Interchange is a collaborative program of COCA. For more information, visit Interchange or contact Mark Cross, director, at (314) 725-1834 x 135.
Interchange is supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, the
Missouri Arts Council, St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, the Norman
J. Stupp Foundation, and individual donors. We thank them for their
support and welcome yours.
Mark your calendars for the following Interchange events.
Interchange Professional Development Committee Workshop
Tuesday, February 16,
4:00pm at COCA
For more information,
contact Mark Cross
Interchange Executive Committee Meeting
Monday, February 22,
4:00pm at Regional Arts Commission
For more information,
contact Mark Cross
Winter Professional Development Workshop
Interchange teachers and artists are welcome to this free PD session on issues of race and class where we will hear about resources available through the Missouri History Museum and tour the new exhibit Race: Are We So Different?
DATE TBD
3:30 to 5:30pm
Missouri History Museum
For more information, contact Cecilia Broussard
| Events from Interchange partners |
Educators Open House
Saturday, February 13,
2:00-4:00pm
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University
Free and open to all teachers and teaching artists. For more information, call 314.935.7918
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Interchange helps students improve academically. |
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 Interchange’s first full-year program evaluation indicates that the teaching artists and teachers who collaborate through Interchange are highly effective at providing quality arts integration. It was noted that the arts residencies provided an authentic learning environment that helped some struggling students succeed.
In the best residencies, teachers and artists bonded and developed rich, comprehensive learning experiences for students. Teachers were active participants in planning, setting objectives, and classroom instruction.
88% of teachers reported they gained new insight into what children can accomplish through the arts.
86% of teachers reported that the Interchange residency helped them teach academic subjects in new and productive ways.
Students gained skills in the arts, learned and retained academic material, and developed social and personal skills that should help them succeed in school.
82% of teachers reported students were more engaged and motivated to learn because of their participation with Interchange.
72% of teachers reported that Interchange helped students understand academic concepts.
Interchange's evaluator is Dr. Rob
Horowitz of Teacher's College at Columbia University. His model for
assessing arts integration includes looking not only at the academic
and arts learning of students, but also changes in personal, cognitive
and social skills. He is also examining the impact of Interchange on
teaching skills of classroom teachers and school culture. View a full report here.
We are currently in the second
year of our evaluation of Interchange. The year two report will be
available later this year.
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Partnership Spotlight: Metro Theater Company
and Mason Elementary School |
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 Roxane McWilliams of Metro Theater Company has been partnering with Knoshia Wright and Kathy Krause in the Kindergarten class at Mason Elementary. Mason is a pilot school focused on literacy and Roxane is using drama and movement to help students understand story concepts and engage them in early reading.
Mason Kindergarten students warm up with TA Roxane of MTC as they practice being "bats" and using their levels while they "fly".
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Advocate for Arts Education on March 16. |
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 Join students, teachers and arts education supporters from around the state at the Annual Fine Arts Education Day at the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City on Tuesday, March 16. Your participation is critical to telling our legislators we support arts education in our state. If you can join us please contact Laura Winter, MAAE Advocacy Chair.
In particular, we need you to advocate for passage of Senate Bill 734 and House Bill 1274 which create arts education coordinators at the state’s regional professional development centers. If you can’t come to Jefferson City, please take the time to call or e-mail your legislators and let them know you support SB 734 and HB 1274.
This year at FAED, MAAE will join Missouri Arts Council and the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in releasing a three-year analysis on the impact of arts education on students in Missouri. Conducted by noted evaluator Leslie Scheuler, the report indicates that school districts with the greatest participation in arts education classes also had stronger MAP scores in communication arts and math, among other findings. View the complete report. |
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Jefferson teachers and staff gain ideas on improving school culture with visit to Chicago school. |
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 Teachers and staff at Jefferson Elementary, the first whole-school arts integrated school in St. Louis Public Schools, recently went on the road to visit an arts-integrated school in Chicago.
Principal Nathalie Means invited the teachers to visit Agassiz Elementary because it was her own visit to Agassiz a year ago that convinced her that arts integration should be the theme of Jefferson’s pilot school plan. Approximately 17 teachers and staff members boarded buses for the day-trip. One of the highlights of the visit was the engaging way in which student work is displayed, making it clear upon entering the building that a different kind of teaching and learning is happening at Agassiz. Jefferson’s team is working to implement these ideas in Jefferson. |
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A New Look for the New Year |
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 If you haven’t visited Interchange online recently, be sure to visit our new website. We’ve included a gallery of images from our residencies and community activities and a set of links to articles and reports on the impact of arts integration.
We’re most proud of the new documentation section where we post lesson plans, video clips, images and student work from completed residencies. The first residency is one poet Susan Grigsby documented from her work in Mann Elementary School. We thank Susan for her patience as we worked out the kinks on the documentation section – she did a fabulous job! Allison Trombley is now helping us document some of the residencies underway this year.
Allison is also working with Lanita Burnett, a parent at Jefferson, who is helping us document a residency with support from Urban Strategies. We’re grateful for their involvement as well!
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