Turnaround Arts: Minnesota
Turnaround Arts: Minnesota supports low performing schools in using the arts as a tool for improvement. Participating schools have demonstrated increased academic achievement, increased student and family engagement, and improved school culture and climate. At the national level Turnaround Arts is a signature program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Turnaround Arts: Minnesota is run by Perpich Center for Arts Education and works with schools pre-K through 8th grade.
Arts education has been shown through numerous studies to be an important part of education as a whole and able to give students tools for success. Decades of research show that arts-engaged students perform better than their peers academically. Read about the research at bit.ly/1qCus03.
For example, recent studies show that students who participate regularly in the arts:
are more self-confident and better able to express their ideas
have higher attendance and high school graduation rates
are more likely to attend a four-year university, graduate and go on to a career with potential
Arts education can also benefit overall school culture and climate, especially when it is integrated into the school, giving teachers new tools, increasing collaboration, creating an atmosphere of creativity and inspiration and engaging parents and the community.
However, federal data shows that students who need arts education the most are getting it the least. While affluent public schools have high rates of arts education, high-poverty schools often have almost none. There are over 5 million students in public elementary schools in this country without either a music or an arts class in their school. Almost all are high-poverty.
Turnaround Arts: Minnesota is an arts and school improvement program. Participating schools have demonstrated increased academic achievement, increased student and family engagement, and improved school culture and climate. At the national level Turnaround Arts is a signature program of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Turnaround Arts: Minnesota is run by Perpich Center for Arts Education and works with low performing schools pre-K through 8th grade.
There are eight Turnaround Arts: Minnesota schools around the state as of the 2016-17 school year. All were designated low-performing and in need of improvement by the Minnesota Department of Education. These schools represent a diversity of student demographics in urban, suburban and rural settings:
Bethune Community School, Minneapolis
Cityview Elementary School, Minneapolis
I.J. Holton Intermediate School, Austin
Northport Elementary, Brooklyn Center, Robbinsdale School District
Northside Elementary, St. James
Red Lake Middle School, Red Lake
Riverside Central Elementary School, Rochester
Stonebridge World Charter School, Minneapolis
The Perpich Center provides:
- Coaching, resources, and implementation support for:
- sustainable, whole school change
- strategic arts planning targeted at specific school challenges
- early childhood education in and through the arts
- curriculum development in and through the arts
- school environment, culture and climate improvement
- family engagement
- Professional development for teachers and administrators
- Documentation of outcomes and best practices
(a) These amounts are appropriated to the Board of Directors of the Perpich Center for Arts Education for the program under paragraph (c).(b) Notwithstanding Minnesota Statues, section 16A.28, the appropriations encumbered on or before June 30, 2017, are available until June 30, 2019.(c) $600,000 the first year and $800,000 the second year are for the TurnaroundArts program to assist schools and programs throughout the state.
Schools strategically increase students' access to learning in and through the arts, in order to aid school improvement. Outcomes include:
- increased student learning
- increased student engagement
- increased teacher capacity
- improved school climate
- improved school environment
- increased family involvement
Turnaround Arts: National, Americans for the Arts
(a) These amounts are appropriated to the Board of Directors of the Perpich Center for Arts Education for the program under paragraph (c).
(b) Notwithstanding Minnesota Statues, section 16A.28, the appropriations encumbered on or before June 30, 2017, are available until June 30, 2019.
(c) $600,000 the first year and $800,000 the second year are for the Turnaround Arts program to assist schools and programs throughout the state.
Schools strategically increase students' access to learning in and through the arts, in order to aid school improvement. Outcomes include:
increased student learning
increased student engagement
increased teacher capacity
improved school climate
improved school environment
increased family involvement
Over the past two years (2014-16), Turnaround Arts: Minnesota schools that began with the program in 2014 saw the following improvements:
- Percent proficient on MCAs in math increased at all four schools.
- Percent proficient on MCAs reading increased at three out of four schools.
- Suspensions at all four schools have decreased 21-96%.
- A teacher survey conducted at all four schools in spring 2015-16 revealed that teachers at all four schools indicated that their students were more engaged in both math and reading learning when the their work involved arts integrated activities.
-External evaluators observed that “the arts were three times as likely to be present when students were highly engaged and thoughtful” based on visits to 104 classrooms at Turnaround Arts: Minnesota schools.
- Family attendance at school events has increased at all four schools.
- Access to regular arts instruction delivered by a licensed arts specialist has increased at 3 of the 4 schools, as well as at one of the schools added in the 2016-17 school year.
- At Bethune, teacher retention has stabilized: all but four teachers returned two years in a row, compared to a turnover of about one-third in 2013-14.
- All four schools report that 80% or more of teachers are using arts integration regularly.
Turnaround Arts: National
Janeen Carey
Nathan Coulter
Julia Donnelly
Jody Grams
Linda Henning
Leslie LeCuyer
Mikal Nabors
Mathew Olig
Thomas Suprenant
George Sutton
Benjamin Vander Kooi
Gregory Winter
Julia Workman