Models of Implementing Arts for Academic Achievement: Challenging Contemporary Classroom Practice

The Minneapolis Public Schools’ Challenge Grant from the Annenberg Foundation focused on the arts as a means for overall academic improvement. To accomplish this goal, schools were to increase integration of the arts into the core curriculum and develop strong partnerships with artists and arts organizations. The core of the Arts for Academic Achievement (AAA) project was “bottom up” innovation, with the precise nature of the intervention to be defined by the school and the arts partners working together. Schools were at various levels of experience in working with visiting artists and arts organization partners, and therefore, developed a variety of approaches to implementation. The arts integration models in elementary schools varied by what core curriculum was taught in and through the arts, the number of disciplines (arts and non-arts) involved in the activity, whether the concepts taught during the activity focused on both the arts and non-arts areas, and what roles were played by the classroom teacher and arts partner. The five implementation models we observed are: Residency Model, Elaborated Residency Model, Capacity Building Model,Co-Teaching Model, Concepts Across the Curriculum Model