Space matters: The A+ Schools Program and the ABCs of education

Educational Foundations, Spring 2002 by McKinney, Monica B

Shortly after I enter the classroom for my scheduled observation, the teacher instructs her students to move their desks to the sides and get ready for "movement. "Much activity ensues as the students push their tabletop desks together along the walls of the room and stack their chairs out of the way. At the same time, the dance teacher enters the room pushing a cart containing a radio/tape recorder, some markers, and some paper. She pushes her cart to the front of the room and plugs the tape recorder into the wall. All of this activity creates an open space in the center of the carpeted floor, though the space does not seem large enough to accommodate the movement of 27 third graders. Nevertheless, some of the students sit to take their shoes off(while others choose to leave theirs on). Most of the students appear happy to be out of their desks for a while. Their classroom teacher tells them to sit in the center of the floor, and then she and her assistant leave the room. As the students do their warm-ups, the dance teacher repeatedly reminds them that they should be in their personal spaces and not

touch one another (a feat that seems impossible given their close proximity). The rest of the lesson involves groups of three to four students creating and then performing their dances while the others watch. After 45 minutes, the third grade teacher and her assistant return, the dance instructor tries quickly to wrap things up; the students put their shoes back on and move their desks back to the center of the floor. The dance teacher leaves, rolling her cart to the next classroom.

Introduction

The scene portrayed above resulted from one school's efforts to implement an arts-enhanced reform effort, the North Carolina A Schools Program. Edward Fiske (1995) argues that the push for educational reform in the United States has architectural ramifications that are often ignored:

Systemic reform demands by definition the rethinking of all aspects of the structure of schooling, including the design of school buildings and other physical aspects of the learning environment. You cannot decentralize the management of schools or transform pedagogy without giving thought to the physical context in which these activities will take place. (pp. 4-5)

While few would argue with this statement, it is rarely given consideration in either theory or practice.

This article explores how deeply held cultural assumptions, physically manifested in how space is organized, allocated, and used in schools, influenced one elementary school's efforts to implement a voluntarily adopted arts-based initiative known as the A Schools Program. This article presents an ethnographic case study of Rolling Meadow Elementary School (a pseudonym) that illustrates the school's struggles and successes with two simultaneous and sometimes conflicting reforms, the A Schools Program and an accountability system mandated by the state, the ABCs of Public Education. The intent of this paper is to show how Rolling Meadow serves as an example of how reform implementation can introduce new spatial challenges and inhibit implementation. For Rolling Meadow, the A Schools Program was difficult to implement due to spatial limitations and pressure from the ABCs. As one teacher assistant lamented, "it's like we're remodeling the whole house at one time ... [because of both] the ABCs and A ." The lack of space available for arts activities often frustrated teachers, who were under pressure by the ABCs to raise test scores. While the school enjoyed significant successes with aspects of A , in the end, dire spatial issues and testing pressure limited the implementation of A . The school is an example of the limitations inherent in a school reform effort when a school is unable (in this case, by virtue of its circumstances) to alter its culture.

The A Schools Program and the ABCs of Education

In the fall of 1995, 25 elementary, middle, and high schools across the state of North Carolina began implementing the A Schools Program (two schools started earlier in the pilot phase of the program). Under the direction of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, A emphasizes the central role of the arts in helping students learn. The program advocates instruction in dance, drama, music, and the visual arts, with students ideally receiving instruction by specialists in each of these areas at least once a week. The A approach, based on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993, 1999), has at its core pedagogy based on interdisciplinary, thematic units and hands-on instruction. Regular classroom teachers are encouraged to incorporate the arts into their classroom activities while arts teachers are encouraged to integrate non-arts themes into their instruction.

The addition of the arts, collaboration, and curriculum integration at Rolling Meadow required organizational restructuring through the redistribution of school spaces and adjustments to student and teacher schedules. Teachers required common planning time to integrate lessons and to collaborate, and arts classes were added to the school schedule. The arts teachers needed classroom space to deliver lessons and a performance space for school productions. Regular classroom teachers often needed to reorganize their classroom spaces to accommodate student group work. Time and space was also required for professional development activities that connected individual schools through the A professional development network. Additionally, A called for the development of strong partnerships with parents, area cultural resources, local colleges and universities, and the media.