Hand Middle School Featured in National Arts Study

Hand Middle School is one of 10 schools in the country featured in a nationally acclaimed study of how the arts can transform schools with economically disadvantaged students into vibrant and successful centers of learning and community life.

The book, titled Third Space: When Learning Matters, is published by the national Arts Education Partnership (AEP). The book is based on a three-year research study and describes the transformation in ten elementary, middle, and high schools serving economically disadvantaged students in urban and rural regions of the country. It draws on current research to explore how and why the arts have enabled the schools to succeed where others often fail.

According to Third Space the arts boost learning and positive interactions among students, teachers and their community. Those interactions can advance student’s intellectual and personal development.

Other benefits of the arts:

* The arts give all students, regardless of income, a fair chance to achieve, and are particularly beneficial to students stereotyped as poor learners.

* Teachers enjoy their profession more and become more committed as they see their students growing and changing.

* Joint art projects improve understanding, empathy, and tolerance among highly diverse groups of students.

* Student art displayed in public places, such as local galleries, help alter previously negative images of the students and schools.

* Parents tell the researchers of the positive changes in the personalities and behavior of their children and of their own increased desire to become active in the schools.

 

The national Arts Education Partnership (AEP) is a Washington-based non profit organization founded and supported by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information about Hand’s success story, please contact Marisa Vickers, Hand principal, at 343-2947 or call the Richland One Office of Communications at 231-7510 or 231-7504.