A+ in Practice
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A+ Essentials™ The A+ Essentials™, developed by the North Carolina A+ Schools Network in 1997, emerged in response to the question, "How do you know a school is an A+ School?" Over several years, A+ principals, Coordinators, Fellows, and Program staff engaged in a collaborative process to identify and clarify the response to this question so that schools might have a framework for articulating and recognizing the role of A+ in the daily life of their school.
Designed as a reflective tool enabling schools to self-assess their growth as an A+ School (not as a checklist), the A+ Essentials™ continue to guide the Network as its overarching conceptual framework. The significance of the Essentials lies in the relationships among them, and the interactive process of implementation. The A+ Essentials™ include the Arts, Curriculum, Multiple Intelligences, Enriched Assessment, Experiential Learning, Collaboration, Climate, and Infrastructure. A+ and School Reform The A+ Schools Program is now nationally recognized as an effective, research-based strategy for sustainable, arts-based school reform. It has been highlighted in national publications including Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development (2002, Arts Education Partnership); Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century (2004, Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago); and more recently in Third Space: When Learning Matters (2005, Arts Education Partnership). In North Carolina, the A+ Schools Program has been recognized and cited extensively as an exemplary program by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as documented in two of its most recent publications, A Balanced Curriculum and Elementary Level and A Balanced Curriculum, Middle Grades. With over twelve years experience working in school "re-form," A+ has shown that through high-quality professional development and ongoing Network support, teachers can learn to be both efficient and creative with their time and resources by integrating instruction and assessment to teach all disciplines and meet accountability standards. A+ Personnel
The A+ Program's administrative staff and its 42 Network schools have worked in partnership for over eleven years to continuously guide and shape the A+ Network, ensuring that the professional development and other Network support (regional Network meetings of A+ Principals and site-based A+ Coordinators) are relevant to the particular context and culture of each A+ School. This collaborative approach models the concept of broad-based leadership and has influenced the development of a similar leadership model at the schools. The A+ evaluators have attributed this collaborative approach, in part, to the remarkable sustainability of A+, even when principals are transferred and new principals assume leadership. In addition, A+ Schools Program professional development is facilitated by a cadre of 50 A+ Fellows, master practicing teachers and teaching artists. This network of Fellows, many of whom are National Board Certified, has been developed and sustained over twelve years and continues to be key to the Program's success. Fellows include practicing classroom teachers, arts teachers and other specialist, administrators, teaching artists, and writers. Professional Development Professional development in A+ Schools is conducted by a cadre of 50 practicing classroom teachers and specialists, administrators, teaching artists, and writers who work as a network to help guide the A+ Program and conduct professional development for A+ Schools and A+ partner organizations. These professionals are called the A+ Fellows. As a group, the A+ Fellows represent the many perspectives of the school community and the community at large. Although many of the A+ Fellows teach in A+ Schools, others work in other schools and in other settings. Using this "practitioner model" for professional development allows A+ Fellows to continually practice what they teach and teach what they practice. As practicing educators, the Fellows have increased credibility in leading their peers in professional development because they are immersed in the same kinds of implementation challenges. They are also in a position to provide schools and individual teachers with continuing support from inside their own classrooms. A+ professional development is highly experiential, providing opportunities for participants to learn and apply information through participation and application. Click here for more information. Inside A+ Schools A+ Principals A+ Principals play a major role in helping sustain the A+ Network, providing site-based leadership for A+ initiatives and advising Program Leadership on the use and allocation of Network resources.
A+ Principals gather twice yearly for fall and spring working retreats to reflect on A+ professional development from the previous summer and to discuss issues common to A+ Schools in the Network. At these events, the power of membership in a network of schools committed to school reform is evident. Principals share ideas and "best practices," celebrate one another's successes, support one another through professional and personal challenges, and mentor new principals joining the Network. Mentoring new A+ principals is particularly important, given the well-documented challenges of principal "turnover" in sustaining any school reform. While only one of the original 25 principals who implemented A+ (1995) remains, 23 of those original 25 A+ schools continue to be active in the Network, evidence that the program has been sustained through multiple changes in school administration. Providing support to new A+ principals and developing shared leadership in A+ schools have proven to be effective in helping to sustain the culture of A+ over time. A+ Coordinators A+ Coordinators are teacher leaders who maintain a special commitment to supporting and developing A+ implementation at their school. The role and scope of their work varies greatly from school to school, ranging from "extra duty" of a full-time teacher to a full-time, paid position in some magnet schools. Many schools have opted to have co-coordinators, with a parent or the school secretary often serving in this shared role. While special project coordination work is often accomplished by teams of teachers or parent volunteers working with the Coordinator, it is the Coordinators who play a significant role in facilitating the sustainability of A+ in the schools. They are often the "program champions" who keep the school focused on their commitment to arts integration and the A+ Schools Program. Along with the principal, the A+ Coordinator is usually the school-based liaison to the A+ Network. A+ Fellows A+ Fellows are a Network of professionals who conduct the professional development for the A+ Schools and partner organizations. Because the professional development is based on a strong practitioner model, the Fellows include practicing classroom teachers, arts teachers and other specialists, administrators, artists, and writers. As a group, they represent the varied perspectives of the school community and the community at large, and include teaching artists, school-based teachers and administrators and higher education faculty. Many of the A+ Fellows are currently teachers in A+ Schools, and about half work in "non-A+ schools" or in the community at large. Using this model for professional development allows A+ Fellows to continually practice what they teach and teach what they practice. A+ Fellows enter the Network as apprentices (Potential Fellows) with a wide range of expertise and experience, and are asked to serve in this "developmental apprenticeship" role for one year, observing and assisting Fellows as the Fellows conduct professional development. During this first year, Potential Fellows consider how their particular strengths might be used and what areas they need to develop. Fellows are then assigned to work on teams that allow them to use their expertise and to develop in identified areas, thus always teaching and learning. A+ Teachers The A+ Program's approach to school reform relies on teachers (along with administrators and A+ Coordinators) to also provide leadership for the Program within their individual schools. Teachers and staff are responsible for adapting the Program to school culture and community context, designing and implementing integrated thematic units that honor the role of the arts and Multiple Intelligences, and for building connections with parents and the community. A+ teachers in Network schools attend A+ professional development each summer and, often, throughout the year. These institutes allow teachers to network across schools, sharing ideas and concerns in "job-alike" groups. Teachers exchange emails and phone numbers, allowing them to continue sharing back at their school site. This has been especially beneficial to teachers in small schools and to teachers who are "one-of-a-kind" in their buildings (arts teachers, media specialists, physical education teachers, and other specialists). A+ Classrooms The A+ Classroom honors the role of the arts as central to teaching and learning. It is characterized by students engaged with the curriculum in multiple ways. Several times each day, students may be working independently or in groups at various Learning Centers throughout the classroom. They are given regular opportunities to learn and apply the arts and technology as part of their instruction and assessment. Students in A+ Schools may be assisted by the regular classroom teacher, a parent, or a student intern from the local university or college. Whether the activity is instruction or assessment, the student is engaged in experiential learning through the arts or demonstrating understanding through the use of "informances" that demonstrate outcomes of learning from the classroom. The teacher maintains a balance among instructing students directly, facilitating group engagement, coaching individual students, challenging students to move beyond their current understanding, and celebrating their success. A+ and Community Partners Individual A+ Schools have found that promoting arts-integrated learning experiences forces them to look outside the school walls and draw on the talents and resources of parents and community institutions, including higher education, teaching artists, and arts and cultural organizations. In particular, they found that in order to achieve their new instructional vision they needed to deepen their idea of "partnerships" beyond the generic notion of supporting the school through donated resources and volunteer labor to one that connected their partners to the substance of the curriculum. In its professional development for its Network schools, the A+ Schools Program includes strategies to partner with area community resources, particularly arts and cultural resources (arts councils, visiting artists, community colleges and universities). The A+ approach is to build capacity within the schools to forge their own partnerships, which they have done successfully, with local, state and national organizations. However, the A+ Schools Program leadership also maintains these kinds of community partnerships on behalf of the entire North Carolina Network of schools. Called A+ Partners, these include education, arts and cultural organizations that have collaborated on multiple projects, grants or other initiatives, or have provided financial or other support. A+ and Higher Education The A+ Schools Program maintains a commitment to the development of teacher education and research agendas that include arts-integrated instructional and assessment practices. As part of this commitment, A+ has developed a comprehensive syllabus for Elementary Education majors which draws on the Program's fourteen years of work in schools. In Fall 2007, North Carolina State University became the first University to implement this A+ syllabus. NCSU's "The Arts for Elementary Education" provides students with an experiential understanding of the basic concepts of the four major arts forms; Application of the basic elements and principles of those art forms in unit development and lesson planning; Exploration and application of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory and other theories of intelligence in the classroom; Understanding of the relationship among curriculum mapping, thematic unit development, MI theory, arts integration, and experiential learning; And awareness of the role of community cultural resources in the elementary classroom. In addition, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) maintains a cohort of elementary education majors as interns at an area A+ School. These students work beside A+ students and teachers as part of their pre-service training for two years. A+ continues to nurture partnerships with institutions of higher education to promote arts integration coursework for pre-service teachers. A+ in Action Under Construction Here are some examples of ways that A+ Schools are implementing the A+ Essentials™ at their school: |
