Peggy Ryan

i3 Grantee Lessons: Beaverton School District

Posted by Peggy Ryan, Jul 15, 2011 0 comments


Peggy Ryan

In an effort to bring Arts for Learning Lessons to 12,850 Beaverton School District (BSD) students in grades 3-5, the Beaverton School District, with project partners University of Washington, Young Audiences Arts for Learning, and Young Audiences of Oregon & Washington, was awarded a $4 million, five-year grant in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation fund.

Arts for Learning (A4L) is a literacy program that uses the creativity of the arts to raise student achievement in reading and writing, and to develop learning and life skills. A4L lessons had been implemented in classrooms around the country prior to the Beaverton School District’s i3 grant application, with the added resource of some independent evaluations of these existing lessons.

Project director Jon Bridges is Administrator for Accountability for the Beaverton School District. He recently offered some helpful insights for anyone interested in entering the i3 grant competition:

“This was the first grant I have worked on that was written virtually. After we had established the partnership and were clear on what the project would entail, the work to assemble the proposal was done electronically. There were many conference calls since the partners and grant writer were on both coasts of the country.”

Jon also addressed a concern that many applicants share about meeting the i3 matching requirement:

“We hadn’t anticipated getting the grant and therefore had not prepared to find the match. Beaverton School District and the project partners had to scramble to raise all of the matching funds from our community in less than a month after we were passed over by the Foundation i3 Registry. We approached local foundations, businesses, government officials, and appealed to our parents and community. We approached basically anyone we thought might be interested in supporting the project and the district. We had three weeks to find the match and the superintendent and assistant superintendent hustled to really make it happen. We were able to use the grant award as leverage and were able to raise $800,000 in three weeks!”

After speaking with Jon and comparing the reviewers’ comments from Beaverton’s application, it seems that there are a few key points that made this a winning application.

1)    A well developed evaluation plan that included quantitative and qualitative data and details for the formative and summative evaluations.
2)    Strong consensus BSD has established among school and community stakeholders clearly demonstrated their commitment to sustainability, that all students would receive Arts for Learning lessons after the grant ends.
3)    Experienced key project staff have worked successfully on similar Arts for Learning projects. Personnel have experience managing large, multi-faceted federal projects. The management plan emphasizes effective communication and coordination among program partners.
4)    A4L clearly addresses a need to close achievement gaps while providing all students with opportunities to go deeper in their literacy skill development.
5)    Data from pilot projects indicate gains in key literacy skills, including students who perform below grade level. These features are aligned with the key needs of the district.
6)    It is an innovative cross-disciplinary approach of improving student literacy skills through integration of the arts.
7)    Integrates well into existing district context of existing professional learning communities, and will therefore allow them to leverage existing systems, stakeholder support, and other available state and federal resources to significantly and rapidly improve all of our students reading and writing achievement.

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