The White House hosts first talent show in support of education
theGRIO REPORT - First Lady Michelle Obama said she was beyond thrilled to introduce the first annual White House Turn Around Arts Talent Show...
First Lady Michelle Obama said she was beyond thrilled to introduce the first annual White House Turn Around Arts Talent Show.
The National Endowment for the Arts and The Presidents’ Committee on the Arts and the Humanities support the program with funding from foundations. The program uses arts and entertainment to turn around struggling schools. Professional artists, actors and celebrities were encouraged to adopt the schools and serve as mentors.
The benefits of the program were realized in just a 2-year period of time. Mrs. Obama reported that through this programs, kids have higher grades and higher attendance rates. Schools that have had rock bottom test scores, low parent engagement and high dropout rates have turned around. Mrs. Obama said the sponsors of this project were careful to manage expectations, but in the 3 years that it has been in schools, the Turn Around Arts program has exceeded expectations.
Student behavioral suspensions plummeted, educational engagement shot up, class enrollments were up and two of the schools involved in the program are no longer in turnaround or at-risk status. Mrs. Obama pointed out that one school in Bridgeport, CT, has a band for the first time in 17 years, and students in New Orleans are displaying art in coffee shops. Boston’s Orchard Gardens School had 6 principals in 7 years and a 50% teacher turnover rate. Test scores were lowest in the state. But today, Orchard Gardens is considered one of the finest schools in the state of Massachusetts.
Mrs. Obama announced that in the next phase of this program, 35 schools in 11 states will be added. This would allow 10,000 more students to have access to arts education, quadrupling the size of the program.
But even the First Lady acknowledged that this is not enough. She said her thoughts were with the 6 million kids who do not have a single arts class in their schools. The vast majority of these kids, she said, attended the highest need schools. “Kids who need arts education are getting it the least,” she lamented.
“When high school dropouts were asked why they left schools, we were told it was because they had little interest in their classes.” The First Lady said, “This program, with painting, acting and performing instruments, puts children back in classroom seats.”
