Gathering data for improvement throughout: Museum example

The MoNA program's final report to the grant funder gets most of its text from their Logic Model. Click on the following three sections to review the final report in three parts (with text from the Logic Model highlighted in green). If you want to see the complete Logic Model, click on the Cases tab above and choose MoNA Link.

Section 1: What we wanted to do
Section 2: What we did
Section 3: So what?

Final Report on Link Program of the Museum of Northwest Art

To the Institute for Museum and Library Services:

Section 1: What we wanted to do

The Link program of the Museum of Northwest Art (MoNA) has provided intensive training and other art museum services for Skagit County elementary school teachers in order to enhance teaching with art and related concepts such as visual thinking. Immediate goals included strengthened teacher skills for leading discussions about art, using museum visits and online resources to enhance teaching, and integrating art into classroom activities, for the ultimate purpose of helping students develop critical thinking skills.

Needs met:

The program grows out of perceived need for training, especially in light of new state-mandated standards and learning goals. Elementary-school teachers often feel inadequately prepared to teach hands-on art-making, do not know how to effectively talk with students about art, and are uncomfortable visiting a museum with or without their students. Many teachers will need training to effectively meet the anticipated formal assessment in the arts mandated by the Washington State Essential Academic Learning Requirements in 2008.

Additionally, most teachers have had little pre-service training in teaching critical thinking, one of Washington State's Four Learning Goals, infused in all curricular areas of the state's learning standards. In the Information Age when more than enough knowledge and data is easily accessible to everyone, education's task is no longer to provide students with facts, but to help students locate and analyze information, make reasoned judgments, think creatively, communicate clearly and solve problems. These are the skills employers seek.

Section 2: What we did

Program Activities:

This pilot program involved volunteer elementary school teachers in Skagit County who completed the MoNA Link program by participating in:

5-day, 3 credit summer institute on Northwest art history; visual art concepts, Visual Thinking Strategies, critical thinking

2 training days: in-depth study of 2 exhibitions; meeting the artist; responding to the exhibition using art, writing, reflection

monthly meetings with other teachers and Museum Art Educator to develop curriculum linking exhibitions and classroom teaching

3 docent-guided Museum visits for the teacher's class with pre- and post-visit lessons taught in the classroom by the Museum Art Educator culminating in student demonstration of learning presented to other students, family, community in Museum or posted on Museum website if desired

Accomplishments:

In two summer institutes, we enrolled 25 students for each summer institute from elementary teachers in Skagit County with the course advertised through the Skagit County Board of Education, with 21 completing the course in the first year and 23 in the second. After each institute, teachers participated monthly in an educators' website to generate and share curriculum units, with two teacher-training days provided in connection with two different exhibits (one early in the year, one later). Each teacher's visit with a school group was preceded and followed by a visit from the Art Educator, with docents leading the groups on their actual bus trips to MoNA.

Output: Teachers completing summer inst.
Y1: 21
Y2: 23
Total: 44
Goal: 40

Output: School groups visiting in first year
Y1: 29
Y2: 30
Total: 59
Goal: 40

Output: School groups make 3 visits in 2 years
Y1: 10
Y2: 9*
Total: 19*
Goal: 20

Output: Curriculum units
Y1: 61
Y2: 20 to date
Total: 81 to date*
Goal: 80

* report issued before completion of the second year for teachers taking the second summer institute.

Section 3: So what?

Indicators of Success:

Our goal was to strengthen:

teacher skills for leading discussions about art,
teachers' use of museum visits and online resources to enhance teaching,
teachers' ability to integrate art into classroom activities, for the ultimate purpose of helping students develop critical thinking skills.

To reach this goal, we wanted to change the knowledge, skills and behavior of the teachers so that they would see the Museum as an effective resource and would in fact use a curriculum unit linking an exhibition to their classroom teaching.

Our indicators of success were as follows:

Outcome: Teachers will see the Museum as an effective resources for instructional support

Indicator: Number and percent of teachers who rate the Museum as an effective resource for instructional support
Data Source: 4-pt. Likert scale before summer institute and at end of training year, where 1 = not effective and 4 = very effective
Results, with target of 90%: Before summer institute, 25 teachers out of 44 (57%) rated the Museum at 3 or 4; after training year, 42 teachers (95%) rated it at 3 or 4.

Outcome: Teachers see the Museum as an effective resource for instructional support.

Indicator: Number and percent of teachers who develop at least one curriculum unit linking an exhibition to their classroom teaching during their training year. AND
Data Source: Teacher portfolios (at end of 2nd and 3rd year of MoNA Link)
Results, with a target of 100%: 42 teachers out of 44 (95%)
Indicator: Number and percent of teachers who teach at least two lessons in their classroom based on a Museum exhibition during their training year.
Data Source: Teacher reports, observations and documentation by Museum art educator (throughout 2nd and 3rd year of MoNA Link)
Results, with a target of 100%: 42 teachers out of 44= 95%

Conclusion :

The MoNA Link program has shown a high rate of success in leading and supporting elementary school teachers in linking their curriculum units to MoNA exhibits, helping them to develop and share curriculum units, providing support for them and their classes, and changing attitudes from feelings of intimidation to assurance of confidence and comfort. The student programs, described in Appendix C, show a range of ideas (including designing modern totem poles) as well as interpreting the stories of existing Northwest art objects. Although this report is being written before we've been able to finish tabulating results for teachers attending the second summer institute, we have results that suggest we have exceeded or closely approached our ambitious goals.

The Skagit County Board of Education and the Board of the Museum of Northwest Art have reviewed the outcomes and expressed their satisfaction with the success of the program. For information on our program materials, contact us our oweb site. We thank the Institute for Museum and Library Services for their support in this program.