NewsRelease

UNCG Will be New Home for A+ Schools Program in North Carolina

WINSTON-SALEM – The North Carolina A+ Schools Program is moving to The University of North Carolina at Greensboro from Winston-Salem, where it has operated for more than a decade through the Kenan Institute for the Arts at the N.C. School for the Arts.

Since 1993, the A+ Schools Program has implemented its arts-integrated approach to teaching and learning in a growing network of schools in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The A+ approach combines arts integration with an understanding of the role of multiple intelligences in teaching and learning to bring comprehensive school reform. The A+ program’s premise is that the arts foster a deeper learning and understanding of the school curriculum because creativity taps the multiple ways that children learn.

“The University of North Carolina at Greensboro offers great opportunities for the A+ Schools Program to expand its proven strategies for comprehensive school reform,” said Vincent Marron, executive director of the North Carolina A+ Schools Program at the Kenan Institute in Winston-Salem. "Provost Edward Uprichard's excitement and enthusiasm are matched only by the wonderful research opportunities and support that UNCG can offer A+. This transition will insure the program's future and its positive impact on children in North Carolina and in many other places."

At UNCG, Provost Uprichard said that the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts and the University have been discussing the program’s transfer for some time. "I am thrilled to have A+ moving to UNCG, this is a great opportunity for everyone involved,” Uprichard said. “Our strong programs in the fine and performing arts and teacher education will provide a welcoming community for A+ here on campus. For example, our theatre education program has worked with Parkview A+ Elementary in High Point for many years, and we have seen first hand what the A+ concept can do.”

So why is the program moving to UNCG?

The A+ Schools Program was initiated in 1993 as a statewide project in North Carolina by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts in Winston-Salem. At this point in the program's development, it makes sense to place it within an institution of higher learning that trains both classroom and arts teachers, Marron said. Intensive research that measures the impact of A+ on learning and school reform has always been an essential element of the program's success. It will benefit from the extensive strength of the arts programs at UNCG, teacher education programs, the Department of Educational Research Methodology, located in the School of Education, and through SERVE, the federally funded education laboratory and think tank for the Southeastern region.

Moving the administration and governance of the A+ Program to UNCG is a logical step because the university has a strong commitment to arts education and to school reform. Many of the state's best teachers come out of the UNCG program, which took first place in the N.C. State School Board’s ranking of teacher education programs for two consecutive years, Marron said. UNCG also has developed the Reading Together program, another innovative program, which has fifth graders tutoring second graders who are having trouble in the subject. At UNCG, direct access to the A+ philosophy will add yet another level of understanding to the education and training of students, and in turn they will share that knowledge with all the school systems that eventually employ them.

The transition period will take up to a full year, according to Jeanne Butler, executive director of the Kenan Institute of the Arts. "The beauty of A+ is that when a school implements the program they really make it their own,” Butler said. “Every A+ School is different but all A+ schools share a strong focus on creativity and support each other through the growing A+ network of schools."

During the transition, the program will be placed under the Office of the Provost at UNCG. Both A+ and UNCG officials are working to make the process as seamless as possible for the 44 schools in the A+ network throughout North Carolina. The program's current executive director, Vincent Marron, and its director of program and professional development, Gerry Howell, are committed to continue working with all the A+ schools in the network through the transition period.

A recent four-year study of A+ by researchers in Philadelphia and Chapel Hill has credited the A+ with sustained improvement in attendance, test scores and reduction of discipline problems. Its approach combines strong arts instruction, use of arts throughout the curriculum, and continuous, focused professional development for teachers and school administrators.

The program is significant, according to Terry L. Baker of the Education Development Center, Inc. /Center for Children and Technology. “It is difficult to overestimate the contribution that the A+ report makes to the fields of school reform and arts in education," Baker wrote in "Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development," a compendium of recent research on arts and education that was published by the national Arts Education Partnership at the Council of Chief State School Officers in Washington, D.C.
 

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