February 28, 2007

Arizona Commission on the Arts

Alison Marshall

Director of Arts Learning

417 W. Roosevelt St.

Phoenix, AZ85003

Dear Ms. Marshall,

It is with great enthusiasm that Yavapai County Education Service Agency (YCESA) created a user profile in EGOR and submits this letter of application to host an Artist Teacher Institute (ATI). YCESA is a designated Local Education Agency (LEA) under Arizona state statute 15.301. Using local, state and federal monies, YCESA provides county-wide programs and services to its 25 rural school districts and 37 charter schools. YCESA has extensive experience in program management and program implementation, especially in the delivery of professional development with its full time Professional Development Coordinator, Bernadette Selna.

Yavapai County, Arizona spans 8,125 squares and is approximately the same size as the state of Massachusetts. Within the county there are 88 individual public/charter school sites. Of these schools forty-five (45)are elementary schools (K-5) for whom we would target this effort. The majority of our public schools report an increase in limited English Proficient (LEP) students. While this is a minority population within our schools it represents the majority of students at risk of academic failure. In addition to the reported benefits of art for all students; art provides our LEP students with a unique and tremendous opportunity to communicate effectively while honoring their culture of origin.

Generally our YavapaiCounty schools are failing to meet the Arizona Department of Education art standard and have received no formal training to address the content of the standards or the pedagogy to embed art across the curriculum. Yet, with the new version of the standardbeing introduced and the opportunity to provide an ATI for 28-40 Yavapai County elementary school teachers there is hope for a new tomorrow where art and the ADE art standard are fully embraced. Teachers need assistance to successfully access and integrate visual and performing art education resources that are readily available through ADE; the county library system, local college and universities and the internet including, but not limited, teaching strategies; model programs; sample lesson plans; activity ideas; multicultural art resources; videos/DVDs, and children’s stories about art.

"The Congress finds that the arts are forms of understanding and ways of knowing that are fundamentally important to education." The United States Congress drew that conclusion, among others, about arts education in the re-authorization of The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (H.R.6, Title X, section D, 1994). YCESA agrees with the Congress’s findings and the myriad of research that support art in our schools. YCESA is interested in hosting an Artist Teacher Institute because without art in our schools and in our classrooms we lose an integral tool to enhance student achievement;enhance students’ sense of self and a celebration of the beauty of God’s creation that moves us to sing, dance, play a musical instrument, write poetry and to treat one another with respect. It is research and our hearts that move us to apply for an ATI for YavapaiCounty schools. Our motivation is heart-based and research-based. The following research supports our application:

  • Elementary students who attended schools in which the arts were integrated with classroom curriculum outperformed their peers in math who did not have an arts-integrated curriculum (Champions of Change, 1999).
  • Various disciplined attitudes and behaviors were observed in underprivileged students who were given instruction in an art discipline. The effects of students' involvement with the arts were tracked over time. These effects included artistic, academic, and personal achievement and states of mind. Common characteristics among elementary school students were: resilience, self-regulation, (constructive) identity, and the ability to experience total focus and absorption in a task (National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, 1999).
  • Art makes a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven to help level the "learning field" across socio-economic boundaries
    (Involvement in the Arts and Success in Secondary School, James S. Catterall, 1998).
  • Dramatic play increases tendencies of early elementary school children to be thorough and explicit in their conveying of stories critical to success in school settings where these skills are required in written and oral language activities (Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, 2002).

A YCESA hosted ATIwill help serve the professional development and arts learning goals in our schools and communities primarily because it will provide our elementary school teachers with a profound opportunity to sing and dance and play as children as they participate in the ATI. More than anything our teachers need to fall in love with their profession again and again and again and to learn to embed art and play into the curriculum in a manner to share their love of teaching with the love of learning that is inherent in all children. And, of course an ATI is alignment with the mission of the YCESA, “The Yavapai County Education Service Agency provides outstanding service to the educational community in support of their efforts to ensure the highest quality education to students”.

In addition to art being an important element to learning, it’s therapeutic. Child therapists often use art in therapy because children often have more difficulty than adults trying to put feelings into words. “Art therapy can be used with children, adolescents and adults who are struggling with personal issues or just in search of personal growth”, says By Jackie Brinkman author of Art Therapy with Children – A Window to Their World (April 2004). Multimodal or intermodal expressive therapies invite a person to move flexibly among media, following their creative instincts and interests (Knill, Barba, & Fuchs, 1995; Robbins, 1994; Rogers, 1993). Satisfaction is afforded as different senses are employed and a deepening effect takes place.

In other words, an ATI for YavapaiCounty teachers and the sustained use of art in the classroom is just what the doctor ordered. Now, there is something we can all sing and dance about.

Sincerely,

Patrick Gorlick

Patrick Gorlick

Grant Writer