THE NEW HAMPSHIRE
INTEGRATED LEARNING PROJECT
Description of the Project
The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project, as described and outlined below, provides an opportunity for New Hampshire state resources and systems that are already in place to work collaboratively under one vision. It is a state project designed to bring leaders and stakeholders together to develop guidelines and resources around quality arts integration within the framework of a professional development plan that will train staff and administrators in arts integration for planning curriculum, delivering content, assessing student work, effecting positive change in school culture and climate, and assuring access to the general curriculum and a free and appropriate education for all students.
With a focus on the power of the arts to ensure student success for school improvement, this project will bring together local education agencies, state agencies, model programs in arts integration, professional preparation and continuing education as well as educators, community, and family support organizations for students with special needs with systems of accountability and assessment. It will draw on outstanding resources from within our state, including: students, individual educators, the state university system, private institutes, parents/community, community resources, professional associations and the NH DOE to build a plan that will train teachers and measure the effectiveness of the arts as a means for:
- Meeting individual learning styles of all students;
- Catalyzing positive change in school culture and climate;
- Building partnerships with parents/community;
- Assessing student academic progress through performance-based assessment and using student work to inform standards-based curriculum and instruction;
- Changing teacher attitude around student capacities.
The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project is based on current research and trends that shows the Arts provide a powerful avenue for engaging learners, building community, delivering content, and demonstrating effective outcomes for children and youth (sources: Critical Links, Kentucky Legislation SB 154, Integrated Instructional Model research findings 2003). Because the Arts are about problem-solving, analyzing, communicating, expressing, and collaborating (in short creating, performing and responding), they validate student individuality, build collegiality, provide affiliation for groups in our schools, are accepting of ideas outside the norm and provide for multi-modality instruction and assessment. Therefore, the Christa McAuliffe Educator Explorer Professional Development Program will provide the necessary funding for The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project to create a professional development plan that will meet these goals and a system to measure its effectiveness.
The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project is being developed with an eye toward implementation in other states. Our process and resulting professional development model will provide other states with a model by which they can design their own school improvement plans. Design team member, VSA arts of New Hampshire, already has a grant in place from the VSA arts National Office for the design and implementation of a professional development model for national dissemination. Furthermore, the strategic concept of maximizing local resources, coordinating initiatives and creating change in our educational system through collaboration is a transferable model.
State-identified Professional Development Needs
In New Hampshire, the identification of student learning needs is not a state responsibility but is fulfilled at the local level (Ed 512 Professional Development Master Plan and Recertification). As stated in Ed 512, each locally designed professional development master plan shall include the following: (1) a statement of purpose; (2) a statement of local student learning needs as identified, including but not limited to: a) New Hampshire Education Improvement and Assessment Program; b) portfolios; c) standardized tests; or d) other local assessment instruments; (3) Evidence that curriculum frameworks adopted by the state board of education are being incorporated into the plan; (4) Provisions for individual educator growth and school program improvement; (5) an on-going evaluation component; (6) a statement describing how accountability for student performance will be demonstrated; (7) a statement describing how the master plan will address teacher competencies as stated in Ed 610.02; (8) a statement describing how data is utilized to make decisions; (9) articulation of the relationship of the professional development master plan goals to district/school goals; (10) a statement describing professional development activities….
To meet this rule, schools must determine local student needs and direct professional development opportunities to align with those needs. The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project will assist local schools in the identification of local needs, as well as using data to make decisions (for example, by utilizing the School-Wide Information System [SWIS] involved in the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports project through the NH DOE) and aligning project goals to the goals of Ed 512. Training teachers to use portfolios to assess student learning that is aligned to standards and benchmarks is also a major component of the project (see Ed 512 (2) (b) above).
Although Ed 512 requires local districts to identify their own professional development needs, the individual divisions, bureaus, and offices within the NH Department of Education have been able to identify trends and patterns across schools districts around student needs. Sources for this information include local Master Plans for Professional Development and analysis of state NHEIAP (New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program) test scores, and Title I data. Trends include 70% or more of all students identified with educational disabilities taking the 6th & 10th grade NHEIAP’s scored at the novice level in all subjects tested. This percentage tops out in grade 10 social studies, with 88% of students identified with educational disabilities scoring at the novice level. Additional state-wide professional development needs include an identified gender gap in English language arts on the NHEIAP where girls perform better than boys, rising concern around school culture and climate, and the dismantling of arts programs at the local level due to budgetary constraints and the challenges presented to local districts around meeting the accountability expectations in No Child Left Behind. Clearly, these identified issues imply professional development needs state-wide.
The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project does not portend to be a panacea for educational woes across our state. What the project does expect to accomplish through the design and ultimate implementation of a professional development program at the local level is a plan that has the ability to affect outcomes for all students by connecting in a systemic way, positive school climate, effective practices for curriculum design and delivery, assessing student work over time and using data to make decisions. Most of all, The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project will use the arts to empower teachers and students, enhance the curriculum, engage students, teachers, parents and the community, and build a school climate of respect and caring; in short, preparing all students to learn.
THE INTEGRATED LEARNING PROJECT PLAN
Recognizing that The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project is a leadership initiative, Barry Posner’s key abilities and practices of effective leaders as found in Peer Leadership: Helping Youth Become Change Agents In Their Schools and Communities has been used as a guide for project design. Key abilities and practices in this model are challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart.
Phase I: Through facilitated dialogue and planning, honor the work that has been done, identify resources, recognize areas for collaboration and script a process for professional development.
Challenging the Process
The design phase of this project includes bringing together a group of invested leaders across the state representing local education agencies, model programs and key stakeholders who challenge the common system of curriculum delivery and assessment including:
- Project Design Team- Project Director, Marcia McCaffrey/NH Department of Education; Janet Curcio Wilson/VSA arts of NH; Bill Preble/Main Street Academix; and New Boston Elementary School (NH Elementary School of the Year 2003, HOT/Higher Order Thinking School represented by Judy Keefe, arts educator). Resumes for Project Design Team members are attached.
. Phase I includes the following Leadership Team:
- The Project Design Team plus Cynthia Vascak/Integrated Instructional Model (recipient of a 2001 US DOE Model Arts Integration and Dissemination Grant), Carol Cook/COOL (Center Of Optimum Learning approved nonpublic SpEd school administrator), Janet Wilson/Inspired Learning Through the Arts (VSA National professional development model from VSA NH), Eileen Mackin/SmART Schools; Waldorf Education, Education by Design©, Catherine O’Brian/State Arts Council; Jan McLaughlin, NH DOE/Science Consultant; Mary Lane, NH DOE/Special Education Bureau.
Phase II: Widening the Circle-Bring in the following stakeholders for a day of facilitated dialogue by the leadership team whereas the leadership team will use this information to inform their work as they shape a professional development plan that meets the objectives of The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project..
Inspiring a Shared Vision
The project leadership team will develop and use a research-based performance/professional presentation to communicate with formal educational leaders in the state. Project members will communicate this vision to superintendents, principals, parents and community, and the State Board of Education, Legislators and the Governor. Upper elementary/middle, high school, and college students will participate in the planning, implementation and presentation. These youth leaders will play a central role in widening the circle to include:
- School-based stakeholders such as students, classroom teachers, arts educators paraprofessionals, school administrators, teachers of students with special needs, and parents/community;
- Programs of professional preparation within the State University System as well as post-graduate programs for arts integration and special education, private colleges and universities such as New England College, Lesley College, and Antioch New England Graduate School.
- State resources such as VSA of New Hampshire, the Institute on Disability, the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support program, the NH State Council on the Arts, the NH Alliance for Arts Education, the NH Art Educator’s Association, the NH Music Educators Association, the NH chapter of the American Autism Society, the Special Education Directors, the Capital Center for the Performing Arts, Plymouth Friends of the Arts, the North Country Alliance for Arts Education, the Keene Moving Company, and various artists who have a longstanding association as teaching-artists in our schools;
- Various entities within the NH Department of Education including the Bureau of Special Education, the Bureau of Professional Development, the Office of Accountability, and the Competency-Based Assessment System;
- Research and evaluation consultants such as Main Street Academix of Henniker, NH and RMC Research of Portsmouth, NH;
Phase III: This final phase of the project includes enabling others to act, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart. Funds will be designated for grant research and writing, therefore enabling others to participate in a site-specific integrated learning professional development plan. Presentations will be made to policy makers around the benefits and attributes of an integrated approach to learning in hopes of gaining a broader understanding of the power of the arts for school improvement.
Enabling Others to Act
In order to enable others to act, the leadership team will work together to develop a New Hampshire vision for integrated learning by defining quality arts integration. A guide that identifies where training is available in our state for arts integration and specific resources that support integrated learning will be complied. Additionally, the leadership team will work together to script an effective arts integration professional development model based on state resources, successful practice and current initiatives. The project will also provide for developing evaluation tools that are evidence-based and used to prove that multi-modality instructional and assessment strategies that include the arts in a deep and meaningful connection to the regular curriculum are an effective method for increasing achievement for all students.
- Develop a coordinated, statewide set of resources and opportunities for professional and pre-professional growth in arts integration that meet the needs of all learners. This activity will recognize and plan around the many state resources already available. These splintered, yet well-meaning groups lack a connection to a larger vision of school improvement and consequently are under-utilized and under-funded.
- Recruit a set of demonstration sites (1 per each of 5 state regions = 5 sites) for a long-term experimental study of the impact of arts integration and effective professional development on student achievement and school climate, safety and respect in schools. [The team will work to secure additional funding to support this work.]
- Plan a summer institute to build school-based knowledge around the arts and to provide training around inclusion, accommodation and arts integration.
- Plan a “looking at student work” session that demonstrates effective performance-based student assessment in arts integration, modeled after SCASS/Arts, Understanding by Design/Wiggins and McTighe, Education by Design©, the NH Competency-Based Assessment System and similar work.
- Sponsor a dialogue between the Leadership Team and school professionals in partnership with the NH DOE Bureau of Special Education in conjunction with the NHEIAP (New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program) alternate assessment. The NHEIAP alternate assessment has implications for providing a more diverse set of assessment tools and options with which to document progress and student learning in meeting state standards.
Modeling the Way
To model the way, a variety of student evidence will be documented, ncluding:
§ VSA arts of New Hampshire’s Inspired Learning Through the Arts professional development plan including the Brentwood project with photo journal and student portfolios.
§ The Integrated Instruction Model at Gilford, Ashland and Inter-Lakes with website, newsletter, student portfolios, research findings on student academic gains and changes in teacher perception of student capacities.
§ Antioch New England with Education by Design, the Integrated Learning Program, and Waldorf teacher training program.
§ Dr. William Preble’s school climate assessment, Respect Continuum, and beeper studies.
§ Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) program.
§ Statewide sensory impairment program.
§ Eileen Mackin and the SmART School integration model.
Encouraging the Heart
In an effort to build understanding around The New Hampshire Integrated Learning Project:
- Develop an interactive arts performance as a communication tool to uncover the vision when working with educational leaders in New Hampshire.
- Incorporate exemplars of student work in problem-based learning within the professional development training.
- Highlight achievement by special needs and at risk populations to demonstrate their potential and intelligence as reveled through the arts. This is an important approach especially when working with well meaning, yet very cautious veteran teachers who have experienced too much ineffective professional development in the past (“show me” model).
- Use the National Staff Development Council’s Standards for Staff Development when designing the professional development model.x
- Assure student participation as leaders and presenters regularly and in particular for policy makers, in responsible, active leadership roles voicing their reasons for integrating the arts to improve teaching, school climate and learning.
