United States Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) announced last week the distribution of a U.S. Department of Education $2-million Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant to the nonprofit Dramatic Results for program dissemination in Long Beach Unified School District schools. Lowenthal made the announcement during an event on Oct. 29 at Barton Elementary School.
“It is with great pleasure that I am able to announce today that a U.S. Department of Education grant for $2 million has been awarded to Long Beach nonprofit Dramatic Results,” said Lowenthal, who represents California’s 47th Congressional District. “In this transitioning world of education, it is very exciting that a program whose purpose is to improve students’ academic performance by stimulating curiosity and fostering creativity through a hands-on, art-based approach to learning, is a proven success and receiving funding.”
Long Beach Unified School District Deputy Superintendent Dr. Jill Baker, 8th District Long Beach Councilmember Al Austin, Long Beach School Board Representative John McGinnis, Barton Elementary Principal Richard Littlejohn, Dramatic Results Executive Director Christi Wilkins, and Dramatic Results’ Board Member M. Lissette Flores, also attended the event announcement.
“We are delighted that the U.S. Department of Education and Congressman Lowenthal believe, as I do, that Dramatic Results and the Long Beach Unified School District will live up to its expectations of improved student success,” Baker said. “This funding will deliver an enhanced arts, technology and academic program to 1,680 4th-grade students in four Title I elementary school in schools in Long Beach.”
Dramatic Results, a nonprofit educational arts agency based in Long Beach, was founded in 1992 by Christi Wilkins with a seed grant of $2,500. Since then, it has raised more than $20 million to serve more than 22,000 Los Angeles County students and has grown its annual budget to $1 million, according to a press release from Dramatic Results.
“This funding will help empower Long Beach students and teachers as we develop specialized curriculum that integrates art into other core academic subjects with technology to meet Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards, National Art Standards and the needs of a diverse student population,” said Dramatic Results’ Board Vice President Peggy Morse.
Littlejohn shared a story about Dramatic Results during the event. “Ten years ago, when I was a 4th-grade teacher at McKinley Elementary, my class participated in Dramatic Results’ first federal Math in a Basket program,” he said. “I became a fan immediately and can personally vouch for the success with both student programs and professional development.”
Now the principal at Barton Elementary School, Littlejohn’s mandate is to transform Barton into a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the Arts-focused campus, according to Dramatic Results. He and other participants spoke with 4th graders in a Barton class as they viewed students engaged in a hands-on demonstration of the arts and math at work.
“We have seen proof that the art-integrated programs and teacher training offered by Dramatic Results are critical to the development of higher thinking skills for all students,” said LBUSD Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser.
Schools that will receive Dramatic Results student programs and teacher training thanks to the AEMDD will be determined by random selection in spring 2015, with a control group to provide rigorous evaluation results that will be used to impact policy at a national level, according to Dramatic Results.
Source: Dramatic Results
