Special Issue Celebrating 25 Years of Federal Arts Grants

We are pleased to announce a special issue of the Journal for Learning through the Arts, featuring articles that look at research projects funded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) within the U.S. Department of Education. This is the 25th anniversary of the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) program. These articles highlight significant research in the areas of arts education and arts integration, which we hope will provide insight to educators, administrators, artists, and researchers on the role that the arts can play in sustainable educational reform.

Since 2001, the Office of Innovation and Improvement has invested more than $225 million in new awards through three arts in education grant programs: Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD), Professional Development
for Arts Educators (PDAE), and Arts in Education National Program (AENP). All of these projects work toward achieving the following goals:

  • Supporting education improvement by strengthening arts education as an integral part of elementary and secondary school curricula;
  • Helping to ensure that all students meet the challenging state academic standards;
  • Enabling all students to demonstrate competence in creating, performing, and responding to the arts.

Many of the studies in this special issue focus on the role of the arts in literacy or mathematics instruction. This emphasis is driven in part by the reporting requirements of the grants that included attention to test scores. However, the arts as a vehicle for uncovering and supporting student success are at the core of each project, whether the researchers looked closely at the inherent value of the arts disciplines, at the integration of the arts with literacy or math, or at the impact of professional development and teacher learning within the context of a specific project.

This collection represents a range of studies including broad scale partnerships between arts partners and multiple school districts, as well as smaller studies done within a single school district. The articles also represent a broad geographical reach, spanning the U.S. from Maine to San Diego, with many stops in-between. All articles look at students in schools with extensive needs and/or high poverty. Several of the projects touch on the contributions of the arts to supporting English language learners.

For teachers and administrators, this collection identifies successful practices for in-class instruction in addition to numerous models of
professional development. Researchers will be interested in the varied methodologies used in these studies. We look forward to the contribution this special issue will make to education, especially in light of current educational reforms and changes that provide a significant opening for the arts, such as Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards, and the dedicated push in Title I towards using funds for arts integration.

The Center for Learning through the Arts and Sciences offers special thanks to the editors of this special issue: Merryl Goldberg, Virginia Smith, and ElaineWalker. We are also grateful to the Arts in Education Team in the Office of Innovation and Improvement at the U. S. Department of Education.

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