New Resource Demonstrates the Use of Arts Education to Achieve Title I Goals

This month Arts Ed NJ, in cooperation with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey Department of Education, and New Jersey’s Foundation for Educational Administration, launched an interactive website devoted to demonstrating how arts education has been embraced as an effective strategy for achieving the goals of Title I. By featuring successful models and examples, the website, NewJerseyTitle1arts.org, is designed to be a statewide resource for districts in New Jersey seeking to learn more about how to harness the power arts education.

The launch of the website makes it easier for district leaders to identify how the benefits of arts education are compatible with Title I programs and explore the ways that arts programming can be designed to improve educational outcomes. Arts strategies have been utilized to address the four pillars of Title I: Student Learning and Mastery; School Climate and Culture; Student Engagement; and Family and Community Engagement. Making connections between Title I goals and arts learning clear, and more accessible to all via the website increases the likelihood of statewide impact. Every page identifies resources to assist administrators and teachers with critical steps throughout the stages of planning, implementation, and assessment that lead to student success.

“This innovative website will provide New Jersey educators with the research, resources and best practices to demonstrate the strength of arts in supporting Title I goals, remarked Dr. Mary Reece, Director of Special Projects at New Jersey’s Foundation for Educational Administration.

With growing research and case studies demonstrating how arts integration has been instrumental in achieving Title I goals, New Jersey has reached an inflection point. This is consistent with states such as California and Arizona, who have also pioneered the use of arts education as a strategy for achieving Title I goals. New Jersey now joins with these states as the development of successful models continues across the United States.

NewJerseyTitle1arts.org is a project of Arts Ed NJ—the unifying organization and central resource for arts education information, policy and advocacy in New Jersey and was funded by a grant from the Hyde and Watson Foundation.

The site was developed in collaboration with the California Alliance for Arts Education, now in its fifth decade of working to build a brighter future for the state by making the arts a core part of every child’s education.