EVAULATION 2012-07
We continue to build annually on our research findings from 2007-02 through longitudinal metrics demonstrating increases in:
EVAULATION 2007-05
Findings:
There were measurable increases in the skills of the New York public school kindergarten and grades 2 and 3 students studied over two years when analyzed using criteria of:
Evaluation Methodology:
Included an overall qualitative approach to data collection and analysis. Nonverbal and verbal data, including videotaped lessons, observational rubrics, and dance journal writing were analyzed for patterns and themes. Three videotaped presentations of data analysis were analyzed at conferences with 7 other arts education partnerships involved in the 2-year evaluation project.
Promising Practices Analyzed:
- Elementary dance and movement instruction
- Classroom teacher involvement in teaching and curriculum development
- Use of dance writing journals, including visual arts entries
- Special needs students are dancing alongside their peers
Who and Why:
The evaluation was conducted with funding from The Center for Arts Education to follow-up the 2002-05 study by a team of 9 general and special educators, artist-educators, and coaches working at a Lower East Side preK-6 school. The purpose was to analyze MDDF's promising practices and their effects on student learning from the perspective of educators and teaching artists working in long-term partnership.
EVALUATION 2005-02 Summary:
Students' academic skills increased measurably in math and literacy through indicators of standardized testing and dance journal writing. Students developed increased self-reflective and self-regulatory behaviors through on-going self-assessment. A direct causal link cannot be claimed between the MDDF partnership program and increased student achievement on standardized math tests without further scientific study. However, students displayed increased academic success in literacy and math, increased kinethetic skills, greater emotional maturity, and developed more positive ways to act in the world than their peers in the control group without the benefit of the MDDF program.
Evaluation Methodology:
Evaluation design included mixed quasi-experimental, qualitative, and qualitative-artistic methods of verbal and nonverbal data collection, coding, analysis, and interpretation to arrive at the findings. Students were followed for 3 years as they moved from grades 1-3 and worked for 28-32 weeks per year through MDDF's program. 100 NYU students collected and analyzed data over 3 years.
Who and Why:
The evaluation was conducted with funding from The Center for Arts Education by a team of 4 math, language arts, music, and dance educators working at a Lower East Side preK-6 school. The lead evaluator was a sociology professor at NYU. The purpose was to analyze effects on student learning of MDDF's dance and theater arts methodology.
Findings:
• Literacy: We hypothesized that student achievement on standardized literacy tests would increase as a result of the MDDF methodology in dance and the dramatic arts. English Language Arts skills increased in quality and quantity of descriptive and analytical writing, as compared with our control group. (The control group included students new to school or not participating over the three full years of our program.)
• Math:
Unexpectedly, student math scores increased as those of our control group decreased on city-wide standardized tests. (The control group included students similar to ours at a neighborhood school.)
• Kinesthetic Thinking: Our students' dance and kinesthetic thinking skills, such as working in space and time and by modulating use of their energies increased measurably over those of our control group. (The control group included students similar to ours at a neighborhood school.)
• Emotional Expression: Students demonstrated increased emotional maturity, a wider range of positive affective responses, and enhanced conflict resolution skills, than peers without the program.
• Social Interaction: Student self-directed behavioral modification and social learning skills increased as demonstrated in cooperative group and small group learning contexts.
Conclusion:
The evaluation findings for the evaluation conducted 2002-05 at a Lower East Side preK-6 school indicated that increased student success in learning could be measured across 5 dimensions of learning as a result of the arts and dance partnership with MDDF. These findings also indicated that these measures of increased student success in learning were likely attributable to the MDDF-public school partnership, including the MDDF arts- and dance-based pedagogical methodology.
