Best Practices of Award-Winning Elementary School Principals by Harris Sandra K.;

Author:Harris, Sandra K.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1051611
Publisher: Corwin Press
Published: 2005-03-23T00:00:00+00:00

PRINCIPALS NEED TO SUPPORT THE ARTS

Paul Young

Lancaster, Ohio

Fear of a poor performance on their school’s high stakes testing is motivating many principals to carve additional instructional time out of an already jam-packed school day. Focusing more on reading, writing, math, and science, they often succumb to reducing or eliminating students’ scheduled time in the “nonbasics.” Children of poverty most often constitute the majority of students in “poor” performing schools. Unlike their more privileged peers, more often they don’t have parental encouragement or support for afterschool music, art, dance lessons, sports, travel, or various club activities.

I enjoyed school because of music and art. I admired my music teachers, and they recognized and nurtured my talent, inspiring me to eventually pursue music study in college. I also sought and received special attention in art, where I experienced success and self-expression more than in any other subject area. I developed a lifelong love of running in physical education classes, and early experiences in student council sparked my desire to become a leader. These nonbasic experiences in the elementary grades had a lasting impact as my life interests and desire to learn developed.

So why would anyone in the principalship deny a child the same opportunities? It seems I argue this point with some of my colleagues all the time. Look at the research. Studies show that where schools increase opportunities in the arts for all students, test scores rise proportionately.

I know the impact the arts make! My Title I school consists of more than 60% poor Appalachians—a frequently neglected minority. Here is our story.

Six years ago, when I became principal of West Elementary School, the students, their parents, and community viewed their school with little pride—“tough west-siders with a chip on the shoulder.” I assumed I was being punished when assigned there—that was the common assumption within the district. What I observed required change. The process and intricacies of the adaptive change process is a story on its own, but for now, let’s focus on the arts.

West School’s test scores traditionally ranked at or near the bottom of our district’s nine elementary schools. I knew improving test scores would take time. There were too many other glaring problems: special education students in self-contained classes; angry and frustrated students, parents, and teachers; reactive punishments actions rather than proactive instructional discipline; low parental and community involvement; lack of pride and sense of belonging, and so on. To find something that could begin a turnaround, I relied upon the power of the arts—a constant positive within the school.

The focus was multifaceted: (1) acquisition of small summer arts enrichment program grants from the community, (2) integration of visual arts and illustrations with students’ writing, (3) a music teacher who coordinated Music in Education lessons with all content areas, (4) development of an afterschool program supporting the arts, (5) creation of a code of conduct put to rhythm, drama, and visual displays, and (6) schoolwide dance, drama, and musical assemblies (I even played my trombone). These all worked together to begin a slow turnaround.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.