The Arts Teachers Leading Achievement & Success (ATLAS) Project is a sustained and intensive program of arts integration professional development designed to strengthen the integration of the arts and technology with other core academic content.

 

The ATLAS Project is a partnership between Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Arts Education (CPS) and CAPE, and is funded by a U.S. Department of Education Professional Development For Arts Educators Arts in Education grant. The research is being conducted by Principal Investigator Louanne Smolin, Ed.D, and Joseph Spilberg, M.A, CAPE Research Program Manager.

 

On this page, you can access a variety of research tools, resources, and documentation. You can also click here to learn more about CAPE’s history of arts education research.

INTERSECTIONS: Arts and Technology
An Exhibition

Please join us to experience art work created by Chicago public school students that integrates digital media with dance, theatre, visual art, and music!

Date and Time: Thursday, May 10, 2018 Curriculum Presentations 4:45 to 6pm Public Reception 6 to 8pm

Location: Hairpin Arts Center at 2810 N. Milwaukee, 2nd Floor, Chicago, IL 60618

Additional gallery hours Monday through Friday, May 3-May 11, 10am-1pm, or by request. This exhibition features work from ATLAS, a program of Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education. ATLAS is supported by the US Department of Education.

ATLAS Research Update:

Recently, CAPE Program Manager Mark Diaz accompanied Dr. Louanne Smolin, Principal Investigator for the ATLAS Project, to the U.S. Department of Education’s Arts in Education Conference in Washington, DC. The annual conference provides grantees across the nation the opportunity to share research findings and best practices between veteran grantees and those new to the program.

Dr. Smolin and Mr. Diaz presented about the ATLAS Project, providing an overview of the Project’s professional development strategy and the evaluation method designed to capture the impact of the professional development on participating teachers. The presentation demonstrated how the performance measure evaluation plan tracks growth through teacher performance over time. They demonstrated how the ATLAS performance measure enables the research team to examine patterns and ideas threaded through professional development workshops and classroom contexts, illuminating relationships between teacher learning, classroom practices, and student outcomes.

Grantees took interest in how the professional development sessions and evaluation methodology intertwine and support each other. Specifically there were questions about how the research and program team worked closely together to assess and modify program delivery. Another point of interest was the overall program approach of engaging teachings in a techno-artistic practice of utilizing technology as a creative material rather than a tool.

The current ATLAS research findings were well received at the U.S. DOE Arts in Education Conference, and we look forward to sharing the final evaluation of the ATLAS program next year.

ATLAS Teacher Portfolios

An important component of the ATLAS program is the use of documentation strategies by participating educators. ATLAS teachers are using a website called Bulb to create portfolios of their ongoing work and learning; these portfolios have been designed by ATLAS research and program staff to collect specific data and build understanding of the teachers’ growth through the multi-year program. Portfolio examples coming soon!

ATLAS Tools and Resources

Click each item below to download/view a PDF version.