Georgia Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts Research
- The Alliance Theatre Institute is proud to share the research from our 2005-2008 and 2008-2012 Arts in Education – Model Development and Dissemination Grants. (AEMDD) In these two randomized control studies, we tested the hypothesis that Kindergarten students whose teachers participated in a multi-year program of Wolf Trap would show greater improvements in language development and in academic achievement than children in control schools. We found strong support for this hypothesis with both low-income African-American students and low-income Latino English Language Learning (ELL) students.
- In our first study from 2005-2008, we showed that instructional strategies integrating drama enhanced communication and academic achievement in low-income Kindergarteners. Our statistical analysis indicated that compared to children in control schools, children who received the intervention showed significantly greater improvement in grammar development and in quantitative and qualitative measures of writing during their Kindergarten year. Further, these students showed increases in report card grades and standardized test scores in two subsequent years of schooling without further intervention. Students classified as having special needs showed an even greater benefit from the project over time.
- In our second study from 2008-2012 with ELL Kindergarten students, we found that the intervention had a significant and positive effect on students’ English oral language development, their English story writing skills (increasing the use of words, sentences, emotion, and dialogue), as well as academic measures of language arts and mathematics.
- Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts completed a study of their Early STEM/Arts program and found that students in the classrooms of teachers who participated in the Early STEM/Arts program in the first year received the equivalent of 1.3 additional months of learning, or 26 additional days, compared to their peers in the control groups. In the second year, researchers found a sustained impact amounting to 1.7 additional months of learning, or 34 additional days, even though not all students in the second year continued in classrooms with teachers participating in the program.
Arts in Education- Model Development and Dissemination Grant 2005-2008
- The first Arts Model grant, awarded to the Alliance Theatre from the federal Department of Education, was on the impact of Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts on students from low socioeconomic backgrounds at risk for academic failure. The grant was awarded to the Alliance Theatre Institute to deliver Wolf Trap residencies in 61 pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms in Fulton County over the course of 3 years. Over the grant period the project served approximately 1,220 students, each of whom took part in at least 13 Wolf Trap lessons in their classroom as well as a production at the Alliance Theatre.
- Wolf Trap features intensive professional learning experiences for teaching artists, classroom teachers, and administrators, and the arts model grant included a workshop for parents. Georgia State University served as the evaluator, using tools to assess annual changes in children's language development, emotional understanding, academic performance and achievement in drama. The results were used to refine and enhance Georgia Wolf Trap and inform many of the practices employed by Alliance Theatre teaching artists to this day.
- The students who received the Wolf Trap intervention were found to have richer use of words and sentences at the end of the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 school years when compared with students in the control group. In their written stories, students who received Wolf Trap used more words, more sentences and had a more evident grasp on theme, structure and resolution when compared with the control group.
Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant 2008-2012
- At the culmination of the 2005-2008 Arts Model grant, there was significant evidence that Georgia Wolf Trap enhanced low-income Kindergarteners' language development and improved their academic achievement immediately and over time. This evidence also indicated that low-income English Language Learner populations benefited greatly from the Georgia Wolf Trap. The Alliance Theatre Institute applied for and received a second AEMDD grant that focused on the ELL population.
- In the second grant, 24 Kindergarten classrooms in Fulton County received the Wolf Trap intervention. During this grant period the focus shifted to study how long term targeted professional learning for teachers impacts ELL students at risk of academic failure. Over the three-year implementation period, the project served approximately 1,440 kindergarten students in Fulton County with Wolf Trap. Georgia State University served as the evaluator, using tools to assess annual changes in children’s language development, emotional understanding, academic performance and achievement in drama. The evaluation also looked at the progress of teachers who were part of the intervention for all three years when compared to a control group of teachers.
- The ELL students who received the Wolf Trap intervention were found to meet or exceed expectations in reading, speaking and listening. At the conclusion of the grant period the research demonstrated that students in classrooms where teachers had been exposed to all three years of the intervention used more sentences, more words and more emotion words in their writing when compared with the control group of students.
