Research and Data

James Catterall, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, Graduate School of Education and Executive Director of the Centers for Research on Creativity (CRoC), led a research team to study three schools new to the Louisiana A+ Schools program. All three schools were high poverty and failing academically prior to joining LAA+. Dr. Catterall's team followed the schools for two and a half years, administering surveys, conducting focus groups, and observed and participated in LAA+ professional development, and conducted over 50 classroom observations to assess the impact LAA+ training had on teachers' understanding of arts integration and their ability to utilize it as an instructional strategy.

• The LAA+ model has proven to be effective in training teachers to be engaging arts integration practitioners.
• Students in LAA+ schools are provided with numerous opportunities to grow as critical thinkers and artists on a regular basis.
• Students had opportunities across the curriculum to think critically and creatively while collaborating with their peers.
  Student engagement in arts integrated lessons was significantly high.
• LAA+ teachers employed an interactive teaching approach more frequently than a lecture-based approach. This aligns with  several of the Eight A+ Essentials including multiple learning pathways, collaboration, and experimental learning.
• Schools yielded tangible successes in school climate improvement, student engagement, and arts integration.
• Teachers who attended the LAA+ Summer Institute were significantly more likely to implement arts integrated lessons that were highly effective at deepening students' content knowledge through the arts.
• Teachers actively shared arts integration strategies and supported one another as arts integration practitioners.
• Parental involvement increased following each school's adoption of LAA+.