville Middle School, Mandeville, LA
Mary Lin Elementary School, Atlanta, GA
Wallace A. Smith Elementary School, Ooltewah, TN
West Side Magnet School, LaGrange, GA
Consortium members explored, assessed, and documented ways in which intensive professional development, comprehensive arts education, and systemic school reform could transform schools and their extended communities. The project ended in June 2001. You can download a copy of the Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge Report, which contains an executive summary, the complete report, lessons learned, and curriculum guidelines.
MODEL STANDARDS FOR TEACHER LICENSING
SCEA director Kim Wheetley served for three years on an arts committee for the Council of Chief State School Officers. The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) developed model standards for teacher licensing in the arts.
INTASC’s Model Standards for Licensing Classroom Teachers and Specialist in the Arts: A Resource for State Dialogue (2002) outline for the first time what all classroom teachers, as well as arts specialists, should know and be able to do across the four arts disciplines of dance, music, theatre and visual arts. They specifically address and describe the nature of the collaborative relationship between classroom teachers and arts specialists as they work together to teach students the arts.
You can download a copy of the Model Standards for Licensing Classroom Teachers and Specialists in the Arts.
