CETA Overview

Since 1976, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has reached out to local teachers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area through its Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers (PDOT) program.  The program’s goal is to help teachers incorporate the arts as an integral and necessary component of a comprehensive education.  For many years, and continuing today, the program serves individual teachers from 14 school systems—helping them incorporate the arts in their teaching.  The participatory workshops and courses help teachers learn ways to teach and learn in and through the arts.

In 1999, the Kennedy Center established the Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program to impact student learning through ongoing, sustained professional development for teachers in schools in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.  The professional development focuses on arts-integrated instruction as a teaching and learning strategy and is based on national, state, and local standards in the arts and other content areas.

In 2006, 16 schools and 340 teachers participate in the CETA program.  Student learning has improved, teachers are more engaged, and the culture of the school has changed to be more of a collaborative learning community.

Participating schools commit to a multi-year collaboration during which teams of teachers (both classroom teachers and arts specialists) and their principals are involved in ongoing professional development.  Teachers design their own programs by selecting professional development from a variety of options.

The principals and school district administrators play a key role in program improvement and sustainability.  Through research and evaluation, the program’s impact is assessed on an ongoing basis. 

“[When you learn to integrate the arts,] you’re testing where your limits are, and you're taking risks to push forward, to expand your understanding and improve your instruction, and help the children’s understanding in a variety of ways that you've never explored before.” –CETA teacher

Mission

The mission of the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program is to impact student learning, teachers’ instructional practice, and school culture through whole school efforts to teach through the arts.

Goals and Objectives

The goals and objectives of the CETA program are to:

• Help students learn more fluently and with greater motivation by providing professional development that builds teachers’ knowledge and skills in integrating the arts across the curriculum,
• Affect whole school change by establishing a shared vision for arts-integrated instruction and a climate of teacher learning and collaboration,
• Influence teachers’ beliefs about the value of the arts for learning by demonstrating student success,
• Provide support by establishing a network of schools to share information and resources,
• Sustain the innovation by building the schools’ and school districts’ understanding and commitment to the program,
• Determine the program’s flexibility by examining how it can be adapted and/or replicated to meet school/school district needs.

“Through the CETA program, teachers come to understand that the arts really turn on lights in children's minds—their learning is more meaningful and deeper.” —CETA Teacher

Key Features of the CETA Program

• Ongoing, Multi-Year Commitment
• Multiple Formats of Professional Development
• Focus on both Classroom Teachers and Arts Specialists
• Arts-Integrated Instruction
• Program Improvement and Sustainability
• Program Impact: Research and Evaluation

Learn more about Key Features (pdf)

Learn more about the CETA program ’s approach to arts integration (pdf)

Partnership Schools

Quotes

 

Funding for Changing Education Through the Arts is provided by The U.S. Department of Education; The Clark-Winchcole Foundation; and The Dana Foundation.

The U.S. Department of Education supports approximately one-third of the budget for the Kennedy Center Education Department. The contents of this document do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.