About Us
The North Coast Arts Integration Project
Eureka City Schools • Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District • Humboldt State University
The North Coast Arts Integration Project (NCAIP) is a four-year federally funded project that seeks to integrate and strengthen arts instruction in eight rural elementary and middle schools with the goal of improving student academic performance, reasoning skills, creative thinking and engagement. Through a rigorously designed program of intensive and ongoing professional development and in-class coaching of teacher participants the project will integrate the arts (visual arts, music, dance, theater, media arts, and folk arts) throughout the TK-8 humanities classes (ELA and history/social studies) and STEM classes (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). The project is funded by the Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Program (AEMDD 2014-18) and will contribute to the body of ongoing research that supports the importance of an education in the arts, specifically the arts integration model.
Underlying the NCAIP’s approach to arts integration across the TK-8 curriculum are the following philosophies, methods, and strategies:
The timeline and yearly goals of the project are:
Eureka City Schools • Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District • Humboldt State University
The North Coast Arts Integration Project (NCAIP) is a four-year federally funded project that seeks to integrate and strengthen arts instruction in eight rural elementary and middle schools with the goal of improving student academic performance, reasoning skills, creative thinking and engagement. Through a rigorously designed program of intensive and ongoing professional development and in-class coaching of teacher participants the project will integrate the arts (visual arts, music, dance, theater, media arts, and folk arts) throughout the TK-8 humanities classes (ELA and history/social studies) and STEM classes (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). The project is funded by the Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Program (AEMDD 2014-18) and will contribute to the body of ongoing research that supports the importance of an education in the arts, specifically the arts integration model.
Underlying the NCAIP’s approach to arts integration across the TK-8 curriculum are the following philosophies, methods, and strategies:
- Making Learning Visible, a strategy that addresses three aspects of learning in the classroom: (1) teachers and students as creators and transmitters of culture and knowledge; (2) the power of the group as a learning environment; and (3) the roles of observation and documentation in shaping and deepening learning across the curriculum (mlvpz.org).
- Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a developmental approach which fosters thinking skills that transfer from lesson to lesson across the curriculum (vtshome.org).
- Studio Habits of Mind which are cognitive and attitudinal dispositions that are taught and fostered in the art studio; and are central to learning across many other subject areas (Hetland, et al. 2007).
- Kennedy Center’s Changing Education through the Arts (CETA) Model Schools Program that provides a framework for structuring program improvement and sustainability (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, September 2008).
- Artful Thinking The goal of the Artful Thinking program is to help students develop thinking dispositions that support thoughtful learning – in the arts, and across school subjects.
- Ongoing coaching, modeling and arts experiences for students and teachers.
- Visiting artists in schools and classrooms These are short performances or arts experiences that last up to a few hours.
- Teaching artists in schools and classrooms These are longer arts experiences where an artist and a teacher collaborate to teach a unit over several days.
The timeline and yearly goals of the project are:
- Year 1: Piloting of 6th – 8th grades; teacher professional development and in-class coaching; data collection.
- Year 2: Implementation of 6th – 8th grades; piloting of 3rd – 5th grades; teacher professional development and in-class coaching; data collection.
- Year 3: Implementation of 3rd -5th grades; piloting of TK – 2nd grades, teacher professional development and in-class coaching; data collection, analysis and dissemination. Ongoing support of 6th-8th grades.
- Year 4: Implementation of K- 2 grades, teacher professional development and in-class coaching; data collection, analysis and dissemination. Ongoing support of grades 3-8. Awarded "Create Humboldt" grant by U.S. Dept. of Education and began planning and recruitment of grade 3-5 teachers for this 4 year professional development grant.