Arts Integration

CAP’s arts integration programs offer schools and partner sites a unique approach to increasing students’ understanding of academic standards. In an arts-integrated curriculum, an art form – whether dance, music, theatre or the visual arts – is used as a tool for learning one or more academic subjects. This approach provides students with new ways to learn and retain lessons, and it provides classroom teachers with techniques that can be recreated and used in the future.

Arts integration makes learning meaningful. It helps students reach academic goals at a high level, build self-confidence, and increase cooperation and collaboration. Numerous independent research studies show statistically significant differences between CAP students and non-CAP peers. Through arts integration programs, research shows that CAP students:

Attend three more days of school during the year

Increase an average of 100 Lexile points*

*ELA arts integration program

Receive half as many behavioral violations

Perform better than students in non-arts integration classes

While all students benefit significantly from arts integration, students who struggle in a particular academic area can rediscover their love for learning. Students who may not show success with the traditional approach to learning often find success with arts integration. That success then gives them more self-confidence to keep learning and growing. In addition, arts integration re-energizes classroom teachers. Teachers become encouraged by the high levels of student engagement, hearing from all voices in the classroom, watching students learn through discovery and learning new teaching strategies to add to their teacher toolbox.

Testimonials

The social studies arts integration project at John E. Ford PK-8 Montessori greatly influenced student achievement. Our school earned the highest student proficiency rate in the district that year and students became confident learners receiving coordinated arts-integrated teaching strategies. -Paula Renfro, Chief Academic Officer, Duval County Public Schools

We are honored to have CAP in our school to provide support for instruction in an innovative and engaging way. This program exposes our students to theatre and nurtures their creativity by having them learn their grade-level reading concepts and standards using an extraordinary approach through the arts. This successful partnership elevates our instruction to a new level as students can think critically about a text and find unique ways to present their learning which aligns with our school International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program. -Davina Parker, Principal, Spring Park Elementary

Partnering with CAP has been an enjoyable and successful experience for our school. Our teachers were provided an arts expert to develop interactive lessons using the new benchmarks and students were excited each week to learn with the teaching artist. Our third-grade students who participated in the arts integration program outscored our other intermediate grade levels on the ELA state assessment. We are delighted to grow our partnership with CAP and look forward to more engaging lessons and student growth in ELA and the arts. Thank you, Cathedral Arts Project, for learning along with us! -Kristin Shore, Principal, Abess Park Elementary

Case Study: Abess Park Elementary School

For three years, CAP has partnered with Abess Park Elementary School to provide its 3rd graders with theatre instruction to enhance their English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum.

At the end of the 24-25 school year:

Student proficiency at Abess Park increased from a pre-CAP baseline of 51% to 67% (+16 points).
The program consistently outperformed district and state averages in academic achievement, starting 17 percentage points above the district average and 15 above the same state statistic.
By the end of the year, scores stayed high at 16 and 10 points ahead, respectively.

Attendance Rate

Abess Park – 93.2%
District – 90.03%

Behavior Referrals

Abess Park – 1.3%
District – 11%

For More Information

For more information or to inquire about bringing CAP’s arts integration program to your site, contact Luisa Reis, Vice President of Programs, at luisa@capkids.org.