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This study compared two versions of the same elementary science professional development (PD) and curriculum program that were offered face-to-face and completely online, while keeping all content consistent between the two. Using quantitative analyses of pre- and posttests of content knowledge (CK), we evaluated the extent to which the online version of the PD compared to the face-to-face PD for increasing the earth science and art CK of upper elementary teachers required to teach an earth science and art integrated curriculum. Additionally, we explored how the impact of PD modality (online vs. face-to-face) on teachers' CK learning outcomes differed for novice and experienced teachers. Findings revealed significantly higher CK learning gains for teachers who participated in online PD compared with face-to-face PD, but with a small effect size. Subgroup analysis revealed that compared with experienced teachers, the novice teachers had significantly higher CK gains from participating in the online PD compared to the face-to-face version with a large effect size. We also discuss the implications for the design of large-scale online teacher PD.

With the aim of providing holistic approaches to education, social and emotional learning (SEL) has gained significant attention within school systems across the world. SEL has been defined as the process through which individuals understand and regulate emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy towards others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. In an effort to integrate SEL into the academic domains of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) and to promote cross-cultural collaboration, three institutions came together to deliver a groundbreaking program for elementary school students from California and South Korea: the Global Summer Academy. The impact of SEL is even greater when students observe adults collaborating to establish a nurturing environment, modeling positive behaviors, and consistently promoting social and emotional concepts and skills. Thus, forming community partnerships across contexts and settings is an ideal strategy for enriching student learning and development. SEL activities such as mindfulness practice can aid students in regulating their emotions during STEAM tasks, enabling them to better reflect on and address their successes and failures. Such a reflective process not only improves student learning outcomes, but also facilitates the development of persistence, resilience, critical thinking, and growth mindset. Therefore, integrating SEL principles within STEAM activities not only enriches the academic experience, but also equips students with the social and emotional skills necessary for personal growth. To assess students' learning (i.e., what they learned, what they enjoyed, challenges they faced), brief interviews were conducted with all participants at the end of the week-long program. This feedback suggested four key themes -- problem solving, relationship skills, self-awareness, and emotion awareness.

This is the first in an occasional series on the dramatic national push to revamp how reading is being taught in the earliest grades. This EdSource special report examines the state of early reading in California, the needs of special learners, teacher preparation and training and curricula and textbooks that are driving instruction. This ongoing EdSource series will do a deep dive into the scope of the literacy crisis in California, digging into emerging research, state policy, a groundbreaking lawsuit, teacher training and bilingual issues, to assess just how much is at stake in a state that fails to teach more than half of its children how to read.

The benefits of undergraduate research experiences are well documented, yet few studies focus on programs designed to support students conducting research in the fields of humanities, arts, and social sciences. In this study, the authors examine learning experiences of students participating in the undergraduate research programs (URP) at UCLA, which support students conducting multiterm research or creative projects with faculty mentors. Drawing on data from students who participated in URP from 2015 to 2022 (N = 431), findings indicated that URP offered students structure, resources, mentorship, and peer networks to help them succeed. Further, students made significant gains in feeling connected to the research community and reported that undergraduate research was an important component of their academic career.

Teacher education has underutilized the inclusion of art museum education experiences for preservice teachers (Henry, 2004). Teacher educators recognize that learning by doing is effective, which is why some early field experience is required in most teacher education programs (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Teacher education places preservice teachers in classrooms to learn. Why not place them in museums? This qualitative inquiry illuminates potential benefits for supervised preservice teachers to teach in art museums collaboratively. If art museum educators are hesitant to invite preservice teachers to teach art to children in their museums, their concerns can be addressed through existing research, and more research on this subject can help get more preservice teachers into museums.

Art education associations across the United States have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the force of societal change has impacted all aspects of both the personal and professional lives of teachers. Leadership that is elected and currently serving during this point of inflection find themselves in turbulent positions that demand adaptation to stay relevant as well as "flight plans" that responsibly steward organizations toward sustainability and future succession. As COVID-19 moves into an endemic phase and art educators shift their practice toward embracing the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and access (EDIA), the California Art Education Association (CAEA) has taken bold action to confront contemporary challenges. In this article, I share a perspective on organizational change that both traces the evolution of EDIA work within CAEA and provides a preliminary flight plan that outlines current activities and potentialities for future sustainable initiatives.

Traditional teacher professional development (PD) programs frequently lack sufficient face-to-face preparation time to adequately support the implementation of evidence-based pedagogical strategies in classrooms, with teachers citing insufficient preparedness and training time for new methods. To investigate potentials for online PD methods to effectively address these issues, while increasing sustainability, this study examined teachers in Title-I elementary schools spanning multiple school districts participating in a large-scale online PD certificate program preparing teachers over 10 instructional weeks to implement Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (S)cience, (T)echnology, (E)ngineering, (A)rts, (M)ath (STEAM) curricular instruction with goals of increasing teachers' science content knowledge, self-efficacy to implement STEAM instruction, and STEAM teaching perceptions. Paired sample t-tests indicate teachers' life science content knowledge, self-efficacy, and STEAM perceptions increased significantly after completing the online PD. Multiple regression analyses identified teachers' science content knowledge and STEAM perceptions as statistically significant predictors of teachers' self-efficacy to implement STEAM instructional strategies. Teachers' posttest course evaluations were gleaned, highlighting three emergent themes: learning experience design, modality, and online teacher collaboration. Utilizing a mixed method approach, these qualitative insights corroborated the quantitative trends, describing how specific aspects of the pedagogical learning experience design (LXD) framework operationalized in the online course fostered a practitioner development learning environment, focused on supporting teachers' learning needs. Results suggest practical design implications for sustainably increasing the efficacy of PD through online teacher training developed in conjunction with LXD models for iterative improvement and design of high-quality online instructional PD programs.

Promoting equitable access to the arts may depend on structures that support teachers in integrating arts into core curricula. We describe an arts-integration design that spotlights attention within and beyond one teacher credential program to one arts field--drama--engaging 24 new non-arts teachers across grades and subjects who participated in a drama academy. Our project shines the light on contributions of early-career teachers to generating conceptions derived from immersion in drama and inquiry into classroom practice. We focus on teachers' developing repertoires of drama-based pedagogy (DBP) practices for use among diverse learners, and on engagements in ongoing inquiry and reflective cycles. Drawing upon teachers' reflections and classroom inquiry projects from a multiyear experience, we mapped teachers' drama conceptions and practices in three interactive tiers: "foundational," "core," and "critical literacies." We illustrate themes with teachers' reflections and reports of practice, including a vignette of a Mexican-American/Chicana teacher with children ages 9-10, a number of them native-Spanish speaking emergent bilinguals. The study informs teacher efforts in diverse classrooms to integrate and sustain classroom drama. Drawing upon insights and themes from results, we offer policy implications and recommendations for others wishing to design for and learn from innovative drama integration efforts.

U.S. educational systems routinely dismiss and discount the voices of newcomer and emergent plurilingual students, and instead privilege ideologies of whiteness, ability, and English monolingualism. In this paper, we use a case study from a month-long arts- and literacy-rich summer program in Southern California to examine how three educators' enactment of authentic cariño led them to disrupt culturally and linguistically subtractive practices and co-create educational processes that honor and amplify newcomer students' voices, agency, and authority. After examining ideological, curricular and pedagogical elements of their approach, we focus on implications for our collective efforts to re-imagine schooling as a radically inclusive space that unapologetically supports and sustains the voices, agency, and humanity of newcomer and emergent plurilingual students and communities.

In its four years of life, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has blazed new pathways for policy and funding in K-12 arts education. Many states acted early to take advantage of these federal opportunities to expand students' access to the arts. Through its definitional language, suggested actions, and funding mechanisms, ESSA provides states five levers that are presented in this report: (1) The definition of a well-rounded education; (2) Title IV-A; (3) Title I; (4) Accountability; and (5) Protection from "pullouts." This report discusses how states and districts responded, along with implications for state boards.

I teach in a multiple subject credential program that requires all preservice teachers to complete a course specifically focused on arts curriculum and instruction. Based on my experiences in other credential programs throughout California, arts curriculum and instruction is often combined with another content area like social studies. My arts course critically examines pedagogy in dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts within a 10-week time period. My narrative explores how abruptly moving to remote arts instruction stressed access and equity as essential elements for content coverage. Future practical implications for remote arts instruction include, but are not limited to, classroom management, access to arts supplies, hands-on learning, and sustaining authentic assessment.

Arts programs have much value to offer children and educators alike, and so it is important to seek avenues for providing these enriching opportunities. Emerging from the collective and personal traumas experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, arts programming may play an especially important role in welcoming students back to schools, particularly in under-resourced communities that were hit especially hard. There has been a lot of focus on "learning loss" during the pandemic, but there have been other costs as well. These costs have included relationship-building (and healing) and the "not-on-the-test" aspects of learning and development, such as arts and play. A study was done as the pandemic hit of a student performance program called Disney Musicals in Schools (DMIS). DMIS is a free program that jumpstarts musical theater in under-resourced elementary schools by providing schools with ShowKit materials for a 30-minute Disney KIDS musical and by connecting teachers with local professional teaching artists to help guide them through the process. These schools are often situated in low-income neighborhoods that serve large numbers of students of color; these same neighborhoods have been hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic. Findings showed that participating in these musical theater experiences, ranging from "The Lion King" to "The Jungle Book," helps students in all the ways one might expect, from improving language and social skills to being more engaged in class. Also of note was the impact the experience had on students' character, mental health, and emotional well-being. The program helped students discover their "courage" to tell their stories with their whole heart and voice. It was clear that helping to put on a musical for and in front of one's peers enabled young students to face all sorts of fears and persevere despite those fears.

This article examines how important an explicit mission and values framework can be for community-based arts education organizations in times of crises. This argument draws on interview data from early and later points in the COVID-19 pandemic with three community-based arts organizations whose work is deeply rooted in creative youth development (CYD) principles: Enriching Lives through Music in San Rafael, CA, Elevated Thought in Lawrence, MA, and Austin Sound Waves in Austin, TX. While the organizations represent different geographies, art forms, and approaches, each has depended on CYD's core set of values to guide its rapidly evolving efforts during the first six months of the pandemic. Moreover, as each organization has listened and worked with young people in new ways, that work expanded and deepened the original CYD framework. But even as these organizations prevail, all three cases also reveal the fundamental vulnerability of community-based arts education and the kinds of recognition and civic supports needed to ensure that such work thrives.

The purpose of this qualitative research case study was to investigate leadership and funding decisions that determine key factors responsible for sustaining arts programs in public schools. While the educational climate, financial constraints, and standardized testing continue to impact arts programs in public education, Eastland High School, the site of this case study, managed to sustain its visual and performing arts program. The foundation of this research study was shaped around understanding the key factors that sustained the arts program at Eastland High School. A qualitative lens utilized three research questions that investigated arts programs at the school, leadership decisions that supported the arts program, and funding decisions made at the site. Data triangulation was used to identify several emerging themes relevant to the three research questions. The implications of this case study indicated collaborative leadership and resourceful funding decisions sustain viable arts programs in public schools.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have brought a stronger emphasis on engineering into K-12 STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) instruction. Introducing the design process used in engineering into science classrooms simulated a dialogue among some educators about adding the arts to the mix. This led to proposals for a STEAM (STEM + arts) curriculum, as well as warnings that integrating the arts would weaken STEM instruction. The study summarized in this article tested the hypothesis that the arts might provide upper-elementary students, who were still concrete thinkers, with a powerful means of envisioning phenomena that they could not directly observe. This study investigated the impact of STEAM lessons on physical science learning in grades 3 to 5. Ten out of the 55 high-poverty (Title 1) elementary schools in a large urban district were randomly chosen as treatment schools and divided into two cohorts. Using a quasi-experimental design that holds general student scientific achievement constant, the study found that students exposed to the STEAM lessons demonstrated greater improvement on physical science benchmark assessments than students exposed to a STEM-only physical science curriculum.

Middle- and high school-based programs that affirm diverse sexual orientations and gender identities are related to lower rates of bullying and better mental health for LGBTQ students, yet little is known about how to implement affirming programs for elementary-aged children. This study is among the first to examine how an arts-based curriculum for grades K-5 that embraced expansive understandings of gender was related to children's gender attitudes and beliefs. Structured interviews queried beliefs and attitudes towards activities associated with traditional gender norms with 83 students in a California afterschool program. Following the curriculum, more students reported their gender in expansive terms, specific changes in gender norm beliefs were observed, and attitudes became more positive towards those who engage in gender-expansive roles, activities, and attire (e.g. a boy who becomes a mother). Results suggest that gender-focused arts-based curricula may be associated with increased awareness of gender norms, shifts in understandings of gender, and more positive attitudes toward gender-expansive roles, activities, and attire.

Editor's note: In assembling this issue, I sought to compile compelling stories of arts education cuts and the responses of local communities. I invited National Council on the Arts member Dr. Bruce Carter to share such a story. The following article begins with Carter's narrativized account of informal research on the arts partnership in the Chula Vista Elementary School District in Chula Vista, California. Following this, Nancy Roucher, chair of the Arts Education Task Force of the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County and co-chair of the Community/Schools Partnership for the Arts, shares a story from Sarasota, Florida.

In this article, we look at the impact of an arts integration program offered at five large urban elementary schools on the daily attendance and oral language skills of children in kindergarten through second grade. Many of the children attending these schools spoke a language other than English at home. Teaching artists visited each class weekly for 28 weeks, co-teaching theater and dance lessons with the teacher. School engagement was measured by comparing attendance on days with and without scheduled arts lessons. Attendance was significantly higher on days the artists visited; absences were reduced by 10 percent. Speaking and listening skills were measured through standardized test scores. Qualitative analysis of interview and survey data revealed that teachers perceived the theater and dance lessons to provide rich opportunities for verbal interaction between teachers and pupils. Student speaking and listening skills improved significantly, as did teachers' ability to promote oral language.

The Global Writes (GW) model is a well-designed performing arts integrated literacy program that builds local and global support among students, teachers, and arts partners through the use of innovative technologies. Through local partnerships between schools and arts organizations forged by GW, classroom teachers and local teaching artists build collaborative relationships to impact teacher practice and effectiveness, school culture and environment, and student development and achievement in the arts and English language arts. Classroom-based interventions for students include residencies providing instruction in writing original poetry and the art of performance, and poetry performances for authentic audiences including local community-based and inter-city poetry slam sessions. Dissemination, growth, and sustainability have been the cornerstones of the GW mission, promoting the improvement of teaching and learning. Throughout this process the GW team has embraced the metaphor of "the mirror and the canyon" by formatively reflecting on the model of practice, continuously improving the program model by "looking in the mirror", building on what works as evidenced through research, and tailoring the program to meet the needs of individual schools and arts organization partners in each location. The authors will provide a review of the GW program, tracing its history and development, and focusing on how specific aspects of the model and evidence of its academic, social-emotional, and professional successes have been used to expand, build local support, and sustain the program in several communities across the country. Evidence of increases in student performance on state ELA exams, long-term impact on teacher practice, and sustained use of technology to continue collaboration among participants are highlighted as hallmarks of demonstrated success of the GW model in cities throughout the country.

This paper examines the impact of two approaches to teacher professional development in arts integration--a summer institute model and a model combining the summer institute with instructional coaching. In an experimental design, the intervention trained third and fourth grade teachers to integrate visual arts and theater into reading curriculum. Findings suggest the coaching plus institute intervention had a greater impact on teacher confidence, use and frequency of arts integration than the institute-only intervention or on the comparison group. Coached teachers reported greater confidence integrating the arts, produced higher-quality work samples, taught more reading concepts with arts integration, implemented more arts standards, and used arts integration more frequently than did the institute-only teachers or the control group teachers. Coached teachers reported in greater numbers about the positive impact the professional development had on their teaching practice, including feeling more creative, inspired and finding greater enjoyment in teaching. Coached teachers were more likely than institute-only teachers to correctly use state VAPA standards and to perceive student progress towards those standards. Institute-only teachers demonstrated greater confidence in and used arts integration more frequently than did the comparison group. However, they did not reach the same levels as the coached teachers and were more likely to report time constraints and other roadblocks to successful implementation. Teachers in both treatment groups reported high student engagement and better expression of learning by students when using arts integration instructional strategies. This project was funded through the U.S. Department of Education Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination program.

CoTA (Collaborations: Teachers and Artists) is a professional development program that empowers teachers to access the arts in everyday instruction to support student achievement. CoTA schools commit to intense, 3-year collaborations for ten weeks each year where teachers learn to capitalize on arts content and strategies to promote knowledge and skills in other curricular areas, such as language arts and math. Teachers and artists work together to identify the learning needs of students, customize a project to meet those needs (while aligning to the standards), refine the project on a weekly basis through collaborative meetings, and formally reflect on the experience in a cycle of continuous improvement. As the program progresses, responsibility for designing arts-infused units increasingly falls to the classroom teachers as the artists shift into a coaching role. The result is a sustainable model with a legacy of confidence and skills in arts integration for teachers. Researchers from the University of California San Diego are conducting a quasi-experimental study, which features a multi-site, mixed-methods design to examine CoTA teachers' understanding of arts standards and potential impacts on students in grades 1-6. Data sources include a pre/post-test to measure teachers' understanding of arts standards, teacher interviews that examine implementation, CoTA classroom observations, training documents, and student scores on language arts benchmarks. Analyses include thematic coding of qualitative data, as well as descriptive and inferential analyses of student outcome data collected by the District. This article will present preliminary findings from year one of a three-year evaluation.

To ensure a robust and comprehensive educational experience, every K-12 learner must have access to high quality Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) education. To make this happen, their teachers must be effectively prepared to provide excellent art education experiences. Although arts education is required in many states (including California) as part of licensure requirements, little is known about the actual implementation of these policies. To better understand this preparation gap, a three-part statewide study analyzed the status of arts education in California teacher preparation programs. Findings from survey, interview, and document analysis indicate that arts education experiences increase candidate confidence and deepen their understanding of the benefits associated with using the arts to meet the needs of diverse learners. However, inconsistent program requirements among institutions of higher education contribute to a lack of cohesion in art preparation throughout the state.

Near the end of February 2020, the Art Education Club officers at California State University, Northridge introduced members to a collaborative collage artmaking project, inspired by Marty McCutcheon's "Check It Out" project. Club members--preservice art education students, mentor art teachers, and higher education faculty--had recently voted to meet more than once a month for artmaking opportunities. These new events were organized around creating work together to promote individual and collaborative experiences while strengthening relationships and building leadership capacity. With 18 club members, partners, friends, and children in attendance at the February artmaking evening participants shared ideas and stories, creating a lively environment and excitement about exchanging projects. The plan was to leave with someone else's collage, adding to it over the month, bringing it to the next meeting scheduled for the end of March, viewing works in progress, and exchanging them for another collage to contribute to. This opportunity to make art together, although physically distanced, connected participants in unexpected ways during this time of isolation.

This paper explores the integration of art, literacy and science in a second grade classroom, showing how an integrative approach has a positive and lasting influence on student achievement in art, literacy, and science. Ways in which art, science, language arts, and cognition intersect are reviewed. Sample artifacts are presented along with their analysis to show how students learn in an integrated unit that incorporates visual art as a key component. While we recognize the importance of art as a unique domain, this research demonstrates how integration of visual art, literacy, and science content creates an effective curriculum benefiting all students.

This article highlights the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, California, which is one successful model of a community-based arts education organization whose central mission is to provide these deep art-rich experiences for students from low socio-economic status (SES) communities, who in this instance are predominately African Americans and Hispanics. How the East Bay Center has survived and grown from a modest start in 1968 to a $15.4 million capital campaign and building renovation is a model of how multicultural community-based organizations can serve their constituents and grow and mature in cities that are not economically vibrant. Looking at the lessons learned, but more especially how the Center has managed to retain institutional integrity and quality of services, can assist other organizations to likewise thrive.

This article places youth spoken word (YSW) poetry programming within the larger framework of arts education. Drawing primarily on transcripts of interviews with teen poets and adult teaching artists and program administrators, the article identifies specific benefits that participants ascribe to youth spoken word, including the development of literate identities, therapeutic experiences, overcoming of shyness, and increased self-confidence and self-esteem. The author describes the writing workshop format common to many YSW programs and analyzes the specific contribution of performance to the benefits that participants identify from YSW. This article draws on James Gee's (1991) concept of discourses to explain the strong identification that many YSW poets feel toward their chosen genre.

Arts Impact summarizes lessons learned at the ArtsBridge Program. It is informed by in-depth participant observation, logic modeling, and quantitative evaluation of program impact on K-12 students in inner city schools and arts students at the University of California Los Angeles over a two year period. The case study frames its analysis through a literary overview of the following social issues: 1) how educational attainment relates to poverty in California; 2) the importance of the creative economy in Los Angeles; and 3) the failure of California to reach federally mandated goals in arts education--particularly for under-resourced neighborhoods. Data finds statistically significant positive impacts on participants' views of self and others. This case study suggests important roles for higher education partnerships with under-resourced K-12 schools, the significance of quality teacher preparation in the arts at the university level, and the positive impact of arts education for empowering student and teacher learning.

This article describes the unique multicultural arts program that has developed at Freese Elementary School, located only 20 minutes from the United States-Mexico border, in the southeastern corner of the San Diego Unified School District. The Arts and Culture Magnet Program at Freese grew out of the need build bridges in a neighborhood where rapid demographic change had created explosive tensions. The magnet program teaches visual and performing arts, literacy, and social studies through in-class artist residencies, workshops, field trips, and assemblies that have been developed in collaboration with local arts organizations. Through the arts, Freese has become a bright and cheery school where children are busy learning, an island of hope in a neighborhood beset by conflict.