2010 News Archives
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Alameda County Launches Art Integration Specialist Program
Hayward, California
12/2010 Griffin Senior Associate Susan McGreevy-Nichols assisted the Alameda County Office of Education in the development and implementation of the Arts Integration Specialist Program (AISP). The first of its kind in the United States, The AISP provides K-12 teachers and teaching artists in public schools with a special designation acknowledging the acquisition of the insight, understanding, and skills needed to offer engaging and effective art and arts-integrated lessons to students. For more information on the AISP visit http://www.artiseducation.org.
Arizona Focuses on Language and Literacy Development for Children Who are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH)
Phoenix, Arizona
07/2010 Statewide Programs for the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf sponsored a conference for teachers and paraprofessionals on July 28th. Kim Atwill, Senior Director at Griffin Center presented the keynote address entitled “What is reading? A review of current preK-12 research on hearing, hearing impaired, deaf, and English Language Learners learning to read English.” Dr. Atwill followed the keynote with three application-based workshops for preschool teachers.
Dr. Atwill also assists educators who work with preschoolers who are DHH in their implementation of the nationally acclaimed Tools of the Mind curriculum. She will guide Arizona preschool staff during the 2010-2011 school year in their use of dynamic assessment, to determine scaffolds and accommodations that enable these children to access the curriculum.
US DOE Arts Education Grant Awarded to Griffin Center Collaborator
Washington, DC
07/2010 The US Department of Education has announced that Dramatic Results, a Long Beach, California based non-profit, was awarded a 4-year Arts Education Model Demonstration Grant to develop an integrated curriculum and then study the impact on student academic and social behavior. The Write On Arts program will introduce seven critical elements to ensuring instructional success through arts integration. Griffin Center researchers, Kim Atwill and Lynn Waldorf partnered with Dramatic Results in the development and writing of the grant application and will provide program evaluation support throughout the grant implementation period.
Arts for All Announces New Training Program for Arts Education Strategists
Los Angeles, California
06/2010 Susan McGreevy-Nichols of Griffin Center is one of 30 individuals invited to participate in the Los Angeles County Arts for All Blended Coaching Program. This new professional development opportunity prepares master education and arts education practitioners to provide customized planning support to Arts for All school districts through one-on-one coaching services. The three-day training provides participants with coaching skills in the New Teacher Center’s Blended Coaching model – a nationally recognized program with a proven track record of improving the strategic capacity of instructional leaders in school districts across the country.
Higher Education Think Tank Aims to Improve Teacher Training in the Arts
Los Angeles, California
05/2010 Griffin Center’s Susan McGreevy was invited to participated in the Arts for All Higher Education Think Tank on May 7, 2010, with twenty other regional academic leaders and educational specialists. The convening launched a multiyear initiative to improve arts education coursework in teacher preparation programs. A report of the convening is available online at http://pd.laartsed.org/uploads/highereducationthinktankreport.pdf.
New Research: The Benefits of Strategic Planning for Arts Education Programs
Denver, Colorado
05/2010 Dr. Lynn Waldorf, Griffin Center, presented findings from her work as project evaluator for the Arts for All initiative in Los Angeles County at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association (AERA). The 2008-2009 study explored the initiative’s strategic planning program that provides coaching to districts interested in adopting an arts education policy and long range plans for cultivating high quality arts programs that are accessible to all students. The project is sponsored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and over 100 arts agencies and funders, and supervised by staff at the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Case studies of 11 diverse school districts are available through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission at http://lacountyarts.org/artsed/casestudies.html.
Comprehensive School Arts Survey Achieves 94% Response Rate
Los Angeles, California
03/2010. Griffin Center researchers Lynn Waldorf and Kim Atwill recently developed and launched an extensive K-12 arts education survey in 95 schools across five Los Angles County School Districts, including Burbank USD, Culver City USD, Montebello USD, Paramount USD, and Santa Monica Malibu USD. A total of 89 schools responded in a first-ever effort to obtain a multi-dimensional perspective on the quality of instruction in arts education and the equity of access across schools. Over 1000 data points were included in the survey. Results are anticipated to be made public next year. The Los Angeles County Arts Commission sponsored the study with funding from the Wallace Foundation.
16 Indicators of Quality School Arts Programs Are Introduced in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
01/2010 Harvard Project Zero researcher Steve Seidel and Griffin Center’s Lynn Waldorf presented new research findings to a large gathering at the Los Angeles High School for the Visual and Performing Arts on January 14th. Dr. Seidel led the audience through an interactive discussion about instructional quality in arts education, while Dr. Waldorf introduced 16 indicators of quality, access and equity that will be used to measure the comprehensiveness of arts programming in Los Angeles County schools. For more information see http://lacountyarts.org/UserFiles/File/artsed/Resources/School_Level_Indicators.pdf
Teachers Learn How Picturing America Can Build Language Skills
Bull Head City, Arizona
01/2010 Every U.S. Head Start program received the “Picturing America” curriculum in the fall of 2009 through a donation from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This included 40 high-quality, color reproductions of American artwork spanning the centuries and from artists across the world. In January 2010, Griffin Center staff taught Head Start teachers from Arizona strategies to integrate the arts into everyday instruction to address the Head Start Outcomes.
Griffin Center’s Kim Atwill presented multiple workshops to review trends and issues in preschool creative arts, review the "Picturing America" preschool art curriculum, and share how the creative arts can facilitate learning in all domains. Dr. Atwill’s presentations included demonstrations of ways to incorporate the creative arts in general, and the "Picturing America" curricular materials in particular, to facilitate language and literacy skills with preschoolers.
