Tri-State Consortium evaluates arts curriculum at PPS

This fall, members from the Tri-State Consortium evaluated the Princeton Public Schools Visual and Performing Arts department (VPA). The Tri-State Consortium is made up of 55 public school districts from Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. It aims to help public school districts improve by evaluating them based on a standardized assessment.

“I like the Tri-State model, because it’s a larger group of people that are experts in their field. So, they come in and these are all arts educators and administrators that understand what we do and why we do it ... They can probe our thinking in a different way than somebody that may not be as familiar with our program,” said Supervisor of Visual and Performing Arts Patrick Lenihan.

In order to prepare for the visit, the department followed three essential questions: what opportunities are we giving all learners to showcase their engagement in the creative process; in what ways do the VPA department work to implement curricular programs across all grade levels; to what extent does the arts department show the importance of art education to all students? These questions are mainly focused on the engagement of the students.

“The Steering committee has been meeting since we announced that we were going to do the visit and then the full department meets monthly [and] they work on the preparations for the visit as well,” said Lenihan.

The department itself doesn’t just rely on the staff and their ideas for the success of the curriculum, but a philosophy. The Princeton VPA philosophy states that “participation in an arts program allows students to make connections across content areas and cultural boundaries. The arts enable personal, intellectual, social, economic, and human growth by fostering creativity and providing opportunities for expression beyond the limits of language.” This philosophy doesn’t only apply to the PHS, but to the other Princeton district schools as well.

“It’s a critical part of their journey,” said Lenihan. “It’s a way for us to connect with other people, both within our community and around the world. It really does prepare students to be global citizens, and really, it speaks to how important the arts are as a vehicle for communication.”

As a result of PHS’s involvement with the arts, they strive to incorporate all variations of it to show the colorful possibilities that students could be capable of. Though Lenihan has a lot of big decisions to make, the rest of the VPA department staff share this same responsibility. After being notified of the Consortium members’ visit, Visual Arts teacher Jessica Zhang first thought about skills: could she teach the students to showcase their talent? The art teachers created resources that educated the Tri-State visitors on what their department is like.

“There was a lot of individual planning for lessons, but then there was also collaborative planning amongst the department to advertise the arts of interest ... There’s a sense of community,” said Zhang.