Arts Education Program for Partner Schools

ETA makes a four-year commitment to its Partner Schools, helping them build sequential, school-day arts programs and increase out-of-school opportunities in the arts for their students. ETA currently serves a roster of 56 Partner Schools throughout New York and Los Angeles — all public high schools, a majority holding Title I designation.

TURNAROUND ARTS: New York City

Turnaround Arts is a national initiative run by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, leveraging the unique power of the arts in education to accelerate transformation in high-poverty, low-performing schools. ETA is the local program partner managing TA: NYC and is experienced in helping schools implement strategic plans for building impactful arts programs. Through TA: NYC, ETA will serve a cohort of high-need middle schools in the Bronx and Brooklyn and work to build new and strengthened music programs, arts-integrated curricula, and a viable pipeline to well-performing, arts-focused high schools throughout the City, with a special focus on neighboring ETA Partner High Schools. Together, ETA and TA will provide four years of funding and technical assistance to support the schools' development of new and sustainable curricula, family engagement initiatives, and assessment practices to improve their cultures, climates, and overall performance.

Program Philosophy: The collaboration between Exploring the Arts and Turnaround Arts fulfills their complimentary missions to transform the lives of under-served young people and low-performing schools through the arts. It also serves to pilot a new, middle - to - high school pipeline model that is unique to very large, urban school districts. With success, ETA's goal is to replicate this concept in other NYC boroughs and L.A. neighborhoods where ETA Partner High Schools with successful arts programs currently lack viable feeder programs at the middle school level.

THE 4-YEAR PLAN for Partner Schools

Through its core, capacity-building initiative, ETA provides funding and technical assistance over the course of four years to help principals and teachers implement strategic plans for building rigorous, school-day arts programs and curricula that lead to measurable improvements in student learning, student engagement, and program sustainability. ETA's coaches work with schools to help them identify and achieve specific goals for developing their arts programs and to equip them with the tools for more effective program administration.

Program Philosophy: Through this initiative, ETA addresses a dual need held by public schools throughout the country: 1) After decades of budget cuts to arts education, many schools lost the financial resources to keep arts programming alive; 2) Mounting pressure to devote greater time to standardized test prep and core academic subjects has pushed rigorous arts curricula to the margins, replaced by intermittent electives or clubs. ETA helps schools rebuild and advance their arts programs through a funded, multi-year strategic plan rooted in the understanding that the arts boost student engagement in school, impart transferable skills, and are worthy of study for their own intrinsic value.

The 4-Year Plan for Partner Schools program is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Partner School Network

ETA fosters an ongoing relationship with schools during and following the completion of their 4 Year Plan by inviting them to participate in Network opportunities that support the ongoing capacity, learning, and development of arts teachers and school leaders through access to professional, educational, creative, and funding opportunities.

ARTS ACCESS GRANTS

Like a smaller version of the 4-Year Plan, through the AAG, ETA provides strategic support and funding to help teachers from Alumni Partner Schools build or refine a class or program in the arts, or develop an arts integration initiative. Individual, pairs or small groups of collaborating teachers are awarded $2500 over the course of 1 academic year to support their work. Teachers are encouraged to reach out to their ETA contact to discuss their plan(s.) The application is only open to ETA Network alumni schools.

The application for the AAG is closed for 2023.

PEER LEARNING COMMUNITIES

Launched in 2020, ETA’s Peer Learning Communities (PLCs) convene monthly to provide opportunites for educators of the same arts discipline to:

  1. Grow their personal networks + Build Community

  2. Share pedagogical, curricular, and creative ideas and resources with other educators/artists

  3. Gain a deeper understanding of how arts education can support and strengthen social, emotional, and cognitive competencies.

“I want to celebrate that we formed a community, and it’s one we want to continue. Now we have an opportunity to continue supporting one another into the future.”

- Lee Petruzzelli, Band teacher at JHS 144

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Professional Development (PD) sessions, created in collaboration with community arts partners, increase the capacity of teachers to center students’ identity, skills, culture and community, and nurture creative and critical thinkers by incorporating Anti-Racist and Transformative Social and Emotional Learning practices in their arts discipline.

LA Director, Rubi Fregoso, developed a two-part professional development series, open to all arts teachers in ETA’s Partner Network.

These virtual gatherings provide opportunities for educators to:

  1. Integrate Critical Pedagogies into their class

  2. Foster welcoming & inclusive arts classrooms

ETA’s school programs receive significant funding from the following donors.