Changing Education Through the Arts

Kennedy Center's Changing Education Through the Arts Program (CETA)

As one of only seven schools in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area chosen to partner with the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, John Adams Elementary School is proud to be a Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) school! Our school’s partnership with the Kennedy Center, which began in 2009, helps teachers develop their expertise in integrating the arts with the teaching of other school subjects (such as math, science, history, social studies and language arts). This focus on arts-integrated instruction is designed to help all students learn with greater motivation and to sustain learning over time. The Kennedy Center and John Adams Elementary School work together to develop, implement and evaluate an in-depth staff development program of courses, workshops, coaching and study groups.

What is Arts Integration?

The CETA program uses a comprehensive definition of arts integration as its foundation. This definition helps students, teachers, administrators, and teaching artists know exactly what arts integration is and how it differs from teaching the arts as curriculum or just infusing the arts in the classroom.

Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form. Students engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both.