SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP

SY24/25 School Partnership In Review

During SY24/25, AED’s network of 10 Partner Schools set specific and measurable arts integration goals to support their broader school goals, including topics like: 

• • • supporting kindergarten letter fluency
    • increasing staff capacity to plan arts integrated lessons
    • using arts integration to support students with special needs and gifted learners
    • connecting arts integration to project based learning units of study
    • planning and facilitating arts integrated lessons tied authentically to the unique needs of high school students

  Through partnership, these schools accessed a total of $74,850.83 in grant funding that supported 83 arts experiences bookings aligned with school goals and impacting over 8,000 students. Examples of some of the arts experiences included in these numbers:

  • Tours of Baltimore’s murals  with Mural Art Tours Baltimore for both students and educators connecting them to the rich artistic culture and stories of Baltimore.
  • Steel pan drum residencies with Rock Creek Steel Drums exposing students to a new art form and culminating in performances empowering students as musicians.
  • Professional development for educators with Murray Piper to help educators use body percussion to support student social emotional regulation.
  • Workshops engaging students in literacy learning through drama and storytelling with Dramatic Play.
  • Energizing and joyful assemblies with Bmore than Dance celebrating the styles of music and dance originating in Baltimore, building on students’ natural interest and skills in movement.

All schools will be required to use at least one additional tool as a metric measuring school stakeholders’ perception of school culture. Schools may choose from the following options:

• Caregiver and Family Survey
• Staff Survey
• Student Survey
• Stakeholder empathy interviews

Note: AED is working to support equitable access to these tools through:

• Providing surveys translated into other languages prominent within school communities
• Providing surveys in both paper and electronic formats, depending on the school need
• Connecting with Partner School’s Community Site Specialists to support dissemination
• Joining school events, such as back-to-school night and staff meetings, to provide direct support in administering surveys

Partnership Supports:

As a Partner School, schools will receive:

Enrollment-based funding at a rate of $12/student, with a minimum grant of $6,000 and a maximum of $10,000, to support efforts outlined in the school’s action plan, such as:

• • School-day student arts experiences provided by Arts and Cultural Partners, booked through Arts Every Day’s Arts Directory
  • Arts professional development for educators, including stipends for professional development occurring outside of teacher contract hours
  • Arts experiences to support family and community engagement events, such as “Family Arts Nights”
  • Arts supplies, such as arts integration supply kits meant to make arts materials and standards accessible to educators school-wide

Individualized planning support from Arts Every Day Staff, including:

• • Support in completing the Arts Rich Schools Needs Assessment and identifying areas of strength and growth
  • Support in using accessible stakeholder surveys to gather valuable perspectives from families/caregivers, staff, and students
  • Support in identifying artists and programs to meet the unique needs of the school community
  • Support in planning and implementing staff professional development
  • Support in accessing professional development tied to teaching in and through the arts as offered through AED’s Baltimore Arts Integration Project Library
  • Support in exploring ways to mitigate barriers to meeting COMAR arts guidance (ie, access to sample schedules to support continuity of study)

Partner Schools:

For SY25/26, Partnership will focus on a cohort of 10 schools Arts Every Day has already established partnerships with in order to leverage existing relationships and support data collection. As existing and former Partner Schools, these schools have already identified a desire to strengthen the arts within their school communities and committed to active administration and educator involvement. Through their current partnership, Arts Every Day has engaged in ongoing conversations with these schools to better understand each school’s unique assets and challenges. The SY25/26 partnership model allows space for schools to intentionally reflect on these variables and create an action plan that addresses their community’s unique needs and goals around the arts.