About ARTCORE

The ARTCORE project will develop, disseminate, and integrate arts based instructional materials and educational programing that increase access to arts education; integrate standards-based arts education into other subjects, and improve students’ academic skills in creating, performing, and responding to the arts. The Waukegan Public Schools (WPS) district is fully committed to making arts integration a core part of education for all its students.

ARTCORE has established an Arts Integration Task Force to implement arts integration in all Waukegan Public Schools. It will create communities of learning in which teachers and artists work side-by-side to demonstrate effective practices that improve learning of students. It is designed to weave arts integration into regular instructional practice, and to enhance arts education teaching and learning through the use of digital tools and technology.

The goal is to bring new life and excitement to learning through engagement in the arts. Students will understand the arts in a more profound way by becoming immersed in artistic endeavors so that the arts become lived, meaningful encounters with their experiences, capabilities, interests, and needs. They will discover deeper connections to the arts and find new relevance in their learning. Teachers will gain lasting capacity in teaching art, and understand the power of the arts in engaging students in learning. They will work with artists and technology experts to design and implement arts integration projects in their classrooms.

The project will be implemented in four schools, grades 2 to 8: Glen Flora Elementary, Greenwood Elementary, North Elementary, and Abbott Middle School.

Using these goals as a framework, and based on a logic model, the ARTCORE project will address the following objectives:

1. Implement an arts integration model in four Waukegan Public Schools to enhance arts teaching and improve student achievement through integrating standards-based arts education and technology into the curriculum.
2. Establish high quality school-based PD and follow-up support to strengthen the teaching of standards-based arts (music, visual arts, theatre, dance, media, and folk), and linked to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS); and
3. Improve student achievement in reading and math by engaging them in arts learning and arts integration activities, using digital tools and technology, and linked to the district’s Interdisciplinary Close Reading Program. Based on evaluation results, the model will be implemented through out the district and disseminated nationally.

The leadership of the Waukegan Public Schools is fully committed to making arts integration a core part of education for all its students.