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Dallas Arts Learning Initiative

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The Dallas Arts Learning Initiative (DALI), which builds on long-established and successful partnerships — between Big Thought and arts providers in the community, and among Big Thought and Dallas Indepent School District and the City of Dallas — is founded on the belief that social change in the Dallas community can be stimulated and sustained by surrounding youth with high quality, accessible arts learning opportunities throughout the day, both in- and out-of-school.


GOAL
Over the next five years, DALI will focus on the three integrated areas that affect youth access to, paths within, and accomplishment in the arts: arts learning in school, arts integration (which takes place primarily in schools with some out of school), and arts in communities (at neighborhood centers and institutions, with local teachers, mentors and models such as older students, family members, etc.). The goal is to create a coherent systemic reform with arts and culture providing examples, energy and a first wave of major resources.


WHAT WE DO
Institute staff are working with cultural providers, including history, science, and arts organizations, parks, and the zoo, which provide Dallas public school students with arts and cultural experiences, many of which had been stripped from school programs due to the emphasis on state and national testing. Staff advise on program design (how to get high quality cultural experiences to all kids and their parents in the Dallas Independent School District, both in- and out-of-school) and are conducting longitudinal studies of the consequences for children and families of having these added opportunities.

Institute staff provide critical support for two intiatives: DALI and Dallas ArtsPartners, whose mission is to provide an effective infrastructure for delivery of professional development and cultural programming to ensure: 1) that all Dallas ISD elementary students with equal access to arts and cultural programming, and 2) that through these programs there is an increase in the quality of teaching and learning in general elementary classrooms. The Year 2 report on the ongoing four-year evaluation of Dallas ArtsPartners found that high-quality and sustained opportunities to learn from cultural partners can make substantial contributions to children as learners, such as increasing test scores and reducing racial and ethnic achievement gaps.


PARTNERS & FUNDERS

• Big Thought (ArtsPartners Programs)
• Dallas Arts Partners
• Dallas Independent School District

CONTACT PERSON
Dennie Palmer Wolf
Director, Opportunity and Accountability
Denni_Wolf@brown.edu

 

Annenberg Institute for School Reform Brown University, Box 1985 Providence, RI 02912

Telephone: 401.863.7990 Fax: 401.863.1290

AISR_info@brown.edu