TeachME Professional Development

1. Low performing schools proportionately serve low-income students of color and generally have each of the following characteristics EXCEPT:

2. Even though a substantial body of evidence demonstrates a positive impact of arts education on students, the implementation of arts programming across the country is inequitably distributed and subject to elimination.

3. Turnaround Arts is built upon the principle that successful use of high-quality arts education in school turnaround must mobilize a set of core assets or 'pillars' to target:

4. U.S Department of Education School Improve Grants (SIGs) have been awarded to the bottom ten percent of each states, and rely on a "transformation" model that requires that the principal be replaced and no more than 50% of staff be rehired.

5. Researchers emphasize that while arts education has positive benefits for all students, the beneficial impact on at-risk children may be even more pronounced, and as such, arts education is often cited as a strategy to engage disadvantaged youth who struggle in traditional school settings.

6. An important hypothesis to support Turnaround Arts is that strategically implementing high-quality and integrated arts education programming in high-poverty chronically underperforming schools adds significant value to school-wide reform.

7. The Turnaround Arts Logic Model promotes long term student success outcomes such as greater class participation and improved school behavior.

8. Which of the following were NOT included as part of the first year commitments for Turnaround Arts schools?

9. One way that Turnaround Arts school leaders have prioritized the offerings of arts across a variety of disciplines is through hiring art specialists on staff and through collaboration with art partners and teaching artists.

10. School principals are critical players in carrying a clear vision of the skills and opportunities the arts offer students, and in ensuring consistency in arts programming and promoting:

11. In order to provide students with high-quality sequential arts instruction during the first year of implementation, Turnaround schools were expected to meet minimum requirements of each student receiving at least two periods a week with an art specialist.

12. Classroom teachers who were the most successful at integrating arts in meaningful, accessible, and strategic ways were those who were able to collaborate with other educators as well as community members who supported the arts.

13. Teachers have reported that the greatest barriers to incorporating the arts into instructional practice are too many competing priorities at the school or district level and:

14. Which of the following is NOT of the benefits cited for involving local artists and community arts organizations in the development of a strong school arts program?

15. Turnaround Art schools frequently began with a very low base of parent involvement, and parents reactions varied from widespread parental approval to parents who were concerned that the arts would take away from academics.

16. As a way to get the community at large to support arts in the schools, active steps were taken to provide public performances, display student work in public places, and build relationships with key local leaders.

17. As a foundation for transformation and school turnaround, principals and other key leaders focused on:

18. All Turnaround Arts schools implemented professional development activities including integrated art coaches, specialized learning communities, and expert driven continuing education.

19. Investing in activities, events, and strategies to enhance the school environment through the arts is intended to give rise to individual student voices and accomplishments in order to:

20. From 2012-2014 Turnaround Art schools implemented an extensive set of arts education programming that were not common in high poverty, low performing schools that included:

21. Early examination of both math and reading proficiency rates demonstrated promising improvement of students' academic performance among Turnaround Arts schools, and specifically:

22. An important goal for Turnaround Arts schools was to engage students with art education as one way to improve attendance, and evaluations showed that such schools generally demonstrated consistently good attendance.

23. The majority of survey respondents agreed that the Turnaround Arts program had positively influenced their school, with 50-80% of educators responding that the arts had helped increase parent, student, and teacher engagement in the school and in instruction.

24. Improvement in school discipline outcomes were demonstrated by the majority of Turnaround Arts Schools, who had reductions in the number of in or out-of-school suspensions, or both.

25. In order to assess if art content experts were able to act as change agents, researchers evaluated the number of art disciplines offered, the ratio of staff to students, and the number of instructional minutes and grades served.

26. Data sources that were used to identify improvements in the school environment included presence of professional art in the building, how student art was displayed, student performances and exhibitions and:

27. A critical factor in the success of Turnaround Arts schools was that unlike typical low performing schools, none of them experienced the principal or superintendent turnover that often occurs in such settings.

28. The common characteristics of the schools that were in the highest category in terms of both school improvement and implementation included each of following EXCEPT:

29. When Turnaround Schools showed significant progress in indicators of student achievement, attendance, and discipline, they also presented evidence of positive perceptions of teachers in regards to the impact of art.

30. Leaders and teachers in each Turnaround School had to work to use arts to transform their schools while considering their unique: