Lessons Learned from Successful School Education Programs

Consider these insights and cautionary tales gleaned from the experience of four choruses about how to establish and maintain a strong, school-based education outreach program.

The stories of four successful chorus education programs―Bach to School, Strong Voices, Voices Within, and WITNESS―have been recently featured on Chorus America’s website. Each of the four programs is unique, and yet there are common threads that led to their success. These are some of the lessons learned from their experiences.

Make sure that teachers and administrators are enthusiastic about the program.

All four programs emphasized the importance of getting strong buy-in from the schools in which they operate.

The Voices Within program of the Los Angeles Master Chorale assesses schools’ level of interest through a comprehensive interview process. “We are working in the second largest school district in the country,” says Andrew Brown, LAMC director of operations. “Lots of people are doing arts programs. If teachers and administrators are not into it, it will be hard to bring the kids along.”

Music of the Baroque’s Strong Voices program never commits to working with a school until staff and teaching artists have visited the school. “You can tell pretty quickly if the relationship will work by going into the school,” says Jen Glagov, special projects manager. The principal has to believe that arts education is important, she said, but it is the choral director that must do the work to incorporate the program into the school’s priorities.

Identify what the school needs rather than pushing your agenda on them.

Strong Voices invites schools to choose from a menu of services including private voice lessons for selected students, small group vocal instruction and choral coaching, and masterclasses.

“The most important thing is to forge a good relationship with and to always respect those who are in the trenches and working with these students every day,” says Elizabeth Gottlieb, a teaching artist with Strong Voices. “We turn to the people who really know the important needs of students in the program and ask, ‘What do you most want us to do?’”

The Voices Within, WITNESS, and Bach to School programs all carefully coordinate their curriculum with the state education standards. “Teachers need to know that participating in the program will count toward their teaching requirements,” says Mary Ann Pulk, executive director of VocalEssence, which offers the WITNESS program.

Voices Within works hard to build a schedule that works well for the classroom teachers and the teaching artists. “With all their obligations in regard to testing, teachers are concerned about giving up classroom time,” says Brown. “We work to make sure that is not a stressor for them.”

Empower the schoolteachers.

A Cautionary Tale
For more than a decade, the Choral Arts Society of Washington ran a successful in-school arts residency education program called Arts Access. With the arrival of a new chancellor in 2007 came significant shifts in the public schools’ curriculum and its educational priorities and standards. “Our program was becoming unsustainable within the school culture,” says Caryn Fraim, education and community programs manager at Choral Arts. At the same time, foundation funding for the program was dipping, in part because of the economic recession. Choral Arts has since shifted its education outreach to offering student concerts and still offers in-school artist residencies, at a cost. “We have maintained good relationships with those in the school system, which is key,” says Fraim. “We just happened to be caught in a situation where everything was changing in the D.C. school system.”

The Bach to School program in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania trains teachers to deliver the curriculum in advance of the program’s school assemblies. “That has gone a long way toward building their buy-in and commitment,” says Bridget George, executive director of the Bethlehem Bach Choir.

All teachers at participating WITNESS partner schools attend a half-day WITNESS teacher orientation seminar in the fall. Teachers receive a complimentary 100-page resource guide with activities and lessons built around the theme of the WITNESS concert, and recordings pertinent to the concert.

Be flexible when working within the school environment.

“We work in places that are low on resources,” says Glagov of Strong Voices. “The choral departments don’t have big budgets. They may not have the right facilities. There’s faculty turnover and sometimes you don’t know why.”

The teaching artists that thrive in Strong Voices have an ability to roll with the punches. “It can be frustrating and the more flexible you can be, the better,” notes Glagov.

Do only what is practical for your organization.

“When you get into a school and see all of the needs, it’s tempting to want to rush in and address all of those needs,” says Jen Glagov of Strong Voices. One year, the program offered a basic musicianship workshop for high school students, but decided not to continue it.

“We found that the need was so profound that to address it would exceed the bounds of our time and resources. It is hard to let stuff like that go sometimes, but is better for our students if we focus our resources.”

Voices Within has chosen to focus in on a smaller group of schools, often returning year after year. The continuity builds relationships and buy-in from classroom teachers and helps embed the program in the school.

Build on what you’ve started.

The WITNESS program has grown because of long-term commitment. “Don’t say, ‘We’ll try it for one year and see what happens,’” advises Pulk. “Give yourself three or four years—enough time to figure out how to make the program work well.”

Bach to School has found ways to connect the program to other things that the Bach Choir does—such as its noontime concerts and family concerts. “Bach to School is one facet of our education outreach,” says George. “If a child goes to an assembly in third grade and that is the last time she hears of the Bach Choir, that’s sad. Once you spark enthusiasm, you need to provide other opportunities.”

“Having a sustained presence is better than one event,” agrees Glagov of Strong Voices. “It takes time to build relationships. Having a presence over time has been really, really good both for the teachers connected to the program and to the school.”

Maintain high quality—always.

This is the byword for all of the education programs we profiled.

Practical ways to maintain a quality program included creating a strong business plan. “You need to identify the goals of the program, who your partners will be, how it will be funded, how you will measure your effectiveness, etc.,” says Pulk of WITNESS.

WITNESS also recruits a strong advisory committee made up of members of the cultural community whose music the program is presenting. “The more you can listen to the artists and the cultural authorities as you develop your program, the more authentic it will be.”