cei MERIDIAN is designed for classroom teachers of grades K-5 students with IEPs. The program meets on Zoom once weekly starting in January 2025, as they engage in a total of 39 hours of professional learning activities listed below.

THE IMPORTANCE OF USING HIGHLY DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

The cei MERIDIAN curriculum includes six curricular versions of every project to meet the needs of all students of varying learning levels in a heterogeneous classroom. The six project versions are designed to challenge every student at their level — from students who are early learners, nonverbal, alternately assessed, and working towards the standards to students who are standardized-assessed and performing on grade level. By selecting the appropriate project versions for their students, teachers can easily differentiate instruction at every step of a project to meet the needs of all students. Ultimately, students create the same academic-based music and visual art projects at their level. Our materials include six versions of embedded schedules, curriculum maps, lesson plans, classroom-implementation slide decks, student worksheets, and project resource guides.

SAMPLE LITERACY PROJECTS

cei MERIDIAN's paired projects teach the exact same literacy skills of reading comprehension, writing, vocabulary development, speaking and listening, and connect with content in science or social studies. See project highlghts below.

SAMPLE MATH PROJECTS

cei MERIDIAN's paired projects teach the exact same math skills that address geometry or number operations. See project highlghts below.

cei MERIDIAN, funded by a USED Assistance for Arts Education (AAE) grant, is also a research project. CEI partners with external evaluator Metis Associates who conducts the evaluation of the program's impact on students and teachers. To date, Metis has found important outcomes for teachers and statistically significant student results. 

Metis’s evaluation design includes both formative and summative measures to monitor the grant’s progress toward meeting its performance measures and to inform ongoing feedback for program improvement. Evaluation activities aim to capture outcomes for participating classroom teachers and their students through pre/post teacher surveys, pre/post teacher-completed assessments of their students, observations of trainings and classroom instruction, and the collection and analysis of student academic achievement data.

The section below provides the goals for the project as well as the key findings to date.

Metis Associates, a national applied research and consulting firm with over 45 years of expertise in research and evaluation, including extensive experience in the evaluation of arts-education programs. It is headquartered in New York City, and also served as the external evaluator for CEI's Education through Art, which was a precursor to its Meridian program. 

GOAL 1:  Provide high quality, sustained, and intensive professional learning workshops (PLWs) to NYC D75 grade K-2 classroom teachers in utilizing differentiated visual art- and music-based strategies that are informed by art and music therapy to teach ELA and math and skills to students with special needs.

GOAL 2:  Replicate program with national cohorts of teachers of grades K-5 students with special needs in order to more broadly strengthen teacher and student outcomes and ensure that the resources are applicable in different national contexts and settings.

GOAL 3: Improve the academic performance and social-emotional skills of special needs students through the integration of arts-based instruction in visual art and music, informed by arts therapy) into ELA and math curricula.

GOAL 4: To develop a cohort of teacher leaders (TLs) in order to further their training in arts-based instruction, supporting them in taking on a leadership role with their peers within and outside of their school communities while building school capacity and promoting project sustainability.

GOAL 5: Disseminate materials, tools, and resources for implementing art therapy-informed, arts-based instruction in ELA and math to self-contained, special needs teachers nationally.

TEACHER OUTCOMES

To assess outcomes for participating classroom teachers related to their knowledge and use of arts-based strategies to teach academic and SEL content, teachers complete pre- (prior to program) and post- (end-of-year) surveys.

• National Sites include teachers of students with disabilities from

  • • • Baltimore City Public Schools (MD)

      • Rochester City School District (NY)

      • Bridgeport Public Schools (CT)

      • San Juan Educational Region (PR)

• NYC Site includes teachers of students with disabilities from NYC School District 75.

The performance of classroom teachers from districts nationally (Baltimore, San Juan, Bridgeport, Rochester) who participated in the Meridian program during school year 2021-2022, across the four measures (listed below at left) — where teachers assessed their performance before and after completion of the Meridian instructional training — 81% or greater reported increased knowledge, confidence, and plans to use arts-based strategies at post-assessment, meeting the 80% target on all four measures in Year 1.

Year 1 (2021-2022) - National Sites

Note: Year one participants only included classroom teachers from national sites. New York City’s District 75 joined the program.
In 2022-2023, Meridian added NYC School District 75 teachers to the group of participating teachers and their performance was strong in their first year, with 74% or greater of participating teachers in District 75 reporting increased knowledge, confidence, and plans to use arts-based strategies at post-assessment, meeting the 80% target on two of the four measures.

Year 2 (2022-2023) - National Sites

The performance of classroom teachers from districts nationally (Baltimore, San Juan, Bridgeport, Rochester) who participated in the Meridian program during school year 2022-2023 demonstrated strong growth as over 70% of participating teachers in national sites reported increased knowledge, confidence, and plans to use arts-based strategies at post-assessment, meeting the 80% target on one of the four measures.

Year 2 (2022-2023) - NYC Site

In 2022-2023, Meridian added NYC School District 75 teachers to the group of participating teachers and their performance was strong in their first year, with 74% or greater of participating teachers in District 75 reporting increased knowledge, confidence, and plans to use arts-based strategies at post-assessment, meeting the 80% target on two of the four measures.

STUDENT OUTCOMES

To assess outcomes for participating students, their classroom teachers rated their skills on a pre (prior to program) and post (following program) basis. The locally developed assessments include questions regarding students visual arts, music, and SEL skills.

Year 1 (2021-2022) - All Sites Combined

Students of participating classroom teachers (Baltimore, San Juan, Bridgeport, Rochester) in the Meridian program in 2021-2022, demonstrated statistically significant gains on their teacher-completed student assessments in Visual Art and Music from the pre- to post-assessments.

Year 2 (2022-2023) - National Sites

In 2022-2023, the results included the performance of participating teachers from Baltimore, San Juan, Bridgeport, and Rochester along with teachers from NYC School District 75. Students with matched pre- and post-assessment scores demonstrated statistically significant gains on their teacher-completed student assessments of Visual Art Skills and Music Skills.

Year 3 (2023-2024) - All Sites Combined 

In 2023–2024, the results reflected the performance of participating teachers from Baltimore, San Juan, Bridgeport, and Rochester, as well as teachers from New York City School District 75. Students with matched pre- and post-assessment scores showed statistically significant improvement on teacher-completed assessments of their Visual Art Skills and Music Skills.

"I absolutely loved the cei MERIDIAN project and so did my students. My students absorbed and retained so much knowledge about the butterfly life cycle including complex vocabulary words like 'metamorphosis.'  Student engagement was at an all-time high during every lesson. They looked forward to the lessons and counted down the days until our big performance! I compiled all the pictures and videos from the project and created a video slideshow. The kids were so excited and proud to see their hard work and performance in the video, and my administrators were very proud of our students as well. I posted the video on the school's social media page and got really sweet feedback from parents."

Regan Beem, Teacher, Bridgeport Public Schools

"A mi y mis estudiantes nos ha encantado el proyecto MERIDIAN de cei. Tengo unos estudiantes que han dicho que les encantá pintar e incluso han desarrollado habiliadades que no tenían. Tengo un estudiante no verbal que he descubierto que tiene mucho talento y disfruta cuando pinta. El pintar lo mantiene enfocado. Tambien, yo no sabia como integrar la música en la clase de español era algo que no veía posible y hoy pude entender que se puede."
My students and I loved the cei MERIDIAN project. I have some students who said they love to paint and even developed skills they didn't have before. I have a non-verbal student who I discovered is very talented and enjoys painting. Painting keeps him focused. Also, I did not know how to integrate music into our Spanish class, it was something that I did not see possible and today I was able to understand that it is possible.

Laury Tavarez, Teacher, San Juan Educational Region

The full program provides SIX (6) CLASSROOM TEACHERS — of grades K-5 students with IEPs — with a comprehensive understanding of how utilizing an arts-integrated approach can engage students in their literacy and math curricula. Please note that the program can also serve General Education Teachers of K-5 students.

 Teachers have access to easy-to-implement curricula and all visual art and music supplies, and project-modeling videos and engage in Professional Learning Workshops and PLC Sessions.

With a focus on equity and innovation, CEI works directly with school leaders, teachers, students, and families to create high-performing schools in under-resourced communities to help all children succeed.  www.the-cei.org