Department of Education Announces Expansion of Turnaround Arts Program

On Wednesday, June 3, 2014 at 11 a.m. eastern, officials from the U.S. Department of Education and President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH) will hold a press conference call to announce expansion plans for its successful, signature program Turnaround Arts, and a new focus on early childhood learning encompassing Head Start and Pre-K through 3rd grade classrooms.

Turnaround Arts is a national program by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in coordination with the White House, the U.S. Department of Education and several foundations, to bring arts education programing and resources to the highest-poverty, lowest-performing elementary and middle schools in the country. It is based on the premise that high-quality and integrated arts education can strengthen school reform efforts, boost academic achievement and increase student engagement in schools facing some of the toughest educational challenges in the country.

Turnaround Arts currently works in 35 schools across the country, in 25 school districts and 11 states. As part of Turnaround Arts, PCAH and its partners provide these schools an array of arts education services, resources and materials designed to increase their chances of success, engage their community and raise the visibility of their achievements. Key to these efforts is building arts education programming that is rigorous, effective and integrated into the school, as well strategically used to target larger school challenges. The program works closely with each of the schools throughout the year to help them plan and implement their programming and ensure its quality and impact.

Each school in the Turnaround Arts network receives:

-The designation of a high-profile artist who will work with the school to increase student and community engagement and promote local visibility for the school;

-Arts supplies, licensing rights for school musicals and musical instruments;

-A national summer conference for school teams;

-Funding to bring local teaching artists, community arts education and cultural organizations to work in the school;

-Training in using the arts to aid school improvement, including best practices, case studies and model lessons;

-In-school professional development in arts integration during the school year;

-An annual 5Essentials school improvement survey tool administered by the University of Chicago; and

-A summative research evaluation of the program after each year.

Interim evaluation results on the pilot phase of Turnaround Arts schools showed that participating schools demonstrate improved academic performance, increased student and parent engagement and improved culture and climate, often outperforming comparable schools in their district or state.