Arts in Education Grant Program

At the Educational Policy Institute (EPI), we share your passion in enlivening and transforming education and schools through innovative strategies, including the arts in education. We are a nonprofit, international think-tank committed to expanding educational opportunity for low-income and other historically under-represented students and determining, through high level research and analysis, which strategies are most effective in helping lift our youth to a better tomorrow.

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced a new competition for its Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program. We believe this program presents an ideal opportunity to develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovative arts in education model programs. School districts may utilize this opportunity to integrate and strengthen the arts in the core elementary and middle school curricula and improve students’ academic performance, including their skills in creating, performing, and responding to the arts. Arts organizations may seize this opportunity to strengthen their partnerships with local school districts while supporting their core mission of connecting their communities with the arts.

If you have reviewed the grant guidelines, you have probably realized that evaluation is a key element of this grant program. Applications to the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination program that include an evaluation plan based on rigorous, scientifically based research methods will receive competitive preference points during the review process. EPI offers program evaluation services that will enable you to meet the Department of Education’s exacting research design guidelines while obtaining meaningful feedback on program services.

EPI’s evaluation services are personally directed by our president Dr. Watson Scott Swail. An internationally recognized researcher, Dr. Swail began his career teaching graphic communications at the middle school level. Later, as associate director for policy analysis at the College Board, Dr. Swail researched issues related to educational opportunity of low-income, disadvantaged students. While directing the Pell Institute, he served as the senior research scientist for that organization’s research program that focused on low-income, first-generation, and disabled students. Since that time, he has served on a number of national advisory committees, including technical review panels for the major U.S. longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, and conducted numerous program evaluations on educational interventions. I am pleased to support Dr. Swail in providing arts in education evaluation services, bringing my nearly twenty years experience as an arts administrator and museum educator to this task. I have personally directed numerous arts in education initiatives in elementary and secondary education, including artist residencies, outreach programs, professional development programs for teachers, and museum internship programs, to name a few. I have served as a peer reviewer for the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Georgia Council for the Arts, and the Georgia Humanities Council, and as an executive board member for a state art education association and the Committee for Audience Research and Evaluation of the American Association of Museums.

If you are considering applying to the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program, contact us now to assist with the grant-writing process. We can help you sketch a strong evaluation plan to support your application and your program.

For more information about EPI and our program evaluation services, please visit our website at www.educationalpolicy.org or call our office at 757.271.6380.