LEAP at a Glance

In 1993, the Lakeview Education & Arts Partnership (LEAP) formed with the singular objective to increase student achievement by integrating the arts across the daily curriculum. Initially funded by the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE), LEAP has received full implementation support from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge which will continue through the year 2000. The LEAP network includes one high school and three of its feeder elementary schools. Also in the partnership are two arts organizations, a regional library, the local chamber of commerce and a local university, which serves as anchor organization. Currently, the program involves over 20 artists teaming with 67 teachers to create integrated curriculum units which address state goals and objectives. Over 2,000 students receive the benefit of this rigorous arts academic initiative. Central to the partnership vision is the necessity to connect the community to the schools. This includes an active parent component, an advisory council, biannual community meetings, an end-of-the-year exhibit at the Beacon Street Gallery, on-going transition to high school activities, an arts academic summer school, and an urban/suburban exchange.

LEAP evolved from a Drop Out Prevention initiative focusing on grades 6-9. Presently it includes students and teachers from grades K-12. Since its inception, a primary goal has been to maintain clear documentation of the collaborative process and create authentic assessment of curriculum work. Within the LEAP program, the arts serve as a catalyst to nurture complex thinking skills, reading comprehension, and clear written and spoken communication across the areas of English, science, math, social studies, history, art, music, and drama. Community partners Sulzer Regional Library and the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce bring additional resources and increased awareness to the program.

LEAP has been highlighted in a compendium entitled Working Relationships: The Arts, Education, and Community Development, published by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University.

Additional Components of the Program:

• Transition to high school: all 8th graders from partner elementary schools spend half a day at Lake View High School visiting integrated arts classrooms and attending a performance discussion (by a LEAP artist) in the library
• Urban/suburban Exchange: seniors from Lake View High School meet with seniors from the Glenbrook High Schools in an improvisational play writing project that explores stereotypes; this 15 session program takes place as part of the Humanities and Sociology curriculum at both schools
• Community Meetings: at least twice a year, a partner school hosts an evening which involves parents, students and community in arts activities; this whole network event expands the school vision to the community at large
• End-of-the-year exhibition: selected work created by students throughout the year is brought together for public display, highlighting the process and results of LEAP arts integrated instruction
• Emphasis on assessment: LEAP resources are committed to developing authentic models of assessment to clearly articulate student achievement through this program; in the last year, all LEAP schools increased test scores
• Parent component: in addition to communicating to parents the process of integrating arts into the core curriculum, there are also opportunities for them to become actively involved in the process themselves

A welcome and word from LEAP's director