Curriculum

Annenberg Grants Seek To Mix Arts Into Curriculum

By Karen Diegmueller — September 18, 1996 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Schools in Kentucky, Michigan, and San Francisco were tapped last week as the first recipients of Annenberg Foundation grants aimed at improving education by integrating arts into the curriculum.

The $10 million initiative is one of numerous education enterprises that former editor, publisher, and U.S. Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg has under-written since 1993. The five-year Arts, Culture, and Technology Initiative is intended to raise student achievement by coupling the arts with other classroom subjects.

Kentucky will receive $1.1 million; Michigan, $100,000; and San Francisco, $115,000.

Programs in all three areas initially will target the elementary level. Teachers will receive training as well as on-site technical assistance to help them adapt their curriculum and instructional strategies.

Different Contexts

The three sites were selected for their distinctiveness, said Linda Adelman, the president of the Galef Institute, a Los Angeles-based education group that the philanthropy designated to administer the program.

“We wanted to look at how the strategy of using the arts as a stronger element of school reform would play out in different contexts--different political contexts, different school-reform agendas,” Ms. Adelman said.

In Kentucky, the project will build on the state’s standards- and assessment-based reform efforts and multiage classrooms.

The Michigan initiative will emphasize reducing the performance gap between black and white students in the state.

The focus in San Francisco will be on using the arts to bolster literacy, especially for students whose native language is not English or other students in need of additional help.

Ms. Adelman said the initiative is not meant to be an arts-education program, but can serve double duty.

Once teachers learn to value what arts can add to the curriculum, she said, many of them go on to learn about the arts as a discipline.

A second round of sites will be announced within the next few months.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the September 18, 1996 edition of Education Week as Annenberg Grants Seek To Mix Arts Into Curriculum

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Curriculum History Group Finds Little Evidence of K-12 'Indoctrination'
Most social science educators say they keep politics out of the classroom, but need help identifying good curriculum resources
6 min read
Photo of U.S. flag in classroom.
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Curriculum How an International Baccalaureate Education Cuts Through the ‘Noise’ on Banned Topics
IB programs offer students college credit in high school and advanced learning environments.
9 min read
James Minor teaches his IB Language and Literature class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
James Minor teaches his IB Language and Literature class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
Zack Wittman for Education Week
Curriculum Explainer Social Studies and Science Get Short Shrift in Elementary Schools. Why That Matters
Learn why the subjects play a key role in elementary classrooms—and how new policy debates may shift the status quo.
10 min read
Science teacher assists elementary school student in the classroom
iStock / Getty Images Plus
Curriculum Letter to the Editor Finance Education in Schools Must Be More Than Personal
Schools need to teach students to see how their spending impacts others, writes the executive director of the Institute for Humane Education.
1 min read
Education Week opinion letters submissions
Gwen Keraval for Education Week