Arts Education Partnership - Arts Education Partnership - Working · 2019-09-05 · ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP/NOVEMBER 2006 11 FROM ANECDOTE TO EVIDENCE: ASSESSING THE STATUS AND

WorkingPartnerships

Report of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP)Task Force on Higher Education

February 2007

Professional Developmentof the Arts Teaching Workforce

ArtsEducationPartnershipOne MassachusettsAvenue, NWSuite 700Washington, DC 20001www.aep-arts.org

WORKING PARTNERSHIPS: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS TEACHING WORKFORCE ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP/FEBRUARY 2007

FROM ANECDOTE TO EVIDENCE: ASSESSING THE STATUS AND CONDITION OF ARTS EDUCATION AT THE STATE LEVELARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP/NOVEMBER 2006 11

Martha Barry McKenna(Chair)ProvostLesley University

Arnold AprillExecutive DirectorChicago Arts Partnerships inEducation

Rebecca BordenSr. Associate for ResearchArts Education Partnership

Gail BurnafordChair of Teacher EducationFlorida Atlantic University

D. Jack DavisSchool of Visual ArtsUniversity of North Texas

Gene DiazAssociate ProfessorLesley University

Sara Lee GibbsAssistant DeanBrigham Young University

Jean HendricksonExecutive DirectorOklahoma A+ Schools

Doug HerbertSpecial Assistant on TeacherQuality and Arts EducationU.S. Department of Education

Madeleine HolzerDirector of EducationalDevelopmentLincoln Center Institute for theArts in Education

Susan McCalmontExecutive DirectorKirkpatrick Foundation

David MyersCenter for EducationalPartnerships in MusicGeorgia State University –School of Music

Scott Noppe-BrandonExecutive DirectorLincoln Center Institute for theArts in Education

Kathy O’DellAssociate Dean of the College ofArts, Humanities & SocialSciencesUniversity of Maryland –Baltimore Campus

Dale SchmidVisual & Performing ArtsCoordinatorNew Jersey Department ofEducation

Larry ScrippDirector, Research Center forLearning through MusicNew England Conservatory ofMusic

Scott ShulerArts Education SpecialistConnecticut Department ofEducation

Margaret WilkersonDirector of Media, Arts &CultureKnowledge, Creativity &Freedom ProgramFord Foundation

Members of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP)Task Force on Higher Education(2006–2007)

1 WORKING PARTNERSHIPS: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS TEACHING WORKFORCEARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP/FEBRUARY 2007

Executive SummaryThe Arts Education Partnership (AEP) has longrecognized the essential role of the arts in thedevelopment of creativity and imagination in everychild. In Teaching Partnerships, the report on aNational Forum on Partnerships held at LincolnCenter in 2001, it was noted that a critical compo-nent of providing quality arts instruction in schoolsis a highly qualified arts teaching workforce.

Arts Education Partnership organizationsaffirm the central role of imagination, creativi-ty, and the arts in culture and society; the powerof the arts to enliven and transform educationand schools; and collective action through part-nerships as the means to place the arts at thecenter of learning. Arts Education Partnershiporganizations know that to achieve this mission– for the arts to become part of the core curricu-lum for every student in America – we mustaddress two fundamental challenges:

• We must convince education decision mak-ers that the arts are profound ways of know-ing and communicating about oneself andthe world that must be made available to allstudents as a matter of equity.

• We must ensure that those who teach the artshave the highest possible artistic skills andpedagogical abilities.1

While progress has been made in addressing thefirst challenge, as evidenced in the adoption ofstandards for arts education in 49 states, attain-ment of the second goal remains elusive.

To address this challenge, the Arts Education Part-nership created a Task Force on Higher Education

to identify and document promising practices forengaging higher education institutions in partner-ship with the schools and arts communities in thepre-service and in-service professional develop-ment of the arts teaching workforce. The arts teach-ing workforce is defined as classroom teachers, artsspecialists, teaching artists, higher education facul-ty and members of arts and cultural institutionswho provide arts instruction. The Task Force rec-ognizes that this broader definition of teachers ofthe arts in schools is necessary if the arts are to bepart of the everyday life of every child, and thathigher education must play a central role in prepar-ing this highly qualified arts teaching workforce.

The Higher Education Task Force has focused overthis past year on defining the essential ingredients ofsuccessful partnerships with higher education in theprofessional development of the arts teaching work-force. Since colleges and universities have the pri-mary responsibility for preparing teachers, artists,administrators and other cultural and creative par-ticipants who make up the arts teaching workforce, itis imperative that leaders in higher education takeresponsibility for the creation of partnerships withinthe university between education and arts and sci-ences faculty, and outside the university with thelarger arts and education community. Task Forcemembers also recognize the critical role of highereducation in developing arts education leadersamong the K-12 administrators and teachers, artistsin the community, and arts and cultural institutions.

The Task Force has pursued four linked initiativesin 2006:

ICREATION OF PROFILES OF SUCCESSFUL HIGHER EDUCATION

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS

Eleven professional development partnerships wereidentified that demonstrate promising practices forhigher education partnerships. (The Working Part-nerships: Professional Development of the Arts1 Teaching Partnerships, Arts Education Partnership, Washington, D.C., 2002, p.1.

Working Partnerships:Professional Development of the Arts Teaching WorkforceReport of the Arts Education Partnership Task Force on Higher Education

Teaching Workforce Addendum can be found onlineat the AEP website under “Resources for Partnerships”at: www.aep-arts.org/resources/partnership.htm.)

IIDEVELOPMENT OF FORUMS FOR LEADERS IN HIGHEREDUCATION AND ARTS EDUCATION TO DISCUSS THE

CRITICAL ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS

Task Force members led workshops and discus-sions at the national meetings of the AmericanAssociation of Colleges for Teacher Education inSan Diego, the Arts Education Partnership Forumin Chicago, and the Annual Meeting of the Interna-tional Council of Fine Arts Deans in Boston. Thesediscussions helped inform the Task Force’s identifi-cation of promising practices and recommendedaction steps for higher education leaders.

IIIIDENTIFICATION OF PROMISING PRACTICES OF SUCCESSFUL

HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS

The following criteria were identified by the TaskForce in successful partnerships:

1. Professional development is centered in schoolswhere learning communities of equal partnersare created, including preK-12 teachers, artsspecialists, teaching artists, cultural artsinstructors and higher education faculty.

2. Professional development addresses the needs ofthe various members of the arts teaching work-force, from pre-service through in-service, andleads to quality arts instruction for ALL students.

3. Professional development focuses on qualityarts learning experiences in all four disciplines:dance, theater, music and the visual arts.

4. Professional development activities integrate thetheory and practice of teaching in and throughthe arts.

5. Professional development is informed by researchand assessed continually by all members of thepartnership.

6. Professional development is aligned with teachercertification and arts standards, and in turn, bestpractices in the field are shared with licensingand accreditation agencies to inform certifica-tion requirements.

7. Professional development prepares certifiedarts specialist to take on a leadership role in thearts teaching workforce in coordinating qualityteaching and learning experiences in andthrough the arts across the school.

8. Professional development partners share com-mon goals and ensure that all participants ben-efit from the partnership.

9. Professional development has a lasting impactthrough the collaborative relationships establishedbetween the members of the arts teaching workforcewithin the school, cultural arts organizations in thecommunity, and in institutions of higher education.

IVRECOMMENDED ACTION STEPS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

LEADERS TO ESTABLISH PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS TEACHING WORKFORCE

1. Engage in partnerships with artists and arts andcommunity organizations to provide profes-sional development for the college or universi-ty’s arts teaching workforce to ensure quality artsexperiences are made available for all studentsacross the campus.

2. Require faculty in the arts and sciences, visual andperforming arts, and education to collaborate inconstructing teaching and learning experiences forclassroom teachers, arts specialists, teaching artistsand educators in arts and cultural organizations.

3. Create higher education partnerships withschools and arts and cultural organizations toprovide quality professional development forthe arts teaching workforce that is centered inschools and communities.

4. Acknowledge faculty members’ teaching, serv-ice, and scholarship in school-based profession-al development partnerships as an alternative tocampus-based responsibilities with appropriaterecognition and rewards.

2WORKING PARTNERSHIPS: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS TEACHING WORKFORCE ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP/FEBRUARY 2007


Introduction: The Role ofthe Arts in EducationThe arts have a vital role to play in the education ofall our children. From pre-kindergarten throughcollege, their importance has never been morewidely acknowledged or clearly demonstrated byresearch on student achievement.

Standards for arts education have been adopted in49 states. Major organizations, from the NationalAssociation of State Boards of Education to theEducation Commission of the States have promul-gated policy statements and initiatives designed tostrengthen arts education in the schools. The arts,the nation seems to agree, are essential in educationfor their intrinsic value, their role in supporting stu-dents’ social and emotional growth, their contribu-tion to motivating and retaining students, and theimportant role they can play in creating learningenvironments that support academic achievement.

At the same time, in many schools, support andfunding for the arts continues to decline. Despitethe inclusion of art as a core academic subject inthe No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, thefocus of most state testing regimes on the three R’s,has resulted in less room for the arts in the curricu-lum, less time for the arts in the school day, andfewer arts teachers in schools and classrooms. As aresult, education in the arts, while enjoying avibrant renaissance in public support and policy-maker rhetoric, remains on the endangered list intoo many of our nation’s classrooms.

It is true that around the nation there are manyexamples of exemplary school-based programs andarts education partnerships that reflect passion,creativity, and commitment of the partners and areproducing extraordinary outcomes in the studentsthey serve. However, a growing gap separates thearts education haves from the arts education have-nots in America, reflecting all too familiar racial

and class divisions. The culprits are frequentlyfunding and focus, with a scarcity of the former,and a narrowing of the latter. Growing emphasis ontest-based accountability has prompted someschools to reduce or abandon arts education infavor of more drill and practice in heavily testedsubjects such as math and reading.

A 2006 study by the Center on Education Policyreported on the narrowing of the curriculum inschools across the country as districts struggle tomeet NCLB’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)requirements. Over a fifth (22%) of the school dis-tricts included in the study reported that time forart and music had been reduced “somewhat or to agreat extent” in order to focus on meeting AYPrequirements in reading and math. Typically, theschools that are most affected are serving studentsfrom low-income families, or high proportions ofchildren of color.

However, the achievement gap will not be closedon the back of a widening arts education gap. Infact, the reverse may well be the case. When weshortchange the arts, we shortchange the educa-tion we are providing the children who need thevalue the arts provide the most. The evidence isclear that the arts are critical to education. Theresearch compendium Critical Links: Learning inthe Arts and Student Academic and Social Develop-ment reviewed 62 separate studies to identify sixmajor types of benefits for student achievementassociated with arts study. They include:

• Reading and Language Skills

• Mathematic Skills

• Thinking Skills

• Social Skills

• Motivation to Learn

• Positive School Environment

Working Partnerships:Professional Development of the Arts Teaching WorkforceReport of the Arts Education Partnership Task Force on Higher Education

4

Enrollment in arts courses are also positively corre-lated with higher SAT verbal and math scores:2

In 2005, students who took four years of art course-work outperformed their peers who had one-halfyear or less of arts coursework by 58 points on theverbal portion and 38 points on the math portionof the SAT.3

It is increasingly important to disseminate this kindof research among education policymakers. Legis-lators, school committees, and the general publicneed to recognize the link between arts andachievement. They also need to recognize andunderstand that efforts to raise test scores that leaveincreasingly less time for the arts may produce neg-ative consequences on student learning and conse-quently on our society.

Without a doubt, the arts are important in and ofthemselves, not just for the impact that they canhave on raising test scores. The arts open doors toperception of both the world around us and theworld within us. They nurture the human spiritand the creative imagination. And they enlarge themoral universe by extending infinite possibility intothe finite limitations of the physical world.

Stanford professor of education and the arts, ElliotEisner, maintains that arts education offers our chil-dren creative and critical capacities, specifically:

• A willingness to imagine possibilities that arenot now, but which might become.

• A desire to explore ambiguity, to be willing toforestall premature closure in pursing resolutions.

• The ability to recognize and accept the multipleperspectives and resolutions that work in thearts celebrates.4

The arts, in sum, provide ways of knowing andmeans of expressing experience, communicatingvalues, and organizing perceptions that lie at thevery core of what it means to be human.

The following includes the four linked initiativesthat the Task Force has pursued in 2006.

ICREATION OF PROFILES OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

PARTNERSHIPS WITH HIGHER EDUCATION

The AEP Higher Education Task Force initiated anational call for profiles of institutions of highereducation engaged in arts education partnerships inthe preparation of the arts teaching workforce.Eleven successful higher education partnershipswere identified that met the criteria of the AEP pub-lication Learning Partnerships: Improving Learningin Schools with Arts Partners in the Community(1999).5 The partnerships provide a variety of suc-cessful models of professional development pro-grams for classroom teachers, arts specialists, teach-ing artists, higher education faculty, and educatorsin arts and cultural organizations. Each profileaddresses the design of the partnership (includingmembership, goals, description of the professionaldevelopment model, and funding sources), benefitsfor each of the partners, challenges in establishingthe partnership, and responses to these challenges.

The eleven professional development partnershipsprofiled in this report include:

• Arts Education in Maryland Schools (AEMS)Alliance

• Arts Partners, an affiliate of Young Audiences,Inc, Wichita, Kansas

• Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE)

• Columbia College Chicago’s Center for Com-munity Arts Partnerships (CCAP): IntegrationMentorship Project

• Kennedy Center Partners in Education: SilverCity, New Mexico

• Lesley University’s Creative Arts in Learning/Boston Public Schools Partnership

• Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Educa-tion: Teacher Education Collaborative


2 Ruppert, Sandra S. “Critical Evidence: How the ARTS Benefit StudentAchievement,” The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, 2006.3 Ibid4 Eisner, E. “Does Experience in the Arts Boost Academic Achievement?” ArtsEducation, January, 1998: pp. 7–15.5 Learning Partnerships: Improving learning in schools with arts partners in thecommunity. Arts Education Partnership. Washington, D.C., 1999.


• Michigan Department of Education/Higher Edu-cation Partnership

• Oklahoma A+ Schools/University of CentralOklahoma Partnership

• University of Arizona College of Fine Arts’Learning Partnership: Improving Learning inSchools/Arts Partners in the Community

• University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee’s PeckSchool: Teachers for a New Era

The profiles focus on higher education’s role inprofessional development and illustrate the multi-ple paths for developing the partnerships. In somecases the partnerships were led by cultural institu-tions, as in Lincoln Center Institute’s collaborationwith New York City colleges and universities; or aState Department of Education working with theState Arts Council, as in the Arts Education inMaryland Schools (AEMS) alliance; or a privatefoundation, as in the DaVinci Institute’s A+Schools in Oklahoma. In other cases, higher edu-cation institutions took the lead in professionaldevelopment partnerships, such as the fine artsspecialist training program at the Peck School ofthe University of Wisconsin in Madison or theintegrated arts program for classroom teachers atLesley University.

The promising practices and recommended actionsteps for higher education leaders were drawnfrom the experience of the eleven successful high-er education partnerships. Each of the promisingpractices discussed in the following pages will ref-erence various partnerships as models. Full pro-files of the eleven higher education professionaldevelopment partnerships are available in theAddendum to this report.

IIDEVELOPMENT OF FORUMS FOR LEADERS IN HIGHEREDUCATION AND ARTS EDUCATION TO DISCUSS THE

CRITICAL ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS

Throughout 2006 the Task Force engaged leadersin higher education and arts education in discus-sions at a number of national forums on the crit-ical role of higher education in professional

development partnerships. In January the TaskForce presented a series of working sessions onthe professional development of the arts teachingworkforce at the Annual Meeting of the AmericanAssociation of Colleges for Teacher Education inSan Diego. In these sessions deans, provosts,chairs and faculty leaders in education wereintroduced to a variety of higher education part-nership models and were asked to contribute to alist of promising practices and recommendedaction steps for higher education leaders toexpand higher education professional develop-ment partnerships.

At the June Arts Education Partnership Forum inChicago devoted to this topic, the eleven highereducation partnership profiles were presented toa national gathering of arts education leadersfrom across the country. Each partnership pre-sented their unique professional developmentmodel and once again participants were asked toreview the proposed list of promising practicesand recommended action steps for higher educa-tion leaders. The final recommendations in thisreport are largely the result of the discussions atthis meeting and reflections of the eleven partner-ship leaders in attendance.

Finally, at the November Annual Meeting of theInternational Council of Fine Arts Deans inBoston, the Task Force presented the promisingpractices and recommended action steps for high-er education leaders to the fine arts deans whohold responsibility for the pre-service training ofarts specialists and teaching artists. The fine artsdeans’ discussion of the expanded definition ofthe arts teaching workforce to include classroomteachers, higher education faculty, and educatorsin arts and cultural organizations provedextremely valuable. As a result of this discussion,the promising practices expanded to center moreresponsibility and authority for coordinating artsinstruction in the schools in the position of thearts specialist who is the resident artist in theschool. The fine arts deans also proposed thatthey take on a leadership role in collaborationswith the deans of education and deans of arts andsciences in the creation of partnerships on theuniversity level.

6

IIIIDENTIFICATION OF PROMISING PRACTICES OF SUCCESSFUL

HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS

The Task Force began its work by reviewing the sixrecommendations of the Teaching Partnershipsreport of the Lincoln Center AEP Forum in NewYork City in 2001. The promising practices forhigher education partnerships are based on theanalyses of the eleven partnerships profiled, andthe national dialogues with arts education leadersover the course of the year. Several of the TaskForce’s promising practices were identified in theLincoln Center Teaching Partnerships report.

First, a linking of pre-service and professionaldevelopment for members of the arts teachingworkforce was a major recommendation of thisreport, and can be found among the promisingpractices below. Higher education leaders workingdirectly with their states on improving professionaldevelopment and building a “community of learn-ers” by jointly developing curriculum, programsand instruction has been demonstrated within thepractices of the profiled partnerships.

Second, several of the partnerships profiled identi-fied practices in response to the second recommen-dation of the Teaching Partnership report. Theseprofessional development partnerships includedopportunities for research based scholarship tostrengthen coalitions working to improve educationin the arts and contribute to scholarship informingthe preparation of the arts teaching workforce.

The third recommendation, which identified theneed to align the various local, state and federal cre-dentialing processes with curriculum standards andhigh quality arts education, was also addressed.This recommendation remains challenging todaywithin a climate of test-based accountability, yetseveral of the partnerships profiled have taken upthe challenge to address this alignment, and to cre-ate alternatives for credentialing teaching artists.

Improving preparation of the arts teaching work-force, the fourth recommendation of the TeachingPartnerships report, is illustrated with innovativesolutions across several profiles and represents themajor focus of this report. From fostering commu-nity participation to creating interdisciplinary pro-

grams including leadership, advocacy, and collabo-ration, members of the Task Force and participantsin the profiled partnerships have made extraordi-nary efforts to improve and support the work ofteachers, arts specialists, and artists in the schools.

By enlisting arts and cultural institutions as equalpartners in this effort, the partnerships profiledhave put into action suggestions from the fifthrecommendation. Several of the partnershipsinclude art schools, and still others are designedto address whole school reform through theirpartnership work.

The sixth recommendation of the Teaching Partner-ships report suggested forging relationships withjournalists to share information about the aboveefforts to bring the arts to all students in our schools.This Higher Education Task Force report, with theprofiled partnerships, is an effort to highlight thework currently being supported around the countrythrough dedicated partners made up of higher edu-cation, K-12 schools and districts, arts and cultureorganizations, funders, and other creative commu-nity members. We offer this report as evidence thatpartnerships involving higher education are meetingthe arts education needs of many students.

Recognizing that the number of higher educationinstitutions participating in professional develop-ment partnerships is still limited, we challenge col-lege and university presidents, provosts and deansto take on a leadership role in developing partner-ships to address the professional developmentneeds of the arts teaching workforce. To supportthis work, the Task Force identified promisingpractices of the eleven successful professionaldevelopment partnerships and recommendedaction steps for higher education leaders to movethis initiative forward at their institutions.

PROMISING PRACTICES OF SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS

1. Professional development is centered inschools where learning communities of equalpartners are created, including preK-12 teach-ers, arts specialists, teaching artists, culturalarts instructors and higher education faculty.

Higher education faculty must move beyond theircampuses to engage in professional development



activities in preK-12 schools as equal partners withthe arts teaching workforce if professional develop-ment is to result in high quality, sustainable, arts-based programs in our schools.

The Chicago Public Schools have two distinctand highly successful models for school-basedhigher education partnerships, one led by pro-fessional arts organizations and the other byhigher education, yet both create learning com-munities in which the arts teaching workforcecollaborate as equal partners.

The Chicago Arts Partnership in Education(CAPE), one of the oldest and most successfulongoing partnerships, made up of a network ofChicago public schools and professional artsorganizations that partner to create innovativearts integrated curriculum in preK-12 class-rooms in schools across the city. Teachingartists, arts specialists and classroom teacherscreate teacher-artist teams that collaborate onplanning and implementing arts infusedinstruction with higher education partnering inprofessional development in CAPE schools inarts education theory and practice as well asaction research documentation and collection.

The Columbia College Chicago’s Center forCommunity Arts Partnerships (CCAP) creat-ed the Integration Mentorship Project (AIM)to provide professional development and cur-riculum instruction for Chicago Public Schoolteachers in arts integration in reading and writ-ing instruction for students in grades 4ththrough 12th. Through this program, teachingartist and Columbia College Chicago facultypartner directly with teachers and administra-tors in the schools to integrate the arts into thecurriculum, with the overall goal of reformingand improving public school education.

2. Professional development addresses theneeds of the various members of the arts teach-ing workforce, from pre-service through in-service, and leads to quality arts instruction forALL students.

Higher education must ensure that there is profes-sional development for all members of the arts

teaching workforce and that pre-service and in-service teacher training is linked.

Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance(AEMS) is an alliance of arts teaching workforcemembers, advocates, and policy-makers fromcultural and educational communities (K-16) inMaryland to address issues of both the qualityand quantity of arts education in the State.AEMS realized that for the potential contribu-tions of arts education to be realized, it wasimportant to address the professional develop-ment needs of arts specialist, teaching artist, andclassroom teachers in order to integrate the artinto instruction across the curriculum and toincrease the capacity of teachers to develop andimplement curriculum devoted to discrete artforms. Partnering with public and private highereducation institutions across the state, AEMShas launched or nurtured a variety of profession-al development programs, pre-service through in-service, to bridge the gap between artists andeducators in the arts teaching workforce.

3. Professional development focuses on qualityarts learning experiences in all four disciplines:dance, theater, music and the visual arts.

Higher education faculty, preK-12 teachers, artsspecialists, and teaching artists benefit from pro-fessional development provided by artists outsidetheir community who are able to expand theirengagement in quality arts experiences in all fourmodalities.

The Kennedy Center Partners in Educationpartnership with Silver City, New Mexico pro-vides a model of professional development inintegrating the arts across the curriculum thatserves teachers and students preK-18. TheKennedy Center in Washington provides trainedartists in all four modalities to work with teach-ers, early childhood educators, teaching artistsand Western New Mexico University facultyand students to design arts integrated curricu-lum and pedagogy. Over the eight years of thisprogram, the training has evolved from in-serv-ice professional development of classroomteachers to collaborating with higher education

faculty in the training of pre-service elementaryteachers, resulting in a highly developed artsteaching workforce of higher education faculty,classroom teachers, arts specialists and teach-ing artists for Silver City.

4. Professional development activities integratethe theory and practice of teaching in and throughthe arts.

Higher education partnerships must engage thearts teaching workforce in quality teaching andlearning experiences in and through the arts basedon arts education theory and practice over time.

Two of the leaders in arts integration theory andpractice for the past twenty-five years are Lin-coln Center Institute for the Arts in Educationin New York City and Lesley University’s Cre-ative Arts in Learning Division in Cambridge.Both draw classroom teachers, arts specialists,teaching artists and educators from arts andcultural organizations to their programs towork with artists and higher education facultyto deepen their knowledge and skills in the artsand aesthetic education.

Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Edu-cation (LCI) created the Teacher EducationCollaborative with eight public and privateschools of education in New York City to inte-grate aesthetic education into teacher educa-tion programs to ensure that the arts and imag-ination assume an essential place in theeducation of all children. A unique feature ofthis program is the collaboration of LCI teach-ing artists with higher education faculty in con-structing a series of teaching and learning expe-riences in the arts across the curriculum thatintegrate the theory and practice of aestheticeducation for classroom teachers.

The Creative Arts in Learning Division (CAL)of Lesley University, in partnership with theNational Arts and Learning Collaborative andthe Boston Public Schools, has developed a pro-fessional development model that provides inte-grated and comprehensive arts experiences forstudents and educators in urban elementaryschools. The CAL faculty, who are both artist

and educators, work with the arts teachingworkforce in the school to integrate the artsacross the curriculum to promote student litera-cy skills and engagement in learning. This pro-fessional development program translates thetheory and practice of the Integrated Teaching inthe Arts graduate degree program to a focusedschool-based model of professional development.

5. Professional development is informed byresearch and assessed continually by all mem-bers of the partnership.

Higher education must play a central role in ensur-ing the quality of teaching and learning of the artsteaching workforce by providing leadership in theareas of research and assessment taking advantageof the resources of the college or university.

An impressive approach to research and assess-ment has been proposed in the current initiativeTeachers for a New Era (TNE) of the CarnegieCorporation of New York. The University of Wis-consin – Milwaukee is one of the eleven universi-ties nationwide who were selected to participatein this initiative to revitalize teacher prepara-tion. To lead the process, the University of Wis-consin – Milwaukee’s Peck School created anArts Design Team made up of University faculty(education, arts education, and fine arts in allfour disciplines), the Milwaukee Public Schoolscurriculum directors (art and music), and Mil-waukee Public School teachers. The Arts DesignTeam has joined with the other universities increating curriculum and pedagogy that connectssubject matter knowledge in the arts & sciencesand fine arts with the best pedagogy in educa-tion, resulting in substantial changes in teacherpreparation of the arts teaching workforce. Allcurriculum and instruction design is driven byevidence drawn from research. In addition, theproject has created a comprehensive set of evi-dence collection strategies to access the impact ofthe new teacher preparation program on bothteachers and their students.

6. Professional development is aligned withteacher certification and arts standards, and inturn, best practices in the field are shared with



arts-based reform model that provides ongoingprofessional development of the arts teachingworkforce focusing on collaborative research-based practices. The professional development isprovided by A+ Fellows, which include speciallytrained classroom teachers, arts specialists andteaching artists. The Fellows work with the artsteaching workforce in the school to identify eachperson’s distinct, yet connected, role to play inthe education of the whole child. This collabora-tive model reinforces the critical role of the artsspecialists and their respective disciplines byfirmly establishing the value of teaching about,as well as through, the arts.

8. Professional development partners sharecommon goals and ensure that all participantsbenefit from the partnership.

Higher education is more likely to engage in part-nerships when they are made up of strong partnerswith a common goal, and each partner has some-thing unique to contribute to the program andsomething to gain.

The Learning Partnership: Improving Learn-ing in Schools/Arts Partners in the Communi-ty of the University of Arizona College of FineArts and Tucson Unified School District demon-strates such a partnership. The partners focus onproviding all children in the district an enrichedschool experience in the arts to ensure academicand social growth. The partners collaborate onall aspects of the design, implementation, andevaluation of the professional development pro-gram in arts integration for the arts teachingworkforce. Training takes place in both theschools and the university, with higher educationfaculty working in the schools and school person-nel participating in training at the university.The respect for what each partner brings to thepartnership has grown over the eight years of theLearning Partnership, resulting in the transfor-mation of arts education across the district.

9. Professional development has a lastingimpact through the collaborative relationshipsestablished between the members of the artsteaching workforce within the school, cultural

licensing and accreditation agencies to informcertification requirements.

Higher education needs to plan a central role inpartnership with state boards of education andpreK-schools in recommending new program stan-dards for the arts teaching workforce, and in collab-orating across higher education institutions andpreK-12 schools in designing professional develop-ment for faculty and teachers to meet the new pro-gram standards.

The Michigan Department of Education/Higher Education Partnership to prepareVisual Arts Teachers provides a model of astatewide higher education professional devel-opment partnership that has had a significantimpact on the visual arts education of all preK-12 students across the state. The Content Advi-sory Committee, comprised of visual arts facul-ty from public and independent colleges anduniversities, as well as preK-12 veteran andnovice visual arts teachers, developed new pro-gram standards for the preparation of visualarts teachers. The Committee then convened allMichigan visual arts higher education faculty atthe Cransbrook Institute to provide professionaldevelopment for the faculty who collaborated ondesigning curriculum and pedagogy to prepareteachers to meet the new standards. Havingtransformed visual arts licensure, the ContentAdvisory Committee is now embarking on part-nerships to address music and dance licensure.

7. Professional development prepares certifiedarts specialist to take on a leadership role in thearts teaching workforce in coordinating qualityteaching and learning experiences in andthrough the arts across the school.

Higher education partnerships must acknowledgethe critical role of the resident artists in the schoolsand the arts specialists in carrying out the profes-sional development of the classroom teachers andcoordinating and supporting school-wide teachingand learning in and through the arts.

The Oklahoma A+ Schools/University of Cen-tral Oklahoma Partnership is a whole school,

arts organizations in the community, and ininstitutions of higher education.

If higher education is to be an active member inprofessional development partnerships over time,the collaborative planning, programming, andfunding of the partnership must include active sup-port of arts and cultural organizations in the com-munity as well as school districts.

The Arts Partners, an affiliate of Young Audi-ences, Inc, located in Wichita, Kansas providesa model of arts and cultural institutions takingthe lead in establishing a collaborative partner-ship with the College of Fine Arts of WichitaState University (WSU) and the Wichita PublicSchools USD259. Through public funding of theWichita Public Schools and private funding offoundations, a robust professional developmentprogram for artists and teachers to integrate thearts across the curriculum has been in place fora decade. Arts Partners plays a critical role inthe partnership by coordinating the collabora-tion of Wichita State University faculty, WichitaPublic School teachers, teaching artists, arts andcultural organizations, and funders to ensurethe sustainability of the program.

IVRECOMMENDED ACTION STEPS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

LEADERS TO ESTABLISH PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS TEACHING WORKFORCE

If arts education is to be transformed by a highlyqualified arts teaching work force, higher educationmust take a leadership role in the professionaldevelopment of the arts teaching workforce toensure that those who teach the arts have the high-est possible artistic skills and pedagogical abilities.The critical element in each of the successful pro-fessional development partnerships we profiled isthe engagement of higher education leaders in ini-tiating and/or supporting the partnership. Recog-nizing the power of presidents, provosts and deansto influence change at their institutions, the TaskForce recommendations for engaging higher edu-cation in professional development partnershipsare addressed to higher education leaders.


The Task Force recommends a series of four actionsteps for higher education:

• engage in partnerships with artists and arts andcommunity organizations to provide profes-sional development for the college or universi-ty’s arts teaching workforce to ensure quality artsexperiences are made available for all studentsacross the campus;

• require faculty in the arts and sciences, visualand performing arts, and education to collabo-rate in constructing teaching and learning expe-riences for classroom teachers, arts specialists,teaching artists and educators in arts and cul-tural organizations;

• create higher education partnerships withschools and arts and cultural organizations toprovide quality professional development forthe arts teaching workforce that is centered inschools and communities; and

• recognize faculty members’ teaching, service,and scholarship in school-based professionaldevelopment partnerships as appropriate alter-natives to campus-based responsibilities with allof the rewards for excellence.

1. Engage in partnerships with artists and artsand community organizations to provide pro-fessional development for the college or univer-sity’s arts teaching workforce to ensure qualityarts experiences are made available for all stu-dents across the campus.

Our society increasingly values innovation and dis-covery, and the arts provide forms of inquiry thatengage our minds, our senses, and our creative andinventive capacities. They provide a language of pos-sibility for futures yet to be imagined, and insightsthat are only gained through aesthetic experiences.To ensure that high quality arts education is avail-able to all students preK-16, administrators and fac-ulty from across the university must collaborate withartists, and arts and cultural institutions in the com-munity to increase educational experiences in thearts at the university level. Expanded engagement inthe arts on campus will impact all students, but mostimportantly, influence the education of the artsteaching workforce by providing increased opportu-nities for arts exploration and mastery. This will


result in expanded content knowledge in the arts aswell as increased skill in teaching the arts throughthe modeling of best practices in pedagogy demon-strated by the higher education faculty.

The proceedings of the 104th American Assembly,The Creative Campus, reminds American collegeand university leaders of their responsibility toeducate all students broadly in the arts to ensurethat students have access to the aesthetic and intel-lectual benefits that they provide. “The arts oncampus have sustained in profound ways the acad-emy’s deep-seated, tripartite mission – to provideresearch, education, and service to society”.6 TheTask Force notes that this tripartite mission appliesto all four of our recommendations.

In addition, the American Association of Collegesand Universities report, The Creative Imperative,cites the importance of the arts as a vehicle fortransforming campuses. The report notes that thearts contribute significantly to the educational andsocial life of the university, equipping students with“the intellectual tools and creative thinking neededto meet the challenges of the new century.”7 Highlevels of engagement in the arts serve as a pathwayto creativity, a critical skill for all students prepar-ing for careers in the 21st century. This theme isunderscored in the January 2007 report of the NewCommission on the Skills of the American Work-force, Tough Choices or Tough Times: “This is aworld in which a very high level of preparation inreading, writing, speaking, mathematics, science,literature, history and the arts will be an indispen-sable foundation for everything that comes afterfor most members of the workforce.”8

Recognizing that the arts teaching workforceextends to those providing arts instruction on thecollege and university levels, higher educationleaders have a responsibility for developing part-nerships with artists, and arts and cultural insti-tutions in the community to ensure that qualityarts experiences are available to all students ontheir campus.

2. Require faculty in the arts and sciences, visu-al and performing arts, and education to collab-orate in constructing teaching and learningexperiences for classroom teachers, arts special-ists, teaching artists and educators in arts andcultural organizations.

A large number of recent studies have demonstratedthe importance of engaging faculty from across theuniversity in the training of prospective teachers toensure graduates have both depth of content knowl-edge and exposure to multiple models of pedagogy.The American Council of Education, in To Touch theFuture: Transforming the Way Teachers Are Taught,calls for increased engagement of the entire univer-sity in the education of teachers and suggests thatpresidents must “put the education of teachers’ frontand center on the institutional agenda.”9

Similarly, in Teachers for a New Era, a reform ini-tiative of the Carnegie Corporation of New York,eleven universities are engaged in research to stim-ulate construction of leading edge teacher educa-tion programs on their campuses. This initiativefocuses on several essential ingredients of qualityteacher education programs, most notably theinclusion of arts and sciences faculty in the trainingof prospective teachers, and closer cooperationbetween K-12 schools and the university in theprofessional development of all teachers.

Recognizing the importance of integrating finearts, arts & sciences, and education theory andpractice in the preparation of the arts teachingworkforce, higher education leaders must createstructures for faculty to collaborate across the col-lege or university in the training of teachers.

3. Create higher education partnerships withschools and arts and cultural organizations toprovide quality professional development forthe arts teaching workforce that is centered inschools and communities.

Reciprocal sustainable partnerships between highereducation and preK-12 schools and communitiesmust be created if we are to provide quality profes-sional development that integrates theory and prac-tice. Higher education institutions can provideresources to strengthen and enhance preK-12 edu-cation through the active involvement of faculty inpartnerships with school teachers and administra-tors seeking to improve the quality of curriculum

6 The Creative Campus. The American Assembly. New York: Columbia Univer-sity, 2004, p.6..7 “The Creative Imperative.” Peer Review, 8, 2006: 3-31. 8 Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on theSkills of the American Workforce. National Center on Education and the Econo-my. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007, p. xix9 To Touch the Future: Transforming the Way Teachers Are Taught. The Ameri-can Council of Education, 1999.

and pedagogy for their students. At the same time,teacher education programs gain significantly fromthe teaching and research of faculty and students inthe field. In addition to strengthening clinical skills,experience in the schools expands research oppor-tunities and informs the teaching and learning thattakes place on the university’s campus. For example,The California Art Project (TCAP) is a model ofhow state institutions of higher education can con-tribute to the professional development of the artsteaching workforce. Administered by the Universityof California, and governed by the California StateUniversity system, TCAP has developed a collegial,statewide network of teachers who are engaged incontinual professional development in the arts.

Ernest Boyer, longtime President of the CarnegieFoundation for the Advancement of Teaching, rec-ognized decades ago that an important way toaddress the urgent need to improve our nation’sschools was to relate the work of the universitymore directly to surrounding schools. He insistedthat it was the responsibility of the university to“close the gap between theory and practice, to bemore fully engaged in pressing issues beyond thecampus.”10 When you add the resources of arts andcultural institutions to the partnership, the benefitsto all participants in the partnership are significant.Most importantly, these rich partnerships have alasting impact on preK-12 schools as a result of amore highly qualified arts teaching workforce.

Arthur Levine outlines one model for a more recipro-cal college-school relationship in his proposed profes-sional-development school where the school is thecenter for teacher education: “The professional devel-opment school brings together university professors,teacher education students, current teachers, andtheir students. It offers university faculty memberscontinuing contact with schools and sites for practicalresearch. It gives future teachers unparalleled integra-tion of theory and practice, academic and clinicalinstruction. Teachers are provided professional devel-opment and opportunities to teach the next genera-tion of their peers. Schoolchildren have a far richereducational environment and their achievementbecomes the measure of a teacher education pro-gram’s success, providing continuous feedback onhow to improve the teacher education curriculum.”11

Recognizing the value of centering professionaldevelopment of the arts teaching workforce in the


The Arts EducationPartnership is anational coalition ofarts, education, busi-ness, philanthropic andgovernment organiza-tions that demonstratesand promotes theessential role of artseducation in the learn-ing and development ofevery child and in theimprovement of Ameri-ca’s schools. The Part-nership includes morethan 100 organizationsthat are national inscope and impact. Italso includes state andlocal partnershipsfocused on influencingeducation policies andpractices to promotequality arts education.

©2007 Arts EducationPartnership

For more informationon ordering additionalcopies of this report orother AEP publications,please visit our websiteat www.aep-arts.org.

schools and communities, higher education leaderswill be required to make significant changes in thedelivery of their teacher education programs.

4. Acknowledge faculty members’ teaching,service, and scholarship in school-based profes-sional development partnerships as an alterna-tive to campus-based responsibilities withappropriate recognition and rewards.

Higher education institutions need to broaden theirdefinitions of scholarship and service to recognizethe important work of faculty engaged in actionresearch focused on curriculum and pedagogy inschools. In addition, institutions must award timeand resources for faculty to pursue this research andteaching as a central part of their responsibilities atthe university. This expanded view of scholarship, toinclude research focused on teaching and learning inpreK-12 schools and communities, contributes tohigher education fulfilling its mission of excellencein teaching, research and service to society.

Ernest L. Boyer again serves as an early avatar ofthe changes we recommend. In Scholarship Recon-sidered, Dr. Boyer points out the need to broadenour definition of scholarship and rewards for facul-ty beyond the traditional discovery and integrationof knowledge that occurs within the walls of theuniversity, to the application of knowledge in serv-ice to the community beyond the campus. “Such aview of scholarly service – one that both appliesand contributes to human knowledge – is particu-larly needed in a world in which huge, almostintractable problems call for the skill and insightsonly the academy can provide.”12 Expanding thepossibilities for faculty to collaborate with preK-12teachers and administrators to improve curriculumand instruction will transform both teaching andlearning in schools and higher education.

Recognizing that a revised definition of scholarshipand rewards must be acknowledged if faculty are tobe fully engaged in preK-12 research and practice,higher education leaders need to engage faculty andadministrators in redefining expectations for facultyin the areas of teaching, service and scholarship. n

10 Glassick, C.E., Huber, M.T. & Maeroff, G.I. Scholarship Assessed: evaluation ofthe professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers, 1997, p.2.11 Levine, A. “The School-College Divide and Teacher Preparation” EducationWeek, Quality Counts: From Cradle to Career, 2007: p. 50 .12 Boyer, E.L. Scholarship Reconsidered: priorities of the professoriate. San Fran-cisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers, 1990, p.23.

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