Arts enrichment program makes difference at toughest schools

Titus Johnson bounces around on an inflatable playground at Grandview Elementary School.

“You can jump, you can slide, it’s fun,” he said.

It’s been a busy day for the six-year-old; in the morning he won a gold medal for reading at an awards day ceremony held at the school. Time on the inflatable playground makes a nice reward for Johnson and the other children who have worked hard this year.

While Johnson is enjoying the inflatable playground, other students are in the cafeteria practicing a music routine for the school’s upcoming kindergarten graduation. Many of the children have been getting additional music instruction in the afternoons thanks to an afterschool enrichment program, and the extra attention shows in the quality of the children’s singing.

Grandview Principal Todd Weeks said an added bonus of improving the students’ musical abilities was a bigger draw at school events as proud parents are turning up to see their children perform.

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in parents attending programs,” he said. “We’ve got parents serving a classroom mothers, there’s been a big improvement there.”

The inflatables, the arts and other enrichment programs have all been made possible by Families And Communities Empowering Students (FACES), an enrichment program that is providing help and hope to educators, parents and students at two of Dothan’s toughest schools, Faine Elementary School and Grandview Elementary School.

Faine and Grandview have the highest concentration of low-income, minority students in the Dothan City Schools. Educators at the two schools work to help the students overcome the sociological consequences of generational poverty and single parenthood. The FACES program, now completing its first year, has already seen some success in giving teachers at these two schools tools to mitigate some of the odds these children are up against.

The theory behind FACES is simple. Pumping extra resources into the two schools to allow them to provide more activities for students and their parents helps make up for resources these families may not have, giving the students a better chance of success in school.

According to a report by program coordinator Margaret Johnson to the Dothan City School Board, the FACES program has resulted in higher test scores, fewer disciplinary problems and better attendance at the two schools. Johnson reported that since the FACES program started, student performance on DIEBELS tests have improved at both schools. Johnson also reported a drop in the number of discipline referrals at both schools.

A key component of FACES is its afterschool enrichment program. Community volunteers and teachers at the two schools work to teach art, cheerleading, chess, creative movement, dram, hip-hop dancing, athletics and other activities after school hours at the two schools. The aim is to give the students a positive activity to engage in after school and to get more people involved at Faine and Grandview. The program is reporting positive results; about 269 students were served by the program this year, and the schools are reporting greater attendance at Parent Teacher Organization meetings.

Arts instruction programs can make a big difference in the academic achievement of low-income and rural students. A college board survey recently showed that students with four or more years of arts instruction score significantly higher on the math and reading portions of SAT tests than students with little or no arts training.

The FACES program is providing about $2.25 million to Faine and Grandview over three years, with $500,000 per year coming from the Wiregrass Foundation and the remainder coming from the Dothan City Schools and in-kind contributions by the Cultural Arts Center and the Wiregrass Museum of Art. Thomas Harrison, education director for the Wiregrass Foundation, said that while the recession has had an impact on the Wiregrass Foundation’s funding, the organization will be able to fulfill its funding commitments to Faine and Grandview.

The foundation board is pleased with the results the program has been able to accomplish, Harrison said.

“It appears as if both school communities have a greater sense of hope for their children than ever before,” he said.

A thorough report on the project’s achievements is being compiled and should be available to the public some time after September, Harrison said. The results of this report may be used to export some of the program’s most successful aspects to other schools in the city system.