Actors, artists aim to turn around failing schools

By BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington and Forest Whitaker are adopting some of the nation's worst-performing schools and pledging Monday to help the Obama administration turn them around by integrating arts education.

The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities will announce a new Turnaround Arts initiative as a pilot project for eight schools with officials from the White House and U.S. Department of Education. Organizers said they aim to demonstrate new research that shows the arts can help reduce behavioral problems and increase student attendance, engagement and academic success.

The two-year initiative will target eight high-poverty elementary and middle schools. The schools were among the lowest-performing schools in each of their states and had qualified for about $14 million in federal School Improvement Grants from the Obama administration. The arts initiative will bring new training for educators at the Aspen Institute, art supplies and musical instruments totaling about $1 million per year, funded by the Ford Foundation, the Herb Alpert Foundation and other sponsors.

Schools selected for the project are in both urban and rural areas. They are in New Orleans; Denver; Boston; Washington; Des Moines, Iowa; Portland, Ore.; Bridgeport, Conn.; and Lame Deer, Mont.

Washington, who is starring in the new ABC drama "Scandal," will adopt a District of Columbia school over the next two years. Often there are misconceptions about the role arts play in school, she said, as if the arts are only the "sprinkles on the icing," Washington told The Associated Press.

"It's not that the arts are something to put on in the final period of the day once all the real work is done," she said. "Arts are actually how we can help them get the real work done."

For example, studies show music training can help improve student math scores, Washington said.

Artists from the president's committee, including Washington, will present programs to students and teachers, celebrate their successes, help create community partnerships and raise funds to continue their work beyond the initial two years.

This is believed to be the first federal initiative to examine the role of arts in school reform and will also generate new research looking at how a robust arts program affects students, examining data in each of the eight schools, said Rachel Goslins, executive director of the presidential arts committee.

"It's really hard to find anybody who says arts education is bad for kids," Goslins said. "But there is a huge amount of skepticism that the arts could be an important part of the solution in these schools."

The White House threw its support behind the effort, in part because 15 percent of the nation's schools are responsible for half the dropout rate, said Mark Zuckerman, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Research shows arts education can improve graduation rates and school climates, he said.

But a recent Department of Education study said high-poverty schools are 50 percent less likely to offer arts and music classes _ affecting millions of students.

"Sex and the City" star Parker will adopt a school in Portland, and Whitaker will work with students in Des Moines.

Artist Chuck Close, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, dancer Damian Woetzel and actress Alfre Woodard also are adopting schools in the two-year program.

In Montana, Lame Deer Junior High School on a Cheyenne American Indian reservation was one of the neediest schools during the selection process. It's a remote area that has trouble attracting strong teachers.

"There's an entire school of kids who have never seen a play and have never been to a museum, ever," Goslins said. The initiative can help bridge a divide between the school and traditional tribal arts and culture at home, she said.

Some schools will add new arts specialists with their federal grant money. The Roosevelt School in Bridgeport, Conn., has started a band program for the first time in 17 years.

In New Orleans, the Batiste Cultural Arts Academy began an after-school arts program two years ago to change a culture that had been plagued by violence, said principal Ron Gubitz. Now it plans to extend the arts to the regular school day as well.

Gubitz said his school can prove the arts are an "accelerator" for improvements in reading, math and other subasy to fall through the cracks without those resources around you, without those extra things that get you excited about learning."

___ Online: http://turnaroundarts.pcah.gov