Everett Public Schools

The Visual Arts and Performing Arts

The Washington State K-12 Arts Learning Standards describe what students should know and be able to do in the arts, including 11 anchor standards and four artistic processes for all grade levels.

Visual arts, music, and theatre classes focus on the standards and 21st century skills in K-12 classes, which offer students the opportunity to learn rigorous concepts and processes in the arts, while finding ways to express and understand themselves through the artworks, music performances, and theatre experiences they produce, perform, and present. In the arts, students deepen their cultural proficiency, their ability to understand perspectives, and their creative and critical thinking skills – all of which will help them succeed in college, career, and life and to thrive in an interconnected global community.

The Visual Arts 

With a focus on state arts standards and 21st century skills, visual arts classes in Everett Public Schools offer students the opportunity to work with a wide variety of methods and mediums, from clay to painting, from digital art to drawing. As students create artworks, they develop knowledge and skills in Creating, Presenting, Responding and Connecting. Our art specialist teachers, along with district leadership, have developed an arts vision that supports best practices in arts education, art standards, and 21st century skills. 

Everett Public Schools' Arts Vision Pre-K-12

Students do the thinking. 

We see this in action in our Arts classrooms when:

• Students are the creators. They make purposeful choices to best express themselves through the arts. 
• Students embrace art as a process. They generate ideas and conduct research in order to bring those ideas to life. They problem-solve throughout design and creation in order to best realize their visions. 
• Students communicate their understanding and skills through both language and action;  they use the vocabulary of art fluently and are comfortable using a variety of mediums. 

Student voice is elevated. 

We see this in action in our Arts classrooms when:

• Students operate as an arts community. They collaborate to produce art and provide each other with intentional feedback to further develop practice and to produce highly refined works of art. 
• Students communicate important and personal messages in the art they create. 

Students are supported. 

We see this in action in our Arts classrooms when:

• Students take artistic risks, revising and refining their understanding of craft along the way. 
• Students set their own goals around developing their perspective and craft. They maintain a growth mindset when faced with challenges. 
• Students have fun; art is a class they look forward to- a place where they are safe to be themselves. 

Students are empowered.

We see this in action in our Arts classrooms when:

• Students produce art with deeply personal meaning, rooted in their worldview, in response to their concerns and/or as a way of more fully expressing themselves. 
• Students learn about a variety of artists and art modalities that act as both mirrors to their own identities and experiences and windows into others. 
• Students embody habits of mind; they do the things real artists do.  

The elementary visual arts curriculum focuses on building art skills, understanding and using elements of art, exploring different media, and finding creative ways to communicate ideas. Art specialist teachers utilize adopted instructional materials from the Art of Education curriculum for each art lesson. Art lessons also integrate Social Emotional Learning (SEL) as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). Art docent programs, led by the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) in several schools teach core art lessons in many of the district's elementary schools that focus on understanding the language of art, and responding to artwork with creative art making. Grade level teachers also integrate the arts into content area studies. 

In middle school, students have the option to take art classes as one of their electives. In middle school art courses, students continue to develop art skills, use elements of art to discuss and understand art, while using the creative process to create artwork that has personal meaning. Students continue to critique artwork by diverse artists, and to work on solving problems in visual ways. This year, teachers will be utilizing a new art curriculum from Davis Publications called, Explorations in Art for 6th grade and Experience Art for 7/8th grade. 

In high school, students can enroll in art courses related to their interests, ranging from graphic design to photography to drawing and painting or ceramics. Students begin their studies with an Introduction to Art course. This year, teachers will use the new Art of Education curriculum, and Davis curriculum, The Visual Experience and Communicating Through Graphic Design to inspire students to think creatively, use the creative process, to solve problems and to develop their own artistic voice and style. 

Challenging options for students in high school include three Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Art courses, where students develop a 2-D portfolio, a 3-D portfolio, or a drawing & painting portfolio.

Each year, Everett Public Schools reports to the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) regarding standards-aligned assessments administered to elementary, middle and high school students enrolled in arts programs. Elementary school visual arts specialists administer an assessment to grade 5 students. At the middle school level, grade 8, students enrolled in visual arts classes are assessed and in high school, students in Introduction to Art courses are assessed. 

OSPI visual arts assessments are the starting place for teachers to find resources for implementing standards-aligned assessments in the visual arts. Visual arts teachers have implemented revised versions of the OSPI Visual Arts Classroom Based Performance Assessments (CBPA's) in common across the district. 

Every school year, Everett Public Schools, in partnership with the Everett Public Schools Foundation, is pleased to display the work of student artists in art shows at the Community Resource Center (CRC). The Elementary Art Show displays the art of elementary student artists and sponsors an open house event for families to view artwork in the evening. The Middle School Art Show and High School Art Show, open to all district secondary students, are juried shows and have evening receptions to honor students winning awards, as well as all student artists in the show. 

At the High School Art Show, the Superintendent chooses one artwork each year to be part of the district's permanent art collection displayed at the CRC. Winners of the Everett Education Foundation Art Scholarship are also announced at the reception.  

The Performing Arts 

Performing arts programs in Everett Public Schools are standards-aligned to provide students with general music and performance knowledge and skills at the elementary level and opportunities to hone those skills through middle and high school. Students enrolled in these programs have the opportunity to perform throughout the school year.

Each year, Everett Public Schools reports to the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) regarding standards-aligned assessments administered to elementary, middle, and high school students enrolled in arts programs. Completion of standards-aligned assessments is reported to the district and then by the district to the state at the end of each school year.

Elementary school visual arts and music specialists administer an assessment to grade 5 students. At the middle school level, grade 8 students enrolled in visual arts and music classes are assessed. In high school, students in Introduction to Art courses are assessed. In the performing arts, the middle school and high school programs emphasize group performance, such as in band, orchestra, and choir. So these teachers use the Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) contest rubric to administer a large group performance assessment. To fulfill this requirement, teachers may assess their own students’ performance, have students participate in a WMEA contest, or invite a guest to assess their group.  Students also evaluate and reflect upon their performance.

Each school year, Everett Public Schools, in partnership with the Everett Public Schools Foundation, is pleased to display the work of student artists in art shows at the Community Resource Center (CRC). The Elementary Art Show displays the art of elementary student artists. The Middle School Art Show and the High School Art Show, open to all district secondary students, are juried shows and have evening receptions to honor students winning awards, as well as all student artists in the show.