Bay Area Partner School Programs

ETM-Bay Area forms long-term partnerships with elementary schools serving at-risk populations that lack the resources to develop school-wide music programs. Music is taught both as a subject in its own right and as a means of supporting learning in other areas. Each partnership aims to support students' learning and development in all areas including music, and to build capacity among school and community members to sustain programs.

In collaboration with each principal, each partnership employs the following components to reinforce music's role as a core subject:

• Music instruction for every child that is weekly, yearlong, and follows a skills-based, comprehensive and sequential curriculum
• Integration to support student learning in a range of academic areas
• Professional development to improve instruction and to increase support and understanding of arts education in the school community
• Enrichment opportunities, such as concerts, and after school ensembles
  
• Evaluation and assessment
• Parent and community involvement
• Long-term planning for sustaining instruction

ETM-Bay Area hires its own music teachers to serve as music faculty where needed, so that each partner school can provide weekly music instruction to every student, including those with special needs, regardless of talent or ability. We work with a variety of collaborating organizations to provide enrichment opportunities to students. We provide ongoing training and mentoring to our music teachers and any music teachers in place at our schools; professional development to classroom teachers; and one-on-one and group leadership and strategic planning guidance to principals. We speak at parent meetings. We assess programs through ongoing communication, skills assessments, observation rubrics, surveys and other analyses.