Arts|Learning has created the Arts Learning Program for Schools (ALP) model to support public elementary school efforts to build an instructional focus on learning in and through the arts. Goals include improvement of student literacy, engagement in learning, and achievement academically, socially, and personally. The model serves schools by addressing and integrating with district Whole-School Improvement Plans, arts and non-arts curricula, school-based priorities, and state/national arts-education standards.
The model is a unique partnership with public and private institutions including Boston Public Schools, Lesley University, independent high schools with strong arts programs and commitments to public-service programming, and the Performance Evaluation Research Group.
The model has two complementary parts:
- The ALP Mentorship Program partners urban elementary school students with arts-talented teens from arts-rich high schools. With guidance from faculty coordinators from each school, students create arts-based projects.
- The ALP Professional Development Program guides educators in the use of the arts as teaching tools through arts-based workshops, artist-in-residencies which model teaching in classrooms, curriculum development, and coaching to help teachers implement arts-integrated curricula of their own design.