Thirty-four (34) new awards were made in FY 2006. These grants support the further development, implementation and expansion of standards-based arts education programs and the integration of arts instruction into the core curriculum. Grants were awarded to both local educational agencies (LEAs) and sate and local nonprofit arts organizations that work in partnership with LEAs.

Childsplay, Inc. will partner with the Washington Elementary School District to provide arts integration to schools with at-risk students located in Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona. The primary objective of the proposed model is to develop a core group of educators who possess the knowledge, skills and motivation to implement standards-based theatre lessons across the curriculum, thereby strengthening integrated arts instruction and improving the academic achievement of their students. The model is comprised of in-service professional development opportunities, co-teaching with theatre specialists, performance attendance, and artist residencies. The project will be replicated at the fourth, fifth and sixth grade levels.

The project objective is to strengthen integrated arts instruction and to improve the academic achievement of students in Washington Elementary School District. This will be accomplished through the professional development of teachers who possess the knowledge, skills and motivation to implement standards-based theatre lessons across the curriculum. Nine schools within the Washington Elementary School District located in Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona, will receive the Childsplay program each year.

A rigorous multi-year project study will adopt a pretest-posttest control group design with random assignment of students to conditions. Project outcomes and outputs will be disseminated to theatre and performing arts organizations throughout the country, providing a replicable model for successful arts integration in elementary schools.

Projected outcomes from this study include improved student achievement on standardized tests, increased arts integration activities in participating classrooms, and sustained ability of teachers to create, implement and evaluate integrated lesson plans that meet State and national standards.

Math in a Basket (MIAB) is an arts-integrated standards-based program that links hands-on experiences in creating visual art and basketry with key math concepts to improve and expand the scope of low-income students' learning environment. MIAB enhances student creativity, performance and ability to respond to other core subjects by providing them with 24, one-hour/weekly workshops each year on a 1:5 teaching artist: student ratio, while providing teachers with intensive training and in-class mentoring in arts integration over four years. The goal is to test the longitudinal impact of engagement with MIAB and arts integration on students' academic performance from 3rd grade to 5th grade.

MIAB is a partnership between Dramatic Results (DR), an award-winning community-based non-profit educational arts agency and Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), the third largest school district in California. Ninety-six classroom teachers, and 18 administrators/specialists will receive 2 years of intensive professional development and in-class mentoring by Year Four of this project. In Year Four, MIAB will replicate the program by (a) launching a Teacher Institute to train 18-24 teachers from other districts and (b) launching MIAB into at least one new district in Year Five (as a no cost extension to federal support). MIAB's aim is to demonstrate (a) participating students show statistically significant improved academic achievement longitudinally, including their skill in creating, performing and responding to the arts, (b) participating teachers show statistically significant improvement in the frequency and quality of standards-based arts education integrated into core curriculum, and (c) statistically significant longitudinal improvements in classroom behavior, art knowledge, self-concept, academic persistence and problem solving skills of students as a result of sustained engagement in arts education.

The Fresno Unified School District will implement the Arts, Literacy and Achievement project. Project activities will include: 1) integration of arts content standards into English Language Arts (ELA) instruction, 2) implementation of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), 3) implementation of the nine highly successful instructional strategies identified by Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001, Classroom Instruction that Works, ASCD), and 4) modeled and coached arts classroom lessons from Community Arts Specialists (CASs). A total of 42 K-6 teachers (2 per grade level) will participate in this project. Five CASs will provide modeled standards-based arts lessons (one hour per week per class) and work with teachers to develop standardized lessons in each art discipline. The lessons will be integrated with Houghton-Mifflin (HM) Reading themes. Each year, arts unit-lessons will be developed to correspond to each of the HM themes covered in each grade level. A different set of theme unit lessons, per discipline, will be developed each year for each grade level. The project anticipates that participating teachers will improve their ability to effectively present and assess integrated Arts/English Language Arts unit lessons. Students will show significant growth in reading comprehension, vocabulary, and literary analysis; and demonstrate mastery of state art standards as measured by portfolio assessment and rubric evaluation of ongoing art work. WestEd will conduct a quasi-experimental evaluation of the grant.

The Lake Elsinore Unified School District will implement Arts & Literacy Integration in Nebraska and California (Arts LINC). Project Arts LINC will increase student literacy and art achievement by providing teachers in kindergarten through grade three with in-depth professional development in visual art and music integrated with English literacy and language development. Participating teachers will learn how to contextualize arts instruction in and out of the literacy block.

Arts LINC is a collaborative project of teachers, local artists, universities, and professional organizations. It will capitalize on years of existing professional connections between the university, teachers, and arts organizations in California and Nebraska. The diversity of settings and populations will provide opportunities to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Arts LINC professional development and classroom integration model while providing critical arts and literacy instruction. Through summer outreaches, the project will reach another 210-240 teachers in 3 yrs and another 4200-6000 students.

The project has three goals. The first goal is to increase language and literacy skills by improving vocabulary and fluency for all students focusing on at-risk students. The second goal is to create a viable and replicable model of quality arts integration that is sustainable in real world classrooms, specifically in districts with limited access to large arts institutions and their resources. The third goal of Arts LINC is to demonstrate the importance of collaboration for long-term change with limited resources. The overall goal is to create a model of arts integration with visual art/music/movement and English Language Arts that demonstrates how the arts facilitates language development specifically vocabulary. This research is based on the work of Efland, Eisner, Dyson, Marzano, and others.

The Performing Arts Workshop, Inc., in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) will implement the Arts Residency Interventions in Special Education project (ARISE). The purpose of the project is to research and evaluate the benefits of an intensive, critical-thinking based, culturally competent arts program for special education students. The Workshop's ARISE project has been designed to: 1) improve special educationstudent understanding of artistic processes and values, 2) increase special ed. student use of the arts to think critically and innovatively, 3) improve academic performance; 4) improve pro-social behavior; 5) develop arts education tools that improve teaching methods and pedagogy for students in Special Education, and 6) disseminate and expand the use of better methods and pedagogy to build institutionalization of the arts in special education programming.

Based on the positive outcomes of the Artist-in-Schools (AIS) project research for the general education population, Performing Arts Workshop seeks to determine the academic and social benefits of the AIS model as it is specifically designed for students in urban Special Education programs. The project will implement and evaluate professional development programming and a series of 30-week artist residencies in creative movement, theatre arts, world dance, and/or music. The project will serve kindergarten through fifth grade Special Education students in both inclusive General Education classrooms and Special Education-only Special Day Classes. It will also serve 16 teachers and 14 teaching artists. The ARISE evaluation will employ a quasi-experimental, comparison group design with pre- and post-test measures to assess student growth. The Performing Arts Workshop and SFUSD are especially interested in positive outcomes that would promote the long-term sustainability of the AIS model at the institutional level in order to reduce racially based academic disparities, ultimately aiming to improve student academic performance within Special Education programs.

San Diego County Superintendent of Schools will implement Picture This. The project is an outcome of two highly successful media arts projects in San Diego, California, that have merged for the purpose of expanding to additional districts. The purpose is to integrate standards-based arts education into the core curriculum, strengthen standards-based arts instruction, and improve students' academic performance in elementary and middle schools. This project will teach students to become analytical media consumers, accomplished movie makers, and knowledgeable about careers in media arts. Students will experience the planning, production, and post-production stages that Hollywood movie makers go through. Furthermore, this instruction will be founded on highly successful, research-based existing programs that have long operated with a high degree of success.

The San Diego County Office of Education proposes to create a comprehensive and replicable media arts curriculum for grades 4-8. These students as well as 60 teachers will be directly effected by the Partnerships with the iVIE Awards Project, Project LIVE, California State University San Marcos, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and other partners. This partnership will provide teachers and students in five California districts with in-depth training in media arts. The curriculum, called the "Picture This Handbook," will be placed online, and in concert with software that allows teachers to work together collaboratively, will create a replicable and sustainable media arts program.

The project evaluation will gather data that will be used to guide the direction the project takes and contribute to knowledge in the field. Dissemination is assured by expanding to new districts each year across the state of California. California's statewide High Speed Network guarantees dissemination throughout the state and statewide sustainability beyond the life of the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant.

The Literate Learners Project, a partnership between Streetside Stories, Aspire Public Schools, and the San Francisco Unified School District, will implement, evaluate and disseminate a wraparound arts integration program. Literate Learners will provide high-quality arts integration for sixth and seventh grade low-income Limited English Proficient students at four public and charter schools in Oakland and San Francisco.

The objective of the project is to help LEP students meet language arts standards and to increase achievement levels through programs that integrate storytelling, theater, literary arts, visual, and media arts into the core language arts curriculum. Additionally, it will train teachers to integrate and replicate the arts learning curricula. The project will provide professional development that allows project replication and special attention to LEP students' needs.

Project goals include: (1) increased achievement in California ELD sixth through eighth grade standards in language arts, (2) increased achievement in sixth and seventh grade standards in reading and oral communication, (3) increased California writing, theater, technology, and visual arts standards, (4) increased test scores on California standardized writing and language arts tests; (5) increased student enthusiasm and motivation, and (6) teachers that are prepared to integrate arts with the core curriculum and participate successfully in program implementation.

The Arapahoe County School District 1 in partnership with the Englewood Cultural Arts Association will implement the New Frontiers of Arts in Education project. The project is an opportunity to explore fresh educational territory and establish new frontiers in integrating standards-based arts education into the core middle school curriculum.

Project activities include training in and implementation of techniques for integrating standards-based arts instruction into daily middle school mathematics instruction; collaborative planning and teaching involving middle school math teachers and professional artists from the Englewood community; opportunities for standards-based arts experiences outside of the mathematics curriculum that are rooted in brain-based learning theory; outreach to small school districts with demographics and resource issues similar to those in Englewood Schools; and evaluation processes that both inform and affirm New Frontiers activities.

Project objectives focus on student performance in mathematics and the arts, teacher and artist understanding of the connections between arts education and mathematics, development of the collaborative model, the degree of implementation, and on unintended consequences. Anticipated outcomes include a 25% increase in proficiency performance on standardized math tests and a 25% increase in arts assessments, positive student attitudinal change, increased understanding of arts integration and positive teacher attitudinal change, record rates of academic gain in high-implementation classrooms, piloted and proven arts integrated lesson plans, and successful dissemination to two small district middle schools outside of Englewood.

Up to 1100 students will be served by the New Frontiers project at approximately 6 sites including Flood and Englewood Leadership Academy Middle Schools in Englewood with outreach to Students in a minimum of two non-metropolitan school districts.

The School District of Hillsborough County will implement the Lift Every Voice for Literacy project. The project willintegrate literacy and music using strategies derived from scientifically based researched studies that prognosticate success. Three research areas coalesce to form the basis for this project: 1) research on the role of fluency in the reading process, 2) research on the effect of arts on achievement, and 3) research on the singing/reading connection. Second grade readers in eight randomly selected Title I public schools in Hillsborough County, Florida will participate in the project. Participating students will receive 60 minutes of regular music instruction and attend an additional 30-minute music class one day per week as part of their literacy extension. In four schools, Singing Coach Software, which includes a digital recording interface for assessment will be used for the extension. The other four schools will use traditional teaching methods for singing as the intervention.

Progress for these students will be followed for the 4 years of the study with Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) given in grades 3, 4, and 5. The goals of the program are:

• By the end of the project, 80% of the participating students will read at or above grade level as measured by the FCAT Reading;
• The music proficiency of 80% of the participating students is increased as measured by a teacher-developed assessment; and
• Provide professional development to identified music teachers who use pedagogical strategies in music education that develop the musical skills as well as the literacy skills of struggling readers.

The methods and results of the project will be published via the Internet and will be presented in professional journals and conferences. The project anticipates the empowerment of students and teachers alike as they transform teaching and learning practices for struggling readers.

Pioneer RESA will partner with the Leonard Bernstein Center for Learning, the Character Education Partnership, the Minority Student Achievement Network, Kennesaw State University Center for Service, Outreach and Partnerships, and Inner Harbour Residential Treatment Center to implement the Bernstein School Transformation: Character Through the Arts project. The project will: a) strengthen and disseminate the Artful Learning^TM model as a school transformation model that is highly adaptable to site-specific needs and requirements, b) develop and disseminate standards-based, arts-integrated strategies and rubrics for use with core curricula that target instruction designed for underserved populations, c) disseminate professional development that prepares teachers to become teacher-leaders and successfully work with at-risk students, and d) establish character education, through the arts, as a permanent strategy within the model.

These outcomes will strengthen the Bernstein Artful Learning^TM Model that uses the arts to take students to high levels of mastery of rigorous national and state standards. An approved New American Schools design, it is the only NAS model using the arts with "best practices" and proven fundamental principles of learning at the classroom level. Deliverables from the proposed project include: (1) a more fully scientifically researched arts-based comprehensive reform model and professional development modules to disseminate arts-integrated curricular materials, (2) rubrics for analyzing student work and teacher assignments within an arts-based curriculum, and (3) arts-based performance assessments linked to lessons focusing on a rigorous, arts integrated curriculum and arts standards. The goal of the project is to create a replicable model that levels the playing field for all learners, and restores the love of teaching in a manner that produces highly qualified teachers who adapt their pedagogy to engage all students.

The Hawaii Alliance for Arts Education will implement the Arts & Literacy for All (ALA) project. The project is a whole school model designed to impact student learning and teaching practice through arts integration in the classroom. The project is based on professional development, mentoring with teaching artists, and collaborative curriculum planning. "Ala", in Hawaiian, has different meanings. It can be interpreted as "path or road". It also means to awaken and renew. The ALA Project will lead teachers and students in Hawai'i on the path to academic success in reading and writing, as well as awakening and renewing a commitment to learning through arts integration.

The goals of ALA are to: 1) improve student performance (reading and writing) through the integration of standards based drama and dance studies into academic instruction:2) engage students in learning and increase positive attitudes and motivation; 3) improve teaching practices and teachers' attitudes toward teaching with the arts: and 4) observe and document changes in teaching pedagogy.

The ALA project is designed to address identified specific gaps and weaknesses in services and the infrastructure of Hawai'i's public schools system. The project will utilize the ARTS FIRST Essential Arts Toolkit for the K-5 Classroom Teacher: Hawai'i Fine Arts Grade Level Guide. The Toolkit is written for the generalist classroom teacher and provides critical tools for effective delivery of standards-based arts education and contains multiple lessons in dance and drama. Each teacher will also be supported by a professional artist mentor who will work alongside her/him in the project to integrate dance and drama strategies into the language arts curriculum.

The project's evaluation will focus on the effects of the ALA project's PD provided to teachers in Grades 3-6. There will be two pairs of schools, including at least one Title I school.

Schools within the pairs will be randomly assigned to either Group A or Group B. There will be two Group A schools and two Group B schools.

The arts strategies in the Hawai'i ALA project provide the classroom teacher valuable tools for reaching students with diverse learning needs including those with English as a second language and with poor verbal skills. The arts strategies enhance the teacher's efforts to strengthen students' communication skills, especially verbal skills, in most academic subjects. Students learn to express themselves through image, gesture, sound and movement. Arts integrated classrooms support all children in utilizing various tools to understand and express themselves and their thinking in multiple modes.

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS), in collaboration with the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE), will implement the Partnership for Arts Integration Research (PAIR) project. To improve teacher instruction and student performance in both the arts and other core academic areas, PAIR will pilot a cross-school collaborative process for developing and implementing standards based, arts integrated curricula in grades four through six. The proposed model builds on previous and current CAPE work with CPS schools.

The participating low-income schools will come from the CPS Magnet Cluster Initiative (MCI). The MCI has four types of schools: fine and performing arts, literature and writing, math and science, and world language. A unique feature of PAIR is the formation of three collaborative groups, each of which pairs a fine and performing arts school with an academic content area school. Also unique is the support each group will receive from the joint efforts of paired fine arts and content area external partners from Chicago's rich array of museums and cultural organizations.

Each group will form a collaborative team with representative school staff and partner experts. These teams will plan and implement integrated curriculum and aligned artist residencies for their paired schools. A comprehensive professional development program, directed by CPS and CAPE, will prepare team members, classroom teachers, and teaching artists for their roles. A documentation, assessment, and research component-using and building upon CAPE's field-tested instruments-will help the schools, and ultimately the larger educational community, understand the impact of the arts on learning and how cross-school partnerships build capacity.

The Education Development Center, Inc. will implement the SmART Schools WEST MODEL. The goals of this project are to: (1) strengthen the arts as an essential academic subject in the school curriculum enabling all students to meet academic standards and achieve proficiency in the arts; and (2) strengthen and increase rigorous, high-quality arts integration thereby improving the academic achievement of all students. SmART Schools is an institutional change model with five objectives: (1) daily standards-based instruction in the arts, (2) daily integration of the arts into other core subjects, (3) development of Professional Learning Communities and Collaborative Leadership Teams, (4) a safe, personalized, inclusive school culture, and (5) partnerships with parents, community, arts and cultural organizations, and higher education.

Having already demonstrated its effectiveness in 17 elementary schools in three New England States, SmART Schools will now adapt the model and test it on the West Coast in four Title I elementary schools in Santa Monica/Malibu School District. In addition to students, the project will serve more than 100 arts educators, administrators, and classroom teachersIn SmART Schools, classroom teachers will collaborate with arts educators and/or local master teaching artists to develop and implement standards-based art instruction in all four art disciplines-music, visual arts, theater, and dance to improve student performance in mathematics and language arts, with a particular focus on math problem solving and writing based on the model's major impact in the east. SmART Schools' activities within these schools will include annual summer institutes, mini-institutes, collaborative leadership team training, professional learning communities training, and ongoing support by staff and teaching artists. The Smart Schools WEST adaptations will include use of a local site developer, training local master artists to provide professional development, and engaging local arts institutions. Expected outcomes include significant improvements in school leadership and climate; teacher attitudes and behaviors; parent/community engagement; and student achievement in core academic subjects, proficiency in the arts, motivation and engagement, self-esteem and confidence, and citizenship. A rigorous third-party evaluation will assess the model implementation and impact.

Springfield Public Schools (SPS) and the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) have designed and will implement Explorations in Puerto Rican Culture (Explorations). The purpose of the project is to address serious problems of under-achievement in Springfield, Massachusetts and, by extension, in other districts in the United States with substantial numbers of non-European-American students. The project design is based on the culturally-responsive schools model described by Geneva Gay and the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory. The institute component is modeled on the National Endowment for the Arts Teacher Institutes piloted in summer 2005. Explorations aims to enhance student performance through creating culturally sensitive curriculum and pedagogy that will result in greater student engagement and parent involvement. During the process educators will become knowledgeable about Puerto Rican culture, including the selective use of Spanish. Students will be able to find themselves, their families and their community in their schools.

The project has nine components. They are:

• fieldwork to identify quality Puerto Rican artists in the community,
• training traditional artists to work effectively in schools,
• curriculum-integrated artist visits to schools and in-school performances,
• public concerts and exhibitions,
• educator content and curriculum development in-service days twice a year,
• three summer content institutes,
• ongoing curriculum development,
• mentoring educators with teaching artists, and
• dissemination of project results.

Explorations will work with both arts educators and classroom teachers in grades 3-8 who are interested in participating in the program and will be recruited by district personnel from all Springfield elementary and middle schools. Teachers will be required to apply in teams consisting of one arts educator and one classroom teacher from the same school.

Inkster Public Schools, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Education, Oakland University, Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit and The Detroit Institute of Arts, will implement IPS Showcase - Arts Integration for Academic Success!. The project will provide research-based, arts-integrated classrooms for K-8 students using Very Special Arts, Visual Thinking Strategies and a middle school Performing Arts Village. The project will also include professional development programs for instructional staff. This approach, linking integrated standards-based arts instruction with core academic content areas and State and National standards will enable all students to meet challenging expectations and improve academic achievement in three high-needs, urban schools southwest of Detroit.

IPS Showcase goals and objectives strive to meet higher achievement among students of the arts as compared to achievement amongst students in control or comparison groups. The key program goals are to: (1) increase student achievement in core academic subjects through arts integration, (2) enhance teachers' content knowledge of the arts, (3) implement research-based arts in education model programs, and (4) provide students with supplementary arts learning experiences. Through improved knowledge and skills, the art and classroom teachers will be equipped to achieve key program outcomes. They are: 1) the promotion of student achievement through engaging and positive learning experiences that capitalize on the unique talents, skills and learning styles of youth, 2) increased student appreciation of the arts and the role they play in our communities, and 3) understanding of cultural diversity. The project will be evaluated by EduShift, Inc.

Lansing School District, in partnership with the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan State University, Wharton Center for Performing Arts and the Kresge Art Museum will implement research-based arts-integration programs for K-8 students and other instructional staff. These programs, collectively called PAINTS-Promoting Arts Integration in Teaching Standards will integrate standards-based arts instruction with core academic content areas, link State and National standards, and will enable all students to meet challenging expectations and improve academic achievement.

In addition to students, PAINTS will serve 1 40 teachers. The project will work toward the following goals: 1) to enhance teachers' content knowledge of the arts, 2) provide teachers with innovative teaching techniques to implement engaging arts education lessons, 3) equip art and classroom educators with the skills to integrate art education and instruction in the core academic subjects of English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, 4) integrate technology into arts education and combined arts/academic subject instruction, and 5) promote on-going communication among teachers.

The IND School District 94 will implement Project Intersect. Project Intersect is a collaborative research-based model designed for American Indian and non-Indian students in grades K-8 to enhance their interest, understanding, enthusiasm, and performance in standards-based art education, language arts, mathematics, and science. By combining culturally competent art benchmarks, the project will develop new and effective interventions for arts education that integrates a culturally responsive model with standard-based education. American Indian and non-Indian students in Independent School District 94-Cloquet, Minnesota and neighboring Fond du Lac Ojibwe School on the Fond du Lac Reservation will participate in this project.

Cloquet is a community of 11,200 located in rural northeastern Minnesota on the northern border of the Fond du Lac Indian reservation. Cloquet Public School has two elementary schools with a total enrollment of approximately 900 students, 18% are American Indian. The neighboring Fond du Lac Ojibwe School has 220 students in K-5, all American Indian. Project Intersect is a collaborative effort among Cloquet Public Schools (Principal Investigator and lead applicant agency), Fond du Lac Ojibwe School, Carlton County Arts Network, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC), the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration (ICI) and Department of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) Art Education Program, and local American Indian artists. These institutions have a long history of working collaboratively on federally funded projects to address the academic and social needs of American Indian youth.

The project design is research-based. The arts continue to play a role in cultural continuity, helping stabilize those unique indigenous cultures and carry on the identities and accomplishments of tribes (Mc Carty, 2002; McFee, 1995). Curriculum rich in ethnic content positively boosts the primary cultural identity of American Indian students (Lysne & Levy, 1997; Martinez & Dukes, 1997). Culturally compatible teaching methods are critical to working with students whose families' cultures are not reflected in the dominate or majority culture (Phillips, 1983). More relevant curriculum that is constructed collaboratively with the American Indian community, artists and school personnel promote cultural learning as a bicultural process of acquiring knowledge (Agboo, 2001; McCarty, 2002). Carroll (1990) states that art-because it connects humans to their universal identity as well as their past, present and future; represents different ways of knowing the self; and addresses the students' need to understand themselves and their world. This approach creates a learning environment where children (American Indian and non-Indian) gain basic skills within two cultures that are so critically needed for academic and social preparedness.

The overall purpose of this project are to: (a) partner with local American Indian artists to infuse culturally responsive American Indian visual and performing arts into K-8 arts education, (b) integrate American Indian arts activities into language arts, math, and science education, (c) ensure that this American Indian arts-based curriculum is aligned with state and national benchmarks and content standards in the visual and performing arts, language arts, math, and science, (d) research the effectiveness of the culturally integrated American Indian curricular model in improving student academic performance in language arts, math, and science, and (e) disseminate program results and outcomes for national and statewide replication.

The Manchester School District (MANSD) will partner with the Center for the Advancement of Art-Based Literacy at the University of New Hampshire and RMC Research to adopt, adapt, expand, deepen, refine, document, evaluate, and disseminate two innovative, cohesive art-infused instructional models. Picturing Writing: Fostering Literacy Through Art and Image-Making Within The Writing Process have proven their effectiveness in significantly improving students' academic performance in writing and reading, particularly among at-risk learners, through the integration of standards-based art and language arts instruction into the core curriculum. This proposal expands upon previous studies totaling over 2700 students (1993, 1998, 2005, and standardized test score data 1999-2005) that have documented significant gains, particularly among Title I and Special Education students.

The City of Manchester serves as a national refugee relocation center and has the highest poverty level in NH. With more than 70 languages spoken, the entire district has been identified as "In Need of Improvement." A preliminary PW pilot program has demonstrated great promise. The goals of this initiative are: 1) to design and implement an effective, cohesive school-wide PW/IM integrated curriculum standards-based elementary school model, 2) to strengthen standards-based art and language arts instruction through enhanced professional development, 3) to determine through scientific evaluation the effect of the enhanced model on students' academic performance, and 4) to disseminate research findings and the enhanced model.

A quasi-experimental design using carefully matched comparisons will document the impact of the enhanced model on 1200 students in grades 2, 3 and 4 in five schools over 3 years.

Camden County Technical Schools' (CCTS) and the Camden County Educational Technology Training Center (CCETTC) will partner with Lawnside Public School, Woodlynne Public School, and Rutgers Center for the Arts (RCCA) to implement the Arts Imersion project.

The project is unique in that it will integrate museum content specialists (to include resident artists) and technology throughout the arts education curriculum. In addition to computer technology, the model also includes program delivery via videoconferencing to link the target population to museum experts. The student outcomes from this project will be based on both the National Standards for Arts Education and New Jersey's Visual and Performing Arts Standards and frameworks. It is the intent of this partnership to design and implement a high quality, research-based program that focuses on student achievement as it relates to the integration of arts education into the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and the National Art Standards. The project will concentrate on curriculum improvement, to include the infusion of the arts, professional development focusing on differentiating instruction, improving teaching quality in the classroom, in-class mentoring and modeling, and instructional technology. Through this initiative, all partners are striving for a four-year goal of improving scores on the New Jersey standardized assessment for all students.

This project, Arts at the Core, will link Expeditionary Learning Schools EL) with Genesee Community Charter School and two urban elementary schools in Springfield, Massachusetts (Beal and Pottenger). The purpose of the project is to create and disseminate visible and replicable models of rigorous, standards-based instruction that places arts "at the core."

EL school designers will work with teachers and administrators from the three project schools to fashion, implement and refine explicit delivery models in arts-based instruction across the content areas. By partnering a high-achieving arts-integrated EL charter school with two EL schools in a high poverty urban district, the project will build capacity in the EL Schools network to disseminate promising practices-through a multi-media Archive of tested products and instructional designs-that can lift the arts and arts practice as a critical instructional vehicle in all standards-based environments, especially in urban settings. This will lead to increased understanding, awareness of and responsiveness to the arts among students at project schools; and measurable increases in academic achievement in literacy, mathematics and science, particularly at Beal and Pottenger. Project activities will concentrate on professional development of teachers in the use of arts as a vehicle for standards-based instruction in the arts and other content areas, and will use National Site Seminars and Arts Institutes to disseminate design practices and as a multi-media Archive of project products.

The project will employ three art specialists. Visual art, music and dance will be integrated into the curriculum. The evaluation is a quasi-experimental design evaluation.

Honoring Student Voices is a collaboration of Global WRITeS, Inc. and two LEA's, the NYCDOE and the Chicago Public Schools. The project will combine literacy instruction, theatre performance and technology within the framework of a scientifically based research project, to determine the impact on student academic achievement of arts integration with the core curriculum. The project will serve six middle schools in the Bronx, New York, and Chicago, Illinois. Using random assignment, the schools will be selected from among those that meet or exceed the cut-off for Title I eligibility and have been designated as underperforming based on state standards in ELA. Participating students will be followed for three consecutive years from grade six, in the Fall of 2007, through grade eight, in the Fall of 2009. The research data will be analyzed to identify student/teacher outcomes and to validate the replicability of the model. The goals of Honoring Student Voices, which have been designed to meet the needs of teachers, students and each local school community, are: 10 students will increase oral and written communication skills and deepen their appreciation for the arts;2) teachers will become more proficient at integrating theatre performance with literacy instruction; and 3) Global WRITeS will create a sustainable and replicable program model.

Honoring Student Voices seeks to replicate key elements of POETRY Express, a USDOE funded AEMDD grantee from 2003. Over the last three years, data from twelve classes in the Bronx showed a significant trend toward an increase in students' oral and written skills and a deepened appreciation of the arts. POETRY Express was itself based on the model of Bronx WRITeS, a successful nine-year collaboration between Region 1 and DreamYard, which combines the art of performance and writing of original poetry to extend the development of standards-based literacy and communication skills. Teaching artists work with classroom teachers in writing workshops, and videoconferencing technology enables the classes to collaborate in workshop sessions and participate in academic "poetry slam" competitions. Global WRITeS, a nonprofit organization formed specifically to share this successful program, seeks to combine efforts with Honoring Student Voices in order to prove the replicability of the model and build a national community of teachers, teaching artists, and student poets.

Region 7 of the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), in partnership with the Manhattan New Music Project (MNMP), will implement Setting the Stage for Success (SSS), a standards-based program for English Language Learners (ELLs), Special Education inclusion classes, and the arts educators and classroom teachers who service them. SSS is a program designed to encourage students' creative inquiry and artistic expression, using a student-created musical theater production as its organizing concept. Through a series of professional development workshops and extensive in-school support, participating teachers will learn skills and strategies across all arts disciplines (drama, music, dance, visual arts, and creative writing) to facilitate student artistic creation, based on themes from their academic curricula. Rather than viewing students as passive consumers of the arts, the project seeks to foster active, inquisitive, collaborative creators, capable of self-expression through a variety of arts disciplines and media.

In addition to increased arts competency, the grantee also anticipates improved language facility and academic performance from participating students. Programmatic evaluation and dissemination will be conducted by Dr. Rob Horowitz, a nationally recognized arts and education researcher, and recent contributor to Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development, published by the Arts Education Partnership. The evaluation will employ a quasi-experimental design, with an additional, systematic qualitative component.

Performance data, including New York State and New York City standardized tests, measures of students' knowledge and skills in the arts, measures of teachers' ability to integrate the arts, and demographic data will be studied over the course of the project through statistical analyses and compared with a matched, equivalent non-treatment sample of students provided by New York City Public Schools. Throughout the course of the project, the equivalence of means will be tested (t-test) for the overall groups and various subgroups (schools, grades, SES, ELL, disabilities, etc.) to ensure that the comparison groups maintain similar characteristics. The same individual students will be tracked over the course of the project. Regular reports will provide for ongoing feedback and program quality monitoring.

The Rochester City School District (RCSD) Arts Impact Study project is designed to provide) elementary school students and classroom teachers with access to high quality arts programs. The Arts Impact Study project seeks to integrate arts programs into the curriculum to: 1) benefit student achievement in classroom content and the arts, 2) to train RCSD arts teachers to integrate classroom content into arts curriculum in order to create richer learning experiences for students, and 3) provide a framework that would be replicable and adaptable by other districts and cultural organizations across the nation. Arts Impact Study will assess the impact of integrated arts instruction on students' achievement in all core content areas and professional development (PD) to participating teachers including K -6 classroom, visual art, music, education departments of local cultural institutions & teaching artists.

The Arts Impact Study project's evaluation will be in three areas: 1) assess the impact of integrated arts learning experiences on student achievement in other core curricular areas (Math and English language arts), 2) study the impact of integrated arts learning on teacher practice, and 3) assess and evaluate professional development activities by and for teachers. The project outcomes are to: demonstrate competence in arts; demonstrate systemic education reform by strengthening arts education an integral to school curriculum increase student achievement in English & Math as evidenced through student assessment & test data; develop a replicable & adaptable model for art integration; ensure that students meet National & NYS Content Standards; enhance support from community and arts organizations; and improve teacher practices based on evaluation data & surveys.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will initiate The Art of Problem Solving. The project will address the needs of at-risk, elementary students by placing artists in their classrooms to engage them in art explorations that foster problem-solving skills. The primary goals of The Art of Problem Solving are to serve at-risk students and to contribute to the increased understanding of: (a) what constitutes good art teaching, and (b) how good art teaching can result in increases in student problem-solving skills. This project will produce valid, reliable data on the power of ongoing classroom engagement with the visual arts to teach such skills, as evidenced by behavior, test scores and ability to meet targeted New York State Learning Standards. For over 35 years, the Guggenheim's Learning Through Art (LTA) program has placed professional teaching artists in New York City public school classrooms to lead workshops that integrate the discussion and creation of artwork, plus visits to the Guggenheim, with the social studies, language arts, science and math curricula. The significance of LTA as a national model has been demonstrated by recent research which shows that this program results in increases in students' critical thinking and literacy skills. The Art of Problem Solving will directly serve second and fifth grade students, 42 teachers, and 14 teaching artists from Manhattan and the Bronx. The specific schools - eight in Year One and six in each Year Two and Year Three - will be randomly chosen from a matched group during Year One of the project, in order to allow for an experimental study to examine how the arts teach problem-solving skills.

The project will have broad benefit to the art education field by widely disseminating proven teaching hallmarks for how the arts can be used to improve elementary students' problem-solving skills. Through published articles, national conferences and a website with detailed information on teaching methodologies and resources, the Guggenheim will allow the results of the study to be replicated for at-risk students in other classrooms across the country, well beyond those participating in LTA.

ArtsConnection, will fund Developing English Language Literacy through the Arts in Middle Schools (DELLTA-MS), a four-year project that will serve English language learner (ELL) students in grades six through eight in partnering New York City public schools. DELLTA- MS has two main goals: (1) to provide ELL students with greater capacity for learning in and through the arts that will help sustain them through high school graduation; and (2) to improve the knowledge base of teachers, artists, and administrators to better meet the needs of ELL students.

The project will involve three middle schools in Brooklyn and Queens that have ethnically diverse populations and a high percentage of students living at or below the poverty line. It will also engage at least 20 ESL/ELA teachers, three arts specialists, six ArtsConnection teaching artists and school administrators in a wide array of professional development and collaborative practitioner research. DELLTA-MS will build on ArtsConnection's model of inquiry-based school partnerships that has been proven effective in developing language skills in a general population and its work with ELL students in elementary schools to create a model of arts education that helps develop English language proficiency in middle school ELL students.

Students will receive 30 hours of arts instruction each year -- 15 in theater and 15 in dance - from ArtsConnection teaching artists through an inquiry-based approach that meets state and local standards and helps develop their physical, emotional, and intellectual capacities. Teachers, teaching artists, arts specialists and administrators will build understanding of student learning in and through the arts to improve their practice and help students build knowledge across learning domains.

DELLTA-MS will result in six study units; a professional development guide outlining the methods, protocols and resources used in the project; and a research report that will document and quantify the impact of the project on the students, teachers schools, and ArtsConnection.

ArtsTeach will support the continuation and expansion of its innovative arts integration program, ArtStart. This innovative program provides arts integration instructional tools, training, and assessment strategies that support both the third and fourth grade writing curriculum for classroom and arts educators and teaching artists. Currently serving some 4,400 fourth grade students, the project expects significant growth in terms of the number of schools, teachers, students and grades being served.

This program is a unique partnership between ArtsTeach and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in which key administrators from both entities engage in continuous dialogue to ensure that the ArtStart program, first and foremost, meets the identified and expressed needs of the school system. In working to enhance teaching and learning in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the project will assist with a rapidly growing and diversifying student population while supporting student achievement within the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. The major components include an intensive summer workshop for teachers, arts educators and teaching artists, funding for residencies to take place in the school and additional mentoring and coaching for teachers and teaching artists. Because of this partnership, ArtStart is uniquely suited to evaluate its success across a school system and to disseminate its model and outcomes. ArtStart has a particular focus to provide important additional resources for students who have been identified as being at-risk, in order to maximize learning opportunities.

In addition to professional development, the project will include artist residencies in multiple disciplines. Project outcomes include development of arts integrated writing lessons by classroom teachers, and students will demonstrate growth in academic achievement as measured by writing tests at a rate of 10% annually.

The purpose of Building Bridges Through Art Smart is to expand arts programming within the Warren County School District of Pennsylvania. Studies conducted by the county demonstrate that training elementary teachers in arts strategies can boost scholastic performance within rural lower socioeconomic elementary schools. This proposed project would transfer a series of successful interventions used in Project Art Smart to four school districts with similar demographics. The desired outcome is to increase student achievement in mathematics and reading. The longitudinal experimental research design for this project is a pretest/posttest control group with repeated measures.

The significance of the project is to demonstrate, in a small controlled setting, that successful standards-based arts instruction, infused with the core curriculum, can improve student achievement. Project outcomes include teacher training in the arts, the development of new teaching modules, and increase student achievement in mathematics and reading.

The objectives are to (1) review the research findings and teaching units of Project Art Smart to identify commonalities that made them successful, (2) select the strategies and modules shown to be most effective and replicable for this project, (3) deliver professional development to classroom teachers to effectively use the strategies, (4) train the art and music teachers to serve as Creativity Mentors for classroom teachers, (5) utilize the Intermediate Unit's regional internet 2 as a delivery mechanism for professional development and as a forum for teacher reflection, and (6) significantly increase student achievement, creativity quotient, and classroom teacher use of arts infusion strategies as measured by TerraNova, PSSA, and Torrance Creativity assessment data.

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) and the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership (PAEP) will implement Arts Bridges, a replicable, comprehensive arts-integrated program honoring state arts standards and improving literacy skills of Grade 4, 5, and 6 students in very-low-performing schools. Evaluated as a quasi-experimental research project in a major urban district with high poverty and low student achievement levels, this program will engage students in arts-based learning collaborations, integrating the arts into the core literacy curriculum. Each grade-level collaboration will annually include two arts residencies addressing key grade-level literacy goals of the District's Literacy Curriculum, establish a six-month arts-integrated, thematic approach to these goals, and develop "scope and sequence" curricula for classroom implementation. Ongoing professional development and mentoring build capacity for program sustainability beyond the grant term.

Documented for dissemination, the research-based model will demonstrate how arts-based learning collaborations can integrate arts into the core literacy curriculum while enhancing pedagogy and building capacity. Teachers, working with artists in their classrooms, will be given diverse, novel teaching strategies to enhance learning in underachieving students. Scientifically-based research methods will examine impact of this model on strengthening students in arts and literacy skills, while improving their standardized test scores, pro-social behavior, and attitudes toward school. Model dissemination holds promise of improved outcomes elsewhere.

Dorchester County School District in partnerships with independent consultants, evaluators, several state and local arts organizations and the College of Charleston has developed and will implement the Dorchester Arts (DARTS) Project. The project is an "arts at the core of the curriculum" program which is built on the premise that the arts should be pursued with the same rigor and intensity as the more traditionally defined core curricular disciplines of mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts. The DARTS project will: 1) develop an arts inventory that will assign every rising sixth grader to an appropriate arts major which will be pursued 200 minutes per week for the student's three year middle school tenure, 2) develop a sequential three-year curriculum for each of the major arts disciplines, 3) create a matrix with an instructional guide that shows the connections between the arts major and the other four core content areas, 4) provide access for students and their parents to high quality arts experiences, 5) enlist local arts organizations and agencies as contributors to this unique educational program, and 6) provide staff development experiences that maximize opportunities for networking and sharing among teachers.

The Dorchester will rigorously evaluate a project whose purpose is twofold:

• to determine whether middle school students who are enrolled in an arts discipline that is scheduled and taught as a core academic content area will show greater academic growth in ALL academic subjects than middle school students who receive arts instruction as an "exploratory" or "related arts" area; and
• to develop, administer, and test an instrument that can be used to schedule individual middle school students into the arts discipline that will lead to their optimal academic performance in all content areas.

If it is documented that the arts have been successful in improving middle school academic achievement as measured by performance on SC's state PACT tests, DD2 will replicate the model in its other four middle schools.

The Value Plus Arts Integration initiative is a four-year education reform effort conducted by the Tennessee Arts Commission. The overall goal of the Value Plus program is to develop a professional development model that can be replicated throughout the state. Participating elementary classroom teachers, arts specialists, and teaching artists will deepen their arts knowledge and skills, develop strategies for arts integration, and collaboratively design and teach standards-based arts curriculum leading to increased student learning, in, about, and through the arts.

The objectives of Value Plus are to situate standards-based arts education in the core curriculum; promote connections among and between the arts and other subjects; improve teacher knowledge and skills in the arts thereby strengthening student knowledge and skills in creating, performing, and responding; collaborate with parents, arts and civic organizations, area universities; and build a sustainable system for arts education and integration. Teachers and administrators will annually engage in strategic planning, professional development, curriculum workshops and leadership retreats.

Teachers, and subsequently students, will gain a holistic understanding of the arts that includes knowledge and skills not only in creating art, but also in the aesthetic, critical, cultural, and historical domains of arts inquiry.

Outcomes will include enhanced teacher practice in arts education and integration, productive collegial collaboration, strengthened standards-based instruction, increased motivation and engagement in the teaching/learning process, and increased arts knowledge and skills for both teachers and students.

The project will serve schoolsl that collectively represent urban, suburban, and rural settings and locations in east, central, and west Tennessee.

Big Thought will implement The Arts Standards Instructional Initiative (ASII). . Through this project Big Thought will work with Dallas Independent School District (DISD) to integrate music and theater teaching to help boost literacy, increase the music specialists' skill sets, and provide students the benefits of theater-based instruction.

Arts Standards Instructional Initiative (ASII) will draw on the successes of Dallas ArtsPartners, and also on Big Thought's successful early childhood teacher training program, North Texas Wolf Trap. Arts integration designed for academic achievement and professional development geared towards improvements in teaching are the foundation of Dallas ArtsPartners. Wolf Trap's focus is training early childhood classroom teachers how to integrate the performing arts into their general curricula to strengthen emergent literacy skills. Studies have proven both to be effective. Big Thought anticipates similar results once ASII is fully implemented.

The arts specialists will learn how to more effectively integrate their field of music into theater education to develop and enhance literacy and language acquisition. In determining these goals, ASII is designed to: 1) integrate theater arts into the academic curriculum for the purpose of building literacy and 2) train arts specialists to provide theater arts instruction in DISD classrooms, using their strength in music.

Big Thought expects to see outcomes that meet or exceed the gains made by students participating in ArtPartners and Wolf Trap. Specifically, Big Thought anticipates outcomes such as:

• Improvements in expression of ideas through language
• An increase in the average percentage of correct answers on the TAKS reading and writing tests, particularly among African-American and Latino students
• Improvements in verbal expression and vocabulary

ASII will provide music specialists with a new set of tools and curricula that will positively affect their teaching methods and content. Big Thought anticipates the following outcomes:

• Specialists will learn how to integrate elements of the core language arts curriculum into their fine arts curriculum, a skill that will prove beneficial beyond the parameters of ASII
• Knowledge gained will permit specialists to connect more deeply with their non-arts colleagues, providing them increased clout and a stronger connection to the school community as a whole
• Specialists will increase their knowledge of community cultural resources, learn how to easily access appropriate programs to enhance their curriculum, and benefit from direct experience with the programs they choose for their students - programs that are paid for with a funding allocation provided by ASII

ASII's three-year professional development initiative will align with DISD's new three-year individualized professional development plan for teachers. ASII teaching artists will train approximately 60 music specialists from approximately 60 elementary schools over the course of the grant. This will impact an estimated 42,000 students in grades K - 5. Big Thought will continue to train music specialists beyond the grant period.

The Houston Independent School District will implement Phase II of the Arts Education Matters project. Phase II of Arts Education Matters is an expansion of the first phase of the Arts Education Matters model that has been field-tested in selected Houston elementary schools since August 2000. This initiative will spread the program into ten middle schools whose "feeder" elementary schools have been receiving externally funded Arts Education Matters programs and services for the past six years. Phase Two of the model would continue to enhance, expand, document, evaluate, and widely disseminate all aspects of this unique research-based and field-tested arts education partnership model for possible replication on a national scale.

Key components of Arts Education Matters include: 1) staff development for teachers outside of arts disciplines so that they may integrate arts-based teaching into the classroom and 2) strengthening standards-based arts instruction via long-term campus-based artist-in-residence programs for students both during and after school hours. Additional key components of Arts Education Matters Phase II include field trips program partners such as the Houston Symphony, the Alley Theatre, and the Museum of Fine Arts. Other experiences might include Houston campus-based performances, master classes and workshops; and opportunities for parent and family involvement in school-based after school programs. These activities have two main goals: 1) to measurably improve student achievement in all subjects and, 2) to enhance students' abilities to create, perform, and respond to the arts on a meaningful and inspiring level.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C. will partner with the Pascagoula School District in Pascagoula, MS, and the Albuquerque Public Schools in Albuquerque, NM. The project will use distance-learning technologies to provide intensive, sustained professional development for teachers, enabling them to incorporate the visual arts into their teaching. It will also integrate the visual and language arts into classroom lessons, while supporting national and state Standards of Learning in the arts and helping children discover their own potential for creativity. The project is based on research that demonstrates a link between teacher quality, professional development, and student achievement. Research reveals that good teaching matters more to student achievement than any other single education resource. The project goals are: 1) to create a model professional development program using distance learning technologies to help teachers integrate the visual arts into core curriculum, 2) to further an interdisciplinary method of teaching and learning through the arts, 3) to promote student acquisition of basic skills in creating and responding to the visual arts and to expand their creativity, critical thinking, and communication skills, and 4) to document and create a rigorous evaluation of the program, ensuring its suitability for national replication and dissemination.

Teachers Connect: Distance Learning in the Arts will work with teachers over the course of the project. This project, which targets fourth and fifth-grade teachers and their students, comprises a proven arts integration curriculum model and professional development that combines on-site and distance learning. Professional development activities provide the knowledge, resources, and strategies to achieve improved student learning in and through the arts.

Arts Impact/Arts Leadership (AI/AL) is a joint project of Puget Sound Educational Service District (fiscal agent) and the Washington (State) Alliance for Arts Education. Arts Impact is a successful two-year teacher training model that incorporates artist/mentors to develop classroom generalists to standards based arts and shared academic concepts through arts infused lessons. AI/AL extends Arts Impact to train principal/school/community teams to draft and implement multi-year arts plans that support teachers and incrementally bridge the gap between the school's current arts instruction and Washington State's Arts Essential Learnings. The grantee anticipates that schools whose principals participate in training will be more successful at arts integration than those with teacher training only. Twelve elementary schools in Pierce County with free and reduced lunch percentages of 35% or more will be randomly selected and assigned to one of three groups-teacher and principal training; teacher training only; and control group. Our objectives are: Four elementary schools will develop and implement multi-year arts education plans. Fifty-six grade 3, 4, and 5 teachers in eight schools will teach standards-based arts to 1,120 students 45 hours per year. Treatment students will demonstrate greater knowledge and skills in dance, visual arts, and theater than students in control classrooms. Treatment students will demonstrate greater mastery of 8 writing and 8 mathematics concepts taught through integrated arts/academic lessons than students in control classrooms. The AI/AL model will be replicated with fidelity in 8 additional schools. The AI/AL model and products will be disseminated through 3 study papers, 2 regional and 2 national presentations, and expanded web-based arts-infused lesson plans and project information. Project outcomes are (1) Integrated standards based arts education in grades 3, 4, and 5 in the elementary curriculum; (2) Improved academic writing and math performance and (3) AI/AL model replication and dissemination.