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Turnaround Arts is a public-private partnership that aims to test the hypothesis that strategically implementing high-quality and integrated arts education programming in high-poverty, chronically underperforming schools adds significant value to school-wide reform. In 2014, the Turnaround Arts initiative completed an evaluation report covering two years of program implementation. The final report provides a description and analysis of program impacts in the pilot cohort of 8 Turnaround Arts schools by the end of their second year. This report includes summaries of program operation and implementation practices and outcomes in school reform indicators and student achievement data. This brief also provides an overview of key findings from the broader evaluation report. Key findings include: (1) High prevalence of arts resources in Turnaround Arts schools; (2) High prevalence of the use of the arts in non-arts classrooms; (3) Intentional development of the pillars as a lever for school improvement; (4) Evidence of strategic mobilization of the arts toward larger school improvement goals; and (5) Relationships between implementation of Turnaround Arts and broader school improvement outcomes. [Turnaround Arts is supported and funded by a coalition of partners and funders without whom this program would not be possible. Special thanks to Booz Allen Hamilton and the NAMM Foundation for their support of this research and evaluation.]

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) released the results of an independent study that shows substantial gains in student achievement at schools participating in its Turnaround Arts initiative. The eight schools' in the pilot phase of the initiative, showing increases in reading and math scores, as well as an increase in attendance and a decrease in suspensions, demonstrate that the program's use of the arts is having a measureable impact on low-performing schools by increasing student engagement and narrowing the achievement gap. [Turnaround Arts is supported and funded by a coalition of partners and funders, without whom this program would not be possible. Special thanks to the NAMM Foundation, for their support of this research and evaluation.]