November 2015 Newsletter: Direct from Our DirectorDear Friends,
Many of you have already heard the bittersweet news that our beloved leader, Rachel Goslins, is stepping down as Executive Director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) at the end of this month. Rachel has been an incredible force behind our work for the past seven years, and while we are devastated to lose her, we know that she will go on to do incredible things. Rachel’s legacy will live on in Turnaround Arts, which she helped to found at the President’s Committee and nurtured into a national movement that has positively impacted the lives of tens of thousands of America’s most at-risk students. The White House is going to appoint a new Executive Director to finish out the term, and we look forward to welcoming that person to the PCAH family in early December.
The biggest headlines since our last newsletter went out in January include the release of our ground-breaking evaluation, our summer expansion to five new locations, and the development of an additional focus on early childhood education. Though it began as a pilot program in eight schools to prove the hypothesis that arts can serve as a tool for improvement in our country’s most struggling schools, in four short years Turnaround Arts has become a national cornerstone, with 49 schools from Hawai`i to New York City bringing the arts to their classrooms and hallways.
This explosion was fueled by the positive results coming out of our schools. Released last spring as a follow up to our progress report, a final evaluation report by Booz Allen Hamilton and the University of Chicago revealed that our arts-integrated approach to school reform was making a big difference. Test scores were up an average of 22% in math and 13% in reading. Attendance was up and disciplinary issues were down. And just as important, the school cultures were changing, with student art on the walls; music, movement and visual arts used in 85% of the classrooms over the course of three years; and the sounds of rehearsals for the school musical ringing through the halls.
This past June we brought on new local programs in five exciting locations: Oahu, Hawai`i; Broward County, Florida; Bridgeport, Connecticut; New York City; and Washington, D.C. Local program leaders, old and new, gathered in D.C. last April to gear up for the work ahead. A few months later, they showed up with enthusiastic teams from each school at our Summer Leadership Retreat in Virginia to sing, dance, learn and plan for five days. This fall has been busy with local program launches, on-site professional development for our teachers, Turnaround Artist visits, and great press to get everyone excited for the new year and all the good things that Turnaround Arts brings.
We’ve been fortunate to welcome some new and amazing Turnaround Artists to our family as well: Bernie Williams, Tracy Reese, David Blaine, Thom Mayne, Cameron Diaz, Carla Dirlikov, Misty Copeland, Marc Anthony, Paula Abdul, Edward Norton, Jack Johnson, Jake Shimabukuro and most recently Keb’ Mo’. Not only did all of our original artists welcome this great new group to Turnaround Arts, but many attended our event in Brooklyn celebrating the launch of Turnaround Arts: New York City. Our new artists have been eager to get started, sending “Welcome Back to School” videos for their kids, and visiting throughout the fall. There is really nothing sweeter than seeing how these world-renowned artists pour the love on their school communities.
We are also delighted to welcome more partners to the Turnaround Arts family. In the last year, Little Kids Rock, the AOL Charitable Foundation, JCPenney Cares and the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts have all joined as our newest national partners. And we’ve added another federal partner as well, with the National Endowment of the Humanities making possible a documentary film and history program that will be executed by Jacob Burns Film Center and the Brooklyn Historical Society. These two partners will create a curriculum and training program for several of our middle schools in the northeast, piloting their work for a possible national rollout in 2016-17.
Finally, we are thrilled to be able to add a focus on early childhood education, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This gives our schools the opportunity to realize the academic and social-emotional potential of the arts from the start of each child’s education. Our dream is that through the arts, we can help schools to close the opportunity/achievement gap before it even opens. These funds have enabled us to hire an amazing Early Childhood Education Specialist and allow our partner schools to develop early childhood education coaches of their own.
There is nothing that inspires us more than hearing directly from those in the field. I have the pleasure of hearing from principals, students, and teachers frequently about the joy and success that this work brings to their school communities. One comment that stuck with me recently was from a principal in Hawai`i, who said, “For 30 years, people have been telling me I have to change. But until now, I didn’t know how.”
It is only with your continued support and belief in the transformative power of the arts that we can support amazing principals and keep working toward the goal of giving even more students the confidence, critical thinking, and expression that comes through access to the arts. Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey.
Warm regards,
Kathy and the Turnaround Arts Team