"Bank Street College of Education completed a report this year that showed that DreamYard reinvigorated teaching methods and produced a striking increase in the classroom participation of typically low-performing students."
- Fran Schwartz, Bank Street College of Education
About DreamYard
Evaluation
For more information about any of DreamYard's evaluation initiatives, please contact Development Director, Hannah Stein at (718) 588-8007.
Poetry Slam Evaluation
DreamYard received a three-year grant from the United States Department of Education to evaluate the impact of its school-based poetry slam program. Using an evaluation design that compared schools participating in the program to schools that did not, researchers found that:
Students who participated in the program:
- Improved attendance
- Increased motivation for learning
- Increased retention
- Improved writing quality
- Increased student self-esteem & self awareness
- Enhanced communication & social skills
- Engaged multiple learning styles
Teachers who participated in the program:
- Developed collaborative teaching skills
- Learned how to integrate the arts in their instruction
- Learned how to integrate technology
- Improved facilitation skills
Bronx Arts Learning Community
DreamYard is partnering with Metis Associates, a national educational research organization, to develop, implement and disseminate the findings of a three-year research project that will evaluate the impact of comprehensive arts learning partnerships on school culture, teacher practice and student success. DreamYard and a group of 15 partnering, K-12th grade public schools have created the Bronx Arts Learning Community, a plan to offer comprehensive, sequential arts learning programs designed to reach 100% of each school’s students. This initiative will include opportunities for students to engage with the arts through a diverse web of programs in their classrooms, schools and communities.
Participatory Evaluation Research
The Cricket Island Foundation awarded DreamYard one of ten national grants to be part of a Capacity Building Initiative which trained DreamYard staff, and youth participants from its ACTION program in the use of Participatory Evaluation Research (PER). PER is grounded in the belief that knowledge is created collaboratively and that research should blur the line between subjects and researchers. To that end, DreamYard is using this inititive to ensure that participants in all of its program are actively involved in designing assessment tools and collecting and analyzing data and evaluating programs.
Bank Street Evaluation
Since 1998, DreamYard has worked with the Bank Street College of Education to develop an evaluation and assessment tool that documents DY programs.
The results of the 2000 DreamYard evaluation strongly affirm our work. Teachers, artists and school administrators are uniformly positive about DY's benefits for students.
What follows is a synopsis of the findings:
- Integrating DreamYard artists into classroom curriculum has enhanced the school experience of both students and teachers. DY has provided avenues for students who were not able to express themselves before. DY has succeeded in increasing the performance of all students at different academic levels, enriching the teachers professionally, and transforming the overall academic and creative atmosphere of the school.
- DreamYard students improve their academic performance. Teachers credit DY with increasing students' reading, speaking and writing skills. Students show a clearer expression of ideas, more detailed writing, more vivid language and increased analytical skills. According to teachers, DY students express themselves more clearly and frequently in class and demonstrate more clarity and thoughtfulness in all their work.
- DreamYard offers students at all levels meaningful, unique and effective ways to participate in classroom discourse. Our data indicates that students with different levels of achievement take distinct advantage of DY classes. DY challenges high-performing students to become more effective leaders as they learn to collaborate with and acknowledge the contributions of their peers.
- DreamYard sees increased class participation in low-performing students. Through the relative safety of small work groups and artists' encouragement, students find a voice and begin to take creative and academic risks. Most striking are the shifts of low-performing students. Through DreamYard, these students have found a successful way to "do school" that does not recapitulate previous failures. Classroom discourse focused more on interpretation than facts. Interdependent work with peers motivates these students to engage more in class. During the school year, they shift from uninvolved, off-task students to active participants who offer opinions and answer factual questions.
- Our findings suggest that DreamYard benefits teachers in three ways. First, the presence of another adult gives them more opportunity to observe and interact with an individual and with small groups of students. Second, DY has generated professional interaction among colleagues. Teachers' enthusiastic sharing of their work has sparked more discussion of classroom strategies. Third, DY has reinvigorated teaching methods. Teachers have discovered new ways of approaching curriculums and new strategies for energizing students.
- School directors universally agree that DreamYard has made a positive impact on the overall feel and energy of the school climate. One director notes that DY contributes to a sense of engagement and pride that permeates throughout school.