Young Audiences of Louisiana awarded $1.8 million grant to bring the arts to middle school civics classrooms in three Louisiana parishes
Young Audiences of Louisiana (YALA), the largest arts in education provider in the state, has received a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. With the grant’s support, YALA will use their evidence-based arts-integration model to engage social studies students in Louisiana middle schools serving low-socioeconomic households and communities.
In partnership with Jefferson Parish Schools (JPS), NOLA Public Schools (NPS), St. Tammany Parish Schools, and Young Audiences, Inc. (YA), the History Education (Through) Arts Responsive Training (HEART) Program will use arts integration residencies to positively engage students in history learning and provide knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about politics in an environment informed by social media. Additionally, YALA will offer professional development for educators, school leaders, and teaching artists.
“We are really honored that the US Department of Education (U.S. DOE) has recognized the validity of arts integration as an effective teaching tool outside of the arts department,” said Jenny James, YALA Executive Director.
The initiative is built upon YALA’s successful arts-integrated professional development programs and the solid partnerships forged with Greater New Orleans public school systems during three cycles of multi-million-dollar U.S. DOE arts education grants, the latest of which supported the YALA’s Comprehensive Arts-Integrated School Model (CAISM) to exceptional results.
On the 2022 Louisiana Educational Assessment Protocol (LEAP) test the six schools that participated in CAISM grew five percentage points more than the state average growth across all four subject areas. CAISM students earned nine percentage points more specifically in English Language Arts. Educators are looking forward to these accelerated gains translating to their social studies classrooms.
“We are confident that we can relay the tremendous success and growth in our students from the CAISM program to middle school American history and civics students in the HEART program,” said James.
In total, HEART will serve 1,500 students Grades 6-8 in 60 classrooms across seven schools, along with 21 school leaders, and 70 teachers including paraprofessionals and arts staff. The program will also support professional development for 12 teaching artists.
YALA will launch a pilot semester at Young Audiences Charter Schools (YACS) in Jefferson and Orleans Parishes in Spring 2024 prior to expansion to all seven schools in Fall 2024. To learn more about YALA’s groundbreaking arts integration programs, visit www.ya4la.org.
About Young Audiences of Louisiana
Young Audiences of Louisiana (YALA) was founded in 1962 with the mission to inspire, engage, and unite children and communities through education, arts, and culture. Over the last 60 years the organization has grown from presenting school performances of chamber music to our current position as the state’s largest provider of arts-integrated and afterschool programs. Utilizing a wide-range of arts programming, YALA draws upon our region’s strong culture to provide young people with tools to impact their worlds using art. To learn more about our mission, please visit our website at www.ya4la.org.