The Creative Classroom Collaboratives Study: Arts Integration Addressing 21st-Century Skills Through Teacher Collaboration

• In Event: Arts Integration for 21st-Century Learning

Abstract

The Creative Classroom Collaboratives (C3) quasi-experimental demonstration project is testing the effects of the integration of visual and performing arts into elementary school instruction. In 2011-2012, students in four Title I treatment schools in eastern Long Island began participating in arts-integrated curriculum units collaboratively developed by teaching artists, teachers, and school arts, music, and library specialists. Based around a focal theater or dance performance, each unit teaches literacy and 21st Century skills while addressing components of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Based on research highlighting the importance of professional learning communities for teachers, and arts integration and 21st Century skills for students, the C3 study provides evidence that collaborative, arts-integrated instruction can positively impact student and educator skills.

Authors

• Marisol Kevelson, Educational Testing Service

• Carol Brown, Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services

• Laura Reeder, Massachusetts College of Art