WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE

Here's what happens when the arts become part of a

school success strategy.

The descriptions and links below feature successful

programs around the country, including New Jersey's

Title I Arts Integration Pilot Program.

Your school could be next!

By working to engage all students with high-quality arts education across the state, we are giving our students more opportunities to use their voice of creativity and providing them skills that will help them be successful beyond high school.

— Former New Jersey Education Commissioner Kimberley Harrington

New Jersey Title I Arts Integration Pilot Program

The Title I Arts Integration Pilot Program, launched in 2016, is a federally-funded pilot program designed to explore and investigate how arts education can be applied as a strategy to assist Title I students in meeting the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, as well as bolster school improvement efforts. The limited competitive grant program was open to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) with Title I served schools (including charter schools and Renaissance Projects). The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) established a seven (7) month grant program using FY 2016 Title I carryover funds. In September 2017, the Title I Committee of Practitioners approved the redirection of the FY2017 Title I Funds for the Title I Arts Integration Pilot Program. Accordingly, the New Jersey Department of Education is accepting applications from the schools that participated in the first year of the Pilot in School Year 2016-17, which will be a continuation grant.

The objective of this grant program is to create a Title I Arts Integration Pilot Program, in which the grantees investigate and apply various research-based arts-integration techniques that serve as intervention strategies leading to increased student achievement and school improvement. For the purposes of this pilot, arts-integration is being defined as a “teaching strategy in which the arts are integrated with the non-arts curriculum to deepen students’ understanding of both” (Isenberg and Jalongo, 2010, Werner and Freeman, 2001). The goal of the pilot is to generate a wide variety of evidence-based pedagogic strategies, supported by school-level student data that substantiates the efficacy of arts-integration as a lever to increased student achievement and school improvement. Program designs must target 1) Student Learning and Mastery; and either 2) School Climate and Culture; or 3) Student Engagement; or 4) Family and Community Engagement.

Click below to see video from two New Jersey pilot sites.

Hopatcong Borough

Hear directly from school leaders and educators about the program at Durban Avenue Elementary School.

Toms River

Learn about the summer program at Pine Beach Elementary School.

These five films were created to document and share the work happening in California school districts that are committing to arts-based strategies to support Title I goals. We hope these concrete examples of the nuts and bolts of building a program, and why school leaders are so passionate about the work, will inform and inspire.

The Arts and Title I: A Journey From Policy to Practice

In 2011, the California Alliance for Arts Education began a policy iniative to help schools and districts understand how arts-based strategies can support Title I goals. In this film, leaders from the Alliance and two California districts share what is happening as these policies begin to be put into practice.

The Story of the San Diego Learning Through the Arts Project

In 2014, San Diego Unified School District committed $3 million in Title I funds to student success through arts integrated initiatives. Here is the story of how it came together.

Student Engagement and Parent Involvement: Why the Arts Are Effective and Why It's Important

In this film, parents and school leaders talk about how arts strategies engage students and involve parents in powerful ways that support both academic goals and a positive school environment.

The Building Blocks of an Effective Program: Planning, Partnership, and Professional Development

School leaders share what they have learned in implementing Title I arts programs.

Data, Evaluation, Research: Methods to Build and Strengthen Your Program

School leaders share strategies for incorporating data, research, and evaluation into your program as a core element of ongoing learning and improvement.

Boston Public Schools Arts Expansion Initiative

Since 2008, this public-private partnership has almost doubled the amount of arts instruction BPS students receive from pre-K to high school.

Bates Middle School, Annapolis, Maryland

How the arts transformed a low-performing middle school in Maryland.

Four Seasons A+ Elementary, St. Paul, Minnesota

Arts strategies as a bridge and catalyst in a Title I school with 10 languages and a high percentage of deaf and hearing-impaired students.

Conservatory Lab Charter School

Arts strategies in action - using music and art to teach science concepts.

Dennis Creedon, Assistant Superintendent

Philadelphia, PA

A school leader speaks from personal and professional experience about arts education as a change agent in public schools.