The Creative Learning Initiative seeks to provide a quality arts-rich education for each and every child in Austin ISD, as well as professional development and ongoing support for teachers in arts-based instruction strategies through the collaborative support between Austin ISD, the City of Austin, MINDPOP, local artists, businesses and philanthropic organizations. The fine arts incorporate the study of dance, music, theatre and the visual arts to offer unique experiences and empower students to explore realities, relationships and ideas. These disciplines engage and motivate all students through active learning, critical thinking and innovative problem solving. The fine arts develop cognitive functioning and increase student academic achievement, higher-order thinking, communication and collaboration skills, making the fine arts applicable to college readiness, career opportunities, workplace environments, social skills, and everyday life. Students develop aesthetic and cultural awareness through exploration, leading to creative expression. Creativity, encouraged through the study of fine arts, is essential to nurture and develop the whole child.
Why Creative Learning?
- Graduation rates are 20% higher for arts-engaged high school students (MINDPOP, 2012).
- Students who attend arts-rich schools are 2x as likely to attend college (Catterral, 2010).
- Students who are engaged in creative learning opportunities show improved academic achievement on standardized tests (McCarthy, 2005) (MINDPOP, 2012).
- Students who participate in creative learning demonstrate an ability to process information across multiple platforms and embed that knowledge into long-term memory (Rudacliffe, 2010).
- Creative learning provides students with an opportunity to express their lived experiences and address the affective needs of students that encourage hope and self-efficacy (MINDPOP, 2012)
CLI at Blackshear...
As a Fine Arts Academy, Blackshear has decided to participate in AISD's CLI Initiative. We aspire to build an arts‐rich school and community network for all of our students that will, in turn, help to sustain arts-rich lives for every child at Blackshear. Our goal is to create a plan to assure that students recieve the benefits of creative learning across core curriculum subjects and in fine arts instruction by developing leaders and systems that support creative learning that outlines measureable impacts on our students, families, and community.
The CLI Committee keeps our campus engaged by providing a monthly CLI Newsletter that details for teachers multiple ways to implement the strategy of the month into their lessons. The newsletter also highlights a class from the previous month to spotlight them utilizing the CLI strategy.
CLI Steering Committee
Ms. Lockhar, Art
Mr. B, Music
Mr. Martinez, Assistant Principal