Center for Learning in the Arts, Sciences and Sustainability

Sound, research-based educational reform principles suggest that public schools need arts education as a regular component of a comprehensive curriculum that will lead to student success, and that Universities can and should apply t heir vast stores of expertise and personnel on behalf of K-12 improvements in teacher support and child learning. This objective can be accomplished by university-school partnerships using a multifaceted, user-friendly curriculum design based on research and effective practice. A study examined the iterative processes and outcomes of curricular development and project planning for ArtsBridge America, a unique arts education partnership among research universities (n=14) in five states and public schools (267), many of which are underserved, underfunded, and underperforming, according to state and national criteria. The study documents the changes to the planning process based on the results of a comprehensive needs assessment undertaken by researchers at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine, the founding campus of ArtsBridge. This paper presents in detail the revised and field-tested constructivist project planning design that emerged from the study. Appended are traditional ArtsBridge planning documents and re-designed ArtsBridge planning documents. (Contains 59 references and 1 figure.)