Spotlight on Schools: ECEAP
January 2012
"I love Arts Impact. We're learning stuff we didn't know."
"After our class about drawing lines, Ahmed (a 4 year old boy) held up a stuffed snake and said, 'Look, a zigzag!'"
In 2009-2011, Arts Impact worked with ECEAP early learning specialists on a pilot project to develop a professional development program that combined the best practices of both. As a result, Arts Impact added new early childhood strategies to its two-year professional development model.
Arts Impact's new Early Learning and the Arts (ELA) program expands on that pilot. Thanks to funding from the Bamford Foundation, whose mission supports individuals and families in Tacoma and Pierce County, ELA is training six ECEAP teachers and six assistant teachers from Tacoma’s Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center (MCFHC) in the Arts Impact model from 2011-2013. MCFHC is a non-profit human services agency, providing culturally relevant support to children and families from diverse ethnic backgrounds, with 98 children enrolled in ECEAP.
ELA builds on established community partnerships of Arts Impact, ECEAP and MCFHC to create links and continuity and promote sustainability. Tacoma Art Museum and the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts provide venues for training, performances, tours and trips for Arts Impact classrooms, and ongoing resources for teachers. ECEAP has worked with the Children’s Museum of Tacoma in designing their new space and program development. MCFHC has established a strong relationship with Stanley Elementary, the neighborhood school serving MCFHC families, to improve the transition from pre-school to kindergarten. ELA brings these partnerships together for an effective and holistic approach to improve access and opportunity in learning and the arts.
Arts Impact, PSESD, MCFHC and Bamford Foundation staff reflects on their experiences with the ELA program so far:
Why is Arts Impact a good fit for ECEAP and MCFHC?
Learning in and through the arts is foundational to early childhood education. MCFHC is comprised primarily of children from families with multiple challenges that typically are identified as indicators of poor student achievement. The mission of Arts Impact and PSESD is to eliminate the achievement gap by 2020 and insure access to quality education for ALL children. Partnering with MCFHC helps us fulfill that mission. MCFHC has a family centered culture: a place where parents, teachers, and older siblings are involved in a collaborative way to help insure that the pre-school children will be ready for kindergarten. This collaborative approach to education fits well with the Arts Impact model of integrating multiple ways of knowing and showing.
--Sibyl Barnum, Arts Impact Program Director
MCFHC is an Arts Impact early learning program so we can work on alignment activities for students moving from early learning programs into the K-12 system. Where there are Arts Impact schools/districts, it makes sense to leverage resources and provide opportunities for learning that will enhance and increase the school readiness and school success of some of our most at-risk families. The arts are not only an appropriate and engaging way to introduce and support mathematical and literacy concepts, they are also a developmentally appropriate practice for young children – supporting their academic as well as their social/emotional needs. MCFHC is a child care center that already had strong personal relationships with the feeder elementary schools and this was a way to enhance strong academic relationships as well.
--Claire Wilson, PSESD ECEAP director
Arts Impact is a good fit not only for the teachers at MCFHC, but for the children, and their families. The MCFHC family has a willingness to be challenged by ideas and new ways of teaching that I think is driven by their belief that children be given every opportunity to be successful entering kindergarten and throughout their lives.
--Christina Aubel, PSESD, ECEAP Education Coordinator for MCFHC
Our on-going collaborative efforts with neighboring schools have turned into a full-fledged partnership in the last couple of years. We feel we are a good fit with Arts Impact because of our strong partnership in the community with families and educators, and our passion to see children thrive.
--Tracy Whitley, MCFHC Program Supervisor
The Bamford Foundation decided to lend support to the ELA project because the proposed project represented an innovative partnership that had the potential to make a perspective-changing impact on early childhood teachers, young students and their families. The project addressed two of our family foundation’s priority giving areas in a unique way: one of the Bamford Foundation’s goals is to support and enhance early childhood education and development (as well as parent support programs) though improvement of access to quality educational opportunities for all and through professional development for early childhood teachers. Another one of the foundation’s goals is to support and increase opportunities for Tacoma area children and youth to participate in arts and cultural education. The Arts Impact partnership with MCFHC is bringing arts education into the early childhood classroom in an exciting, authentic and developmentally appropriate way.
--Holly Hunt, Bamford Foundation Director
Why are arts education and arts professional development important at the pre-school level?
Good teaching is just as important for pre-school children as it is for K-12 students. Professional development in the arts is important in developing the early learning educator's sense of personal achievement and adequacy in the arts disciplines. If a person doesn't feel confident in their own abilities within a content area, they will not feel confident to teach in that content area. "You can't teach what you don't know!" Arts Impact helps early learning educators put vocabulary and more formalized pedagogy to the work that they are already doing. The training also helps them be more intentional in their instruction in and through the arts, rather than just a casual or serendipitous encounter with the arts by the children. In order to prepare students to be ready for kindergarten, instruction needs to be high quality and developmentally appropriate. The key features of Arts Impact professional development are grounded in research and best practice and have been proven to improve teacher practice not only in the arts but across all disciplines.
--Sibyl Barnum, Arts Impact Program Director
The Arts Impact program has allowed me to point out specific art lessons as examples of what teachers could be observing, documenting, entering into their assessment system. When teachers said they were surprised at how well the children responded to the arts lessons, this gave me an opening to discuss how capable and competent young children are of understanding complex ideas and instruction.
--Christina Aubel, PSESD, ECEAP Education Coordinator for MCFHC
Early childhood teachers and childcare providers deserve high-quality professional development and training in the areas of early childhood education and development just as K-12 and college-level teachers engage in training specific to their needs – these bright and hard-working teachers do not always receive the respect they are due. The training accomplished through the Arts Impact program is a model of what good training should be – authentic, involving direct participation and involvement of the teachers, collaboration with the Artist Mentors, and follow-through and extended support of the implementation in the classroom. The arts are important for us at all ages. Young children are ready and at a wonderful age to explore and express themselves through the arts in different ways, and the arts can also enhance their development of social skills, problem-solving, math and literacy skills.
--Holly Hunt, Bamford Foundation Director
What changes have you seen so far as a result of the training? What are you doing differently?
As the ECEAP Education Coordinator, I've seen the teachers embrace each Arts Impact lesson with gusto. They begin practicing and introducing lessons to the children within days of learning various art techniques. I've seen changes in how teachers display the children's paintings and in how they observe the children at work. The Arts Impact lessons offer teachers a rich opportunity to become more intentional in their practice.
--Christina Aubel, PSESD, ECEAP Education Coordinator for MCFHC
The teachers seem more alive. It’s like a breath of fresh air in the classroom. The teachers are excited about learning new activities and how to teach the children basic skills through the arts. The students get excited when it’s time for the Artist Mentors to come visit. We have made changes in our lesson plans. We feel we all have better knowledge of the different types of art, terminology, and how to use the supplies properly. We have made sure to include the arts in our daily activities. Since we have this new knowledge, we are getting more comfortable expanding the arts throughout our classroom and being more mindful of what we’re doing.
--Tracy Whitley, MCFHC Program Supervisor
I observed a dance and movement session in one of the classrooms where the Artist Mentor taught along with the teaching team at MCFHC. I was impressed by the collaborative team approach, between the teaching team (teacher and assistant teacher), as well as the teachers and the Artist Mentor. There was a lot of communication and problem-solving going on with regard to the lesson. The children and adults in the room were all actively engaged in the learning process. In addition, we all had a great time!
--Holly Hunt, Bamford Foundation Director
What do you hope for the future of arts education for ECEAP and at the MCFHC?
Arts Impact will be working with MCFHC for the next two years in order to fully train the entire staff. It is our hope that as new staff is hired, they too will be trained in Arts Impact, sustaining the culture of quality arts education for pre-school children. Arts Impact and ECEAP are actively seeking ways to deepen the collaboration that began in 2009. The impact on both programs has been profound and we feel there is a great deal that we can accomplish together to improve kindergarten readiness and help students succeed, in the region, the state, and nationally.
--Sibyl Barnum, Arts Impact Program Director
It makes me smile and stand firm in the belief that ALL our children and staff need this opportunity!
--Claire Wilson, PSESD ECEAP director
I hope Arts Impact will continue at MCFHC for years to come and that it will be extended to the childcare, infant and toddler programs.
--Christina Aubel, PSESD, ECEAP Education Coordinator for MCFHC
Our hope is that we continue to sustain and broaden the arts education and expand it into our other classrooms. Our plan is to become proficient enough to mentor the other toddler and infant teachers at our center.
--Tracy Whitley, MCFHC Program Supervisor
MCFHC is a wonderful place to be piloting this early learning and the arts program because they already have in place a collaborative structure where the teaching teams and the classrooms communicate and work together. As a former state pre-K teacher who worked in a 4 classroom center, I recognize this. I hope that the teaching teams at MCFHC can continue their conversations, problem-solving and support of each other as they utilize and integrate their new arts education skills in the classroom.
--Holly Hunt, Bamford Foundation Director
Jo Petroff, The Dance Artist Mentor
