$3.9M Grant To Expand Arts-Integrated Programs at Prince George's County Public Schools

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A five-year, $3.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education will expand arts-integrated programs at Prince George’s County Public Schools for kindergarten through third grade students. Led by Arts for Learning Maryland, the new Start with the Art program will be developed in collaboration with PGCPS, WolfBrown and West Chester University.

Start with the Art will establish and sustain collaboration between classroom teachers and Arts for Learning teaching artists to plan and deliver lessons that support student creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills, including re-engaging students in the classroom following educational disruption precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The PGCPS Department of Creative and Performing Arts has enjoyed a wonderful partnership with Arts for Learning Maryland for many years,” Monica Goldson, chief executive officer of PGCPS said. “This collaboration will support both our educators and youngest learners through arts integration experiences providing alternative, creative and engaging instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners.”

Start with the Art will incorporate four arts-integrated instructional strategies demonstrated to foster academic achievement and socioemotional development: arts to foster student engagement; arts experiences to allow students to experience a wider range of emotional experience than is often possible in regular classroom activities; leveraging student experiences of setbacks and failure in artistic work to develop perseverance; and capitalizing on student collaborative work to foster positive peer relationships.

The program will begin in early 2022 with recruiting the initial cohort of schools, classroom teachers, teaching artists and instructional coaches who will participate in the pilot. As part of the initiative, teachers will participate in a training institute offered as an extension of the Prince George’s Artist Teaching Institute, a long running, highly-respected summer professional development experience.