Oak Grove School in Cleveland is one of only six schools in all of Tennessee to receive over a $100,000 grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.  Rich Boyd, the Executive Director of the Tennessee Arts Commission, presented Oak Grove to the community as a “Value Plus School”, on November 27th, 2006. Congressman Zach Wamp was the guest speaker at the Ribbon cutting ceremony.  Fredda Burton, music teacher at Oak Grove, wrote the grant application for the school to become one of the “Value Plus Schools” for the state.  Data collected over a five year period will be presented to the Department of Education as a possible model for education reform.

In 2003, the Tennessee Arts Commission began evaluating its efforts in arts education and how it impacted learning in Tennessee classrooms. This led to a year-long, statewide arts education needs assessment, the results of which are documented in Ready, Set, Grow: Cultivating Arts Education Reform, published in 2005. The needs assessment documented an overwhelming desire and need for public education reform in Tennessee using the arts to engage students, improve instruction, involve parents, and build better schools. After researching other arts models in South Carolina, Mississippi, and North Carolina, the Tennessee Arts Commission developed “Value Plus Schools.”

The Tennessee Arts Commission’s Value Plus program was awarded a 4-year Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant by the U.S. Department of Education. State funding for “Value Plus Schools” was derived from the Tennessee General Assembly and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

 The “Value Plus Schools” program is a five-year arts education reform model focused on arts integration. “Value Plus Schools” emphasizes learning through the arts by integrating performing, visual, literary, and traditional art forms into non-arts subjects such as math, science, and language arts.  Learning about the arts is also an important component of “Value Plus School” as dance, visual art, theatre, and music are taught as core stand-alone subjects, as mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The total cost of the “Value Plus” program over the next 5 years will be approximately $2,001,600, with 50% of those funds derived from federal dollars and the remaining 50% anticipated from state and private sources.  The Project Director for the “Value Plus Schools” program is Kim Leavitt, Director of Arts Education for the Tennessee Arts Commission.  Jennifer Atema is the “Value Plus Schools” Manager.  Fredda Burton is serving as the “Value Plus Schools” leader for Oak Grove.

We are excited and proud to be a “Value Plus School” for the Tennessee Arts commission.