Statewide Arts Integration Programming: A closer look at successes and challenges for elementary students, classroom teachers, and arts educators.

Abstract

When schools face issues of funding, arts programs are usually among the first to suffer, facing everything from cuts to full-blown elimination. However, the arts have been shown to be crucial for student development, not only for the joy of self-expression through the arts themselves, but also because of the social, emotional, and academic connections children can make through them. Recognizing this importance, several school districts across the nation have adopted a paradigm-changing method of instruction in which the arts are actually integrated into the curriculum as a means of teaching other core subjects. One organization making this possible is the Beverley Taylor Sorensen Arts Learning Program (BTSALP), an arts-integration statewide program now implemented in 400+ schools throughout the Intermountain West.This qualitative study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of this particular program in a handful of schools through interviews conducted with arts educators, general-curriculum teachers, students, and parents. Schools were chosen for the study to reflect the different art forms in which the educators specialized and to include areas with differing student demographics. Results indicate that, despite some challenges, participants found this method of arts integration to be a highly effective way to teach core curricula while preserving the aspects of art that students find engaging.