Perspectives on the value of art and culture
Turnaround Arts New Orleans: The arc of family engagement Jennie Moctezuma explains how the arts bring schools and families together. READ ON
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Turnaround Arts uses an immersive arts approach to change the fortunes of failing schools across the United States. The project was launched in 2012 by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities and receives funding from the US Department of Education. Michelle Obama serves as honorary chair. Jennie Moctezuma, Local Program for New Orleans, explains how the arts bring schools and families together to change lives for the better. ‘I played in the band when I was in school and I love music. I walked in and I saw the instruments didn’t look like they were in the best shape. I grabbed the Brasso and a rag and just started polishing them. Then the band director walked in and I said: “I am Derrick and I see the instruments need a little attention.” I’ve been here ever since.’ —Derrick Newton Derrick Newton, a father of three, comes to ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy (RCAA) each and every day – often after dialysis appointments – as a volunteer band director. Alongside his wife, Kendra, Derrick knocks on the doors of students who need an extra hand, then sits down with their families to talk. Derrick is one of many family members at New Orleans’ Turnaround Arts schools who have become integral to whole-school reform by working with the arts. This reform movement has emerged through the Turnaround Arts initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Turnaround Arts provides support, professional development and a framework of eight pillars for the nation’s lowest performing schools to use in their strategic planning.
‘ Derrick is one of many
family members at New Orleans’ Turnaround Arts schools who have become integral to whole-school reform by working with the arts.’
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‘ Through strategic arts planning, schools
provide an arc of engagement for parents so they eventually take on a leadership role.’
One of these strategic foundations centres on family and community engagement. This is a critical focus of the initiative, but there are barriers and past history to overcome. Many family members maintain multiple jobs. Many lack transportation. Various charter organisations currently manage state-run schools in New Orleans, USA. Each time ReNEW Schools (the charter network hosting Turnaround Arts: New Orleans) takes over a failing school and begins working to transform its culture and academic standing, it’s evident that a majority of family members have previously been invited to the school to address behaviour-related incidents or to attend report-card conferences. Turnaround Arts National and ReNEW Schools both encourage their campuses to overcome these challenges and to use the arts to shift the paradigm of family engagement. Through strategic arts planning, schools provide an arc of engagement for parents so they will not only attend events, but also become more engaged and eventually take on a leadership role. Both Derrick and Kendra Newton are now proudly involved at this level. Creating this arc of engagement requires a careful, gradual approach that respects the importance of family members – using their own strengths to answer the question: ‘How can the arts solve our problems?’ When families see their children become more active and engaged in the school setting, they begin to do the same. Our school cannot function without an active group of parents and families who provide support – from painting masks used in a school-wide production of The Lion King (another partnership with Music Theatre International that Turnaround Arts provides) to delivering food for the band and dancers that march seven miles along a Mardi Gras parade route or to helping to transport students across the city for performances.
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This arts-infused activity brings families to the schools. These moments grow and evolve because families become invested in the creativity, confidence and critical thinking skills (the mission of Turnaround Arts) their children begin to develop. To encourage this, Turnaround Arts schools in New Orleans host frequent family and culture nights and whole-school musicals. They also support citywide events like Mardi Gras to engage parents and family members as learners, participants, teachers and leaders. One mother of three, an alumna of the former school now managed by ReNEW, worked with other families to create sugar skulls, known as calaveras, for the popular Latin American holiday Dia de los Muertos. ‘It’s fun working with your kids because they actually teach you a whole lot,’ she said. ‘It’s amazing to sit in the same auditorium that I did, and now with my kids. I know I am not just doing it in vain. Something is going to come out of this. It’s going to be great, and it’s awesome to be involved in it.’ In its fourth year as a Turnaround Arts school, ReNEW Cultural Arts Academy created a parent focus group to ask families why they chose this school from among many other options across the city. From this study, which included mothers, grandfathers and family friends, RCAA staff members found that every participant they interviewed had a personal relationship with the arts. Participants viewed the arts as a means of culturally relevant pedagogy and social emotional development. Most importantly, they viewed the arts as a reason to show up to school.
‘ Families become invested
in the creativity, confidence, and critical thinking skills their children develop.’
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Using this information, ReNEW is able to move parents and families through the arc of engagement, aligning its mission and vision to the beliefs of its families. Kevin Goodman arrived at the focus group in full Mardi Gras Native American regalia. He’s an elected Big Chief of the Flaming Arrows, one of New Orleans’ many culturally unique groups. Kevin sees art as a way to express his own unique New Orleans-born culture, and as a life force that ‘helped (him) through life, (his) struggles and (his) hard times’. Now, he comes to school each year for a Mardi Gras Culture Night – an event we host for RCAA families – to help students learn more about history, tradition and unique art. Calandria Lindsay affirmed her own belief in the relevance of creativity and the arts when she was asked why her son has been enrolled at RCAA for the past four years. ‘This city is full of arts,’ she said. ‘It’s full of music. It breathes it, lives it. Why not put your son or daughter in a school that is going to make them grow more than just in math and doesn’t keep them in the box?’ Calandria’s son participates in Gifted and Talented Visual Arts classes, plays the cornet in the marching band, and – when he can squeeze it in – dances. Calandria takes the bus from the other end of town to support her son and the school – demonstrating how the arts encourage family engagement and unite the school community. Many family members describe how their own engagement in the arts has led their sons and daughters to becoming more focused in the classroom, thus boosting confidence and providing an incentive to come to school.
‘ Why not put your son or daughter
in a school that is going to make them grow more than just in math and doesn’t keep them in the box?’
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‘ Without family involvement, schools
remain a segmented part of a child’s life. Without opportunity to participate in their schools, families will remain excluded.’
Families believe the arts are formative and they want their children to learn in an environment that fosters growth. Families choose to keep their students in a school that is transitioning to a greater performance level because they believe in the arts’ impact on their children’s wellbeing.
‘In this city, which is driven musically with all of the art and all of the galleries, we need our kids to continue our way of life,’ Derrick Newton said. ‘If they don’t learn it, it’s going to fall away, so it’s our job as parents and as adults to teach these kids where they came from.’ From Derrick’s participation with the Brasso and rag, a movement is growing and winding through our hallways, just as the marching band manoeuvres through the streets. It takes the shared work of families, school staff and teachers in our Turnaround Arts schools to build momentum for change. Without family involvement, schools could remain a segmented part of a child’s life. Without opportunity to participate in their schools, families will likely remain excluded. The arts have truly become a bridge for many families in New Orleans, to engage in the school, and to lead as critical members of the school community.
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