Accomplishments of the 2012-13 School Year

Arts for All thanks all our partners for the great work that took place during the 2012-13 school year. The collaborative environment in which we work nurtures a rich arts education for students across LA County. In the last ten months, these were some of the joint accomplishments:

• Through the Residency Grant Program, $121,729 was granted to 13 school districts to work with 12 vetted arts providers bringing arts education into 222 classrooms at 55 schools. School districts matched with $173,070. Estimated numbers show that more than 7,200 K-12 students participated throughout LA County at these districts in partnership with the following arts organizations:

• 12 school districts are participating in a multi-year professional development program that launched this year to strengthen the arts education skills and knowledge for teachers in 169 schools. Beverly Hills, Burbank, East Whittier, Glendale, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Las Virgenes, Los Nietos, Manhattan Beach, Pomona, Rosemead and Whittier Union school districts, serving over 185,000 students, went through the first year.
• Covina Valley Unified, Duarte Unified, Hawthorne School District, Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union Elementary School Districts and LAUSD’s Charter Green Dot Public Schools all made the commitment to arts education by becoming part of Arts for All at the start of the school year.
• The School Arts Survey was administered in 15 school districts (185 school sites) including Burbank, East Whittier City, Glendale, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Las Virgenes and Los Nietos.
• The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) and Arts for All continued the popular professional development series Teaching Creativity with Common Core State Standards to support LA County educators as they head towards the transition to Common Core State Standards in the fall.  Approximately 100 participants from 19 districts throughout Los Angeles County attended the sessions and engaged in discussion about how the arts can be integrated into CCSS.
• WestEd presented a workshop exploring best practices in arts assessment to more than 100 attendees representing 14 school districts and 28 arts organizations. The program continued with sessions on rubrics development. 
• New programs from professional development service providers were added to the Programs for Educators Directory. The directory now holds 45 programs from 32 varied providers.
• Four convenings for Visual and Performing Arts Coordinators were presented about a wide variety of subjects (common core, drumming, social media, grant writing). 
• Grants were awarded to Visual and Performing Arts leads from six school districts (Beverly Hills, Burbank, ICEF Public Schools, Norwalk La Mirada, Santa Monica-Malibu and Saugus Union) to pursue an arts education professional development opportunity of their choice. 
• TASC: Arts for All is now serving as regional representative for the statewide effort called Teaching Artist Support Collaborative (TASC).

PHOTO: 2nd graders at El Marino Language School in Culver City Unified School District with teaching artist Mitch Glickman from Symphonic Jazz Orchestra and visiting professional musicians. By Gary Leonard.