CETA
Spotlight on
Perspectives from The Kennedy Center’s
Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA)
“Arts educators who are schooled in arts
standards and know how to implement arts
curriculum are essential in schools (including
vocal and instrumental music, visual arts
and theater teachers and dance educators),”
Hardiman says. “Some districts have
terminated arts educators because they believe
that arts integration will be all students need.”
The prevalence of arts integration in the
classroom has grown over the past several years,
which Hardiman attributes to greater awareness
of the research, popular media and arts-based
organizations providing training and funding.

Many schools embracing arts integration are
private or charter schools, or those with a
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts
and mathematics) focus. Even with research to
back its positive effects, several challenges stand
in the way of integration.

• Schools prioritize high-stakes testing, which
focuses resources on teaching to the tests.

• Arts integration requires skilled teacher
training and instruction.

• Teachers must focus on reaching
benchmarks and fear taking time away
from the required curriculum.

Murtaugh says that resources were always a
challenge to integrating arts into her classroom
and she typically paid for art supplies out of
her own pocket.

Yet another challenge, according to Tricia
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“Numerous studies point to the value of arts education in improving student outcomes, yet
teachers may not have the resources, access or experience to implement arts integration
across the curriculum.

“Partnering with educators is fundamental to arts-based learning. The Kennedy
Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program empowers teachers
within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with skills and confidence to use these
tools in the classroom, giving both teachers and students an added level to connect
academically and kinetically. In a wider lens, we aim to create school cultures that support
intensive, sustained teacher learning and collaboration. Through our wider education
work, we also place an importance on sharing knowledge with other organizations
interested in developing similar programs.

“The CETA program has grown out of decades of successful experience providing
professional learning for teachers in arts integration with beginnings in 1976. The official
CETA program was established in 1999 as the Center began to focus some of its efforts on
reaching all teachers within a school with intensive learning.

Over the years, the CETA program has gradually expanded. In 2021, 52 teachers across
six partnership schools in the Washington metropolitan area engaged in 91 sessions:
planning, workshops and coaching sessions.” P
— Jeanette McCune, director of school and community programs at
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Beck, director of teaching and learning for the
Great Valley School District in southeastern
Pennsylvania, is the lack of collaboration
among departments.

Plus, innovators are working against
traditional models of measuring academic
success such as “rigor,” “assessment” and
“compliance” rather than “engagement” and
“sustained learning,” she notes.

SMALL STEPS TOWARD
ACHIEVING ARTS INTEGRATION
Beck — whose background includes serving
as the adjunct professor at JHU and working
as an interventionalist for special populations
within her school district — believes arts
integration can, and should, start small.

While Beck’s school system began a STEAM
initiative five years ago, the COVID pandemic
slowed its projection. Much of the arts
integration she sees at the elementary school
level happens organically through project-
based learning.

One example of successful arts integration
happening at the high school level is within
special student populations. The teachers of
these students look for ways to create project-
based learning and life skills throughout their
curriculum. Recently, the students worked in family and
consumer science classes to develop a recipe
for dog biscuits. Collaborating with the art
department, the students designed logos and
marketing collateral and eventually developed
a business plan to sell the product.

“It was a true life experience that integrated
the arts and made it more meaningful for
students,” Beck says.

Hardiman agrees that educators can
implement activities using visual and
performing arts without a total curriculum
overhaul. For example, when reading narrative
literature, students can show how a character
in a story might feel by taking a body pose,
known as tableau, to depict the understanding
of a character’s role in the story. Similarly, the
same exercise could be used to demonstrate
cell structures in a biology class.

“Many teachers use tableau and a variety of
techniques such as role playing, improvisation,
visual note taking, storyboarding, skits and more
to add interest and depth to the curriculum,”
Hardiman says. “Researchers and practitioners
show how this type of instruction can engage
students more than traditional instruction that
relies heavily on verbal and written work.”
Murtaugh recommends integrating an art
activity into the first five minutes of a class
as a reset for students as they transition from
another subject.