USDOE Assistance for Arts Education Grants 2021
NEA Professional Development Grant 2021
Big Idea is proud to announce that we have partnered with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin and with Konocti Unified School District to win two new Assistance for Arts Education grants from the US Dept. of Education. Out of 109 applicants, 27 awards were made including our applications for iAmplify (score: 97%) and ON-RAMP (score: 97%). iAmplify will train TK-6 teachers to integrate all of the arts across the curriculum and is complemented by the recent NEA grant fo Windsor and Big Idea. On-Ramp will create an entirely new kind of elementary music programs in a remote rural area. Big Idea will be very busy for the next four years delivering services for these new programs, both funded for nearly $2M each. Bottom line, thousands of new students will now have the arts as a regular part of their school day!
iAspire Summit 2020
Big Idea is partnering with Windsor Unified and the Arts Education Alliance to produce a three-day virtual event in July 2020 for teachers in Sonoma County. Working with arts organizations, teaching artists and lead teachers, Big Idea will facilitate professional learning for 100 teachers and museum educators in a fun, engaging, hands-on experience. In addition to model integrated curriculum, teachers will focus on teaching the arts through distance and hybrid teaching as well as on Social/Emotion Learning and English Learners.
Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants
Big Idea just wrote a $1.7M arts integration grant for Windsor Unified. The team will be working with Windsor to provide arts integrated curriculum and teacher professional learning for iASPIRE. We will also work with Napa Valley Unified School district on their successful SSAE grant. It was a big win for the arts in California, and Big Idea was proud to partner with the California Alliance for Arts Education to provide grant-writing support for rural districts. Read more here.
Creative Sonoma
Creative Sonoma and the Arts Education Alliance have been working diligently to gather data and assess the current landscape for arts education in Sonoma County Schools. Big Idea was proud to partner with them in providing an in-depth analysis of secondary arts enrollment and trends. Thanks to the new Arts Education Data project, the task was much easier than in the past. Check out this new resource at ww.createca.dreamhosters.com/artsed-dataproject. Look for new advocacy from the Arts Education Alliance based on the Key Arguments provided by Big Idea!
iMEDIA
Big Idea wrote a successful $1.5M federal grant in the Professional Development for Arts Educators competition partnering with the Stanislaus County Office of Education and Stanislaus Union School District (Fall, 2017). For the next four years, Big Idea will be designing curriculum and training teachers to integrate new Media Arts standards in the classroom. This work will include our new MONDRIAN tool, Mobile ONline Data and Rubrics for Integrated Arts LearNing, a innovative step forward in rigorous arts education through integration.
Windsor Unified Arts Planning
Big Idea is working with Windsor Unified and the Arts Now Community to facilitate the district's strategic arts planning. Big idea will provide consultation on arts education curriculum, arts integration and professional learning for teachers. Leadership coaching by Big Idea will help make this initiative a success. Big Idea is proud to be a part of this initiative working alongside the California Alliance for Arts Education. (Image from Error 147, directed by Allison Frenzel, choreographed by Izzy Contreras and Katy Lohse at Nueva School, Windsor Unified, 2016.)
Northcoast Arts Integration Project (NCAIP)
Big Idea has consulted with NCAIP to assist with implementation of $2.2M U.S. Department of Education grant to integrate arts into the core curriculum for eight rural elementary and middle schools in Northern California, grades TK to eight. Specifically, Big Idea has provided arts integrated curriculum and and professional learning for teacher cohorts in grades 3-8.
(Image from NCAIP teacher workshop, summer 2016)
(Image from NCAIP teacher workshop, summer 2016)
Integrating the Arts through Common Core to Ensure Student Success (iACCESS)
Big Idea collaborated on a successful $1.4M federal grant to create an innovative arts integration training and assessment program with ten high-poverty elementary schools in the Fresno Unified School District. The project includes a unique professional learning model using online and face to face instruction empowering teachers to implement a powerful arts integrated curriculum. First year research findings show iACCESS students outperforming control schools by an average of 25% in ELA, 94% in Theatre and 96% in Visual Arts. (Video of 3rd grade student work, iACCESS, Fresno Unified, 2015-16) |
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Online Arts Learning and Assessment
Big Idea has been successful in using mobile technology to assess student work in the arts that is then aggregated to a website where data can be analyzed. Teachers with no prior experience in the arts have been able to teach and assess the arts while integrating with ELA and Social Studies. Big Idea staff have provided arts integration training and curriculum for thousands of teachers in districts around the nation in both online and face-to-face workshops.
(Images of Mobile Arts Assessment Tool and 4th grade student work, iACCESS, Fresno Unified, 2015-16)
(Images of Mobile Arts Assessment Tool and 4th grade student work, iACCESS, Fresno Unified, 2015-16)
Any Given Child
Big Idea helped bring the Kennedy Center to Fresno as the tenth national site in this initiative to ensure the arts for all students in grades K-8. This partnership led to an arts revolution in the school district with millions of dollars in new investment in district-wide arts programs for students, professional learning in arts integration for teachers and significant upgrades to books, equipment, materials and supplies. This success prompted a successful proposal for a collective impact grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to expand Any Given Child to more under-served districts in the county. Big Idea is available to guide communities through the Kennedy Center's strategic planning process
(Image from www.anygivenchildfresno.org.)
(Image from www.anygivenchildfresno.org.)