A Profile of the "Opening Minds Through the Arts" Program: How the Arts Make Kids Smarter, USA
“Opening Minds through the Arts” is a nationally recognized research-based program that integrates the arts into teaching reading, writing, math and science in public elementary and middle schools. Currently, over 17,000 students and 650 teachers in 37 schools in the Tucson Unified School District are participating in the OMA program. OMA staff is available for consultation with other school districts as well. OMA "uses instrumental music, opera, dance, theatre and visual arts to help teach reading, writing, math and science to children in kindergarten through eighth grade." According to the program's leaders, "...it's been so successful at pleasing teachers and parents, and raising test scores, that Harvard University has studied it as a model for arts integration."The OMA model incorporates three key types of educators: the classroom teacher, the school’s Arts Integration Specialist, and the teaching artist. To be considered an OMA school, the school or district must fund the position of Arts Integration Specialist. This highly qualified, certified arts teacher works with every grade level in his or her school, teaching classes that coordinate with classroom teachers’ lesson plans. He or she also works in tandem with the teaching artists. Teaching artists come from the community, working at the symphony, opera, an area university, for other arts organizations, or even independently.
Work with OMA enables them to supplement their performing and tutoring income and bring their art form to a new generation of appreciative and educated audiences.
The program was featured in a lengthy article by the Tucson Citizen, and the official website holds a large quantity of information about the subject and its applications.