DOE+Grant

=DOE Grant: "Arts Educator 2.0" =

In February of 2008, [|Intermediate Unit One] partnered with the [|Pennsylvania Department of Education']s division of [|Curriculum & Instruction] to write a grant proposal to the US Department of Education. The grant was titled, "**Arts Educator 2.0 **" and was aimed at serving the professional development needs of arts educators in a three county region in Western Pennsylvania through new and emerging technologies. Below is the grant abstract, describing the scope of the proposed work:
 * Introduction**

The purpose of the “Arts Educator 2.0**//”//** project is to create a community of learners through the use of new and emerging technologies. “Arts Educator 2.0” learners will be served through an ongoing differentiated staff-development program, which will offer learning opportunities that directly address each participant’s individual needs. The community will be comprised of a minimum of twenty K-12 visual arts and music educators teaching in the three counties served by Intermediate Unit 1 (IU1) in western Pennsylvania. Participants will be selected from applicant schools serving a high-poverty student population, defined as meeting the 50% free or reduced lunch criteria.
 * Abstract**

Current research suggests that the creation of a self-directed learning community holds the most promise for improving instructional practices, meeting the demands of NCLB legislation, retaining highly-qualified staff and increasing student engagement, thus improving student achievement. “Arts Educator 2.0” participants will be immersed in the most current 21st century instructional practices, including inquiry-based, collaborative, differentiated and dynamic teaching and learning. They will then be asked to take the model they experience as learners and use it to drive their own instruction.

“Arts Educator 2.0” will capitalize upon the documented successes of the PA [|Governor's Institute for Arts Educators] (GIEA) in laying the foundation for the creation of robust standards-based units of instruction in the arts. Participants will examine existing instructional units, identifying key attributes such as rich and compelling tasks, formative and summative assessment and links to the Pennsylvania reading and math assessment anchors. Experts in the creation of these various parts of a unit of study will lead learning opportunities for participants through the use of IU1’s Internet 2 videoconferencing tools.

The “Arts-Educator 2.0” project will begin with a kick-off event to be held at IU1 and with subsequent site visits to each participant by a visual arts or music mentor. The mentors will observe participants and conduct post-observation briefings to discuss and identify ways in which IU1 will support the future professional development of each educator. These observations will serve as baseline data to allow participants to create differentiated instructional plans. Where similar needs are observed in participants, they will be grouped together into learning communities to maximize the instructional offerings. Mentors will continue to conduct site visits as the project progresses to both support change in practice and to document the effectiveness of IU1-led trainings.

As the project continues, participants will be introduced to other distance-learning technologies through IU1’s partnership with [|BlendedSchools]. Differentiated coursework and group learning environments will be created for participants in BlendedSchool’s Blackboard content management system. IU1 will also contract with various arts content providers, such as [|Arts Education Collaborative] (AEC), [|Gateway to the Arts], and [|Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration] (CILC), as participants and mentors identify particular learning interests and needs. These partners will provide participant-tailored trainings, either in face-to-face or videoconference sessions as available.

The program evaluator will gather formative and summative assessments using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. The utilization of Blackboard classrooms as a primary means for communication, collaboration, instruction and assessment will capture various pieces of key data, which will then be used to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. The mentors will keep anecdotal records of the participants’ progress throughout the project, and the program evaluator will examine the archived classrooms and mentor documentation data in the creation of the “Arts Educator 2.0”’s final evaluation report.