Our Principals’ Arts Leadership Initiative informs and supports elementary school teams, led by principals, in the development and implementation of multi-year arts plans. This program began in 2004 with federal funding from The Kennedy Center, as well as local government and corporate support and has recently been awarded funding from the Department of Education under their Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination program. In addition to these federal resources, it is currently funded by Washington State Arts Commission, 4Culture, The Boeing Company, and Washington Mutual.
It was designed, with principals’ input, to help principal-led elementary school teams create multi-year sequential plans for arts education. ArtsEd Washington’s role in the Principals’ Project is to inform, guide, support, and inspire the participating school teams as they create and implement multi-year arts plans. Each plan reflects the individual school’s characteristics, community, and opportunities for growth and identifies the unique pathway for that school to offer high quality instruction to their students in all four arts disciplines using existing and new resources. Schools that have created plans become part of our Alumni group, eligible for ongoing support and assistance to implement their plans.
Read recent media coverage on the arts learning taking place at Carnation Elementary, Riverview.
The River Current - April 12, 2007
Inside Encore - April 2007
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Program Structure:
Once in the program, school teams make a three year commitment to work with ArtsEd Washington developing and commencing implementation of their plans. (Note: Starting in the second year of the program, ArtsEd Washington worked with two different groups of program participants: those returning from the previous year (alumni schools) and newly enrolled schools.)
Progress through the program looks like this: |
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Year 1 – Education and Planning
• Self Assessment: School arts inventory, principal interview, and school visit: Each school documents its current instruction in all four disciplines - dance, music, theater and visual art.
• Formation of a School Arts Team
• Team planning workshop: Presentations by school principals who are succeeding in making the arts a core part of instruction; review of sample planning formats, introduction to state and community resources.
• Support and guidance in the creation of a five year plan, including a half-day visit by Schools Coach
• Access to 12 Arts Impact workshops for all faculty
Year 2 – Coaching and Implementation
• October convening: Alumni principals and their teams reunite to report on progress made and to discuss next steps in implementing their School Arts Plans.
• Seed money (2005-06 -$600; 2006-07 - $1,000; 2007-08 - $700): Schools use these discretionary funds provided by ArtsEd Washington to advance their arts plan in different ways.
• Two half-days of onsite coaching by arts education specialist: ArtsEd Washington’s Schools Coach visits the schools twice through the year, providing support for plan implementation.
Ongoing connection with ArtsEd Washington: nurtured through phone and email.
• Four hours of site specific teaching artist or consultant time: Schools are encouraged to build connections with teaching artists or other consultants to meet specific needs identified in their planning process.
• Access to 12 Arts Impact workshops for all faculty of participating schools
• Mentoring and support by alumni to new participants.
Year 3 – Partnership for Success
• Continued coaching and implementation support
•Facilitated convenings to build principal network
•After-school workshops open to all faculty of participating schools
• Mentoring and support from these leaders to new participants
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