Who can nominate a teacher or a school for the Music Center's BRAVO Awards?
Nominations can be made by anyone; parents, teachers, principals, administrators, etc.

Who is eligible to participate in the Music Center's BRAVO Awards program?
K-12 educators in schools and school programs county -wide. This is not a program for teaching artists or after school arts programs.

What are the four nomination categories that will be reviewed?
Generalist teacher, arts specialist teacher, school and school program.

When is the Music Center's BRAVO Awards nomination deadline?
October 15, 2011

What's the difference between the nomination process and the application process?
Exemplary teachers, schools and school programs are nominated by school administrators, peers or parents. Nominees may also choose to self-nominate. Once a teacher, school and school program has been nominated, we will contact the nominee with additional instructions for the application process. All nominees will be asked to submit a one-page questionnaire, a letter of intent (one-page maximum) and a principal's letter of support (one-page maximum). Application, letter of intent and letter of support are due October 21, 2011.

How are the winners selected?
Winners of the award are those educators selected by their peers to exemplify excellence in arts education. The finalists will be selected by their peers through the Community & Leadership Workshops. Winners will be selected from the finalist pool. All finalists will receive a site visit to their school for final selection of the winners.

What is the purpose of the Awards Program?
The purpose of the program is to provide arts educators in Los Angeles County the opportunity to collaborate on best practices in the field, to create professional portfolios and to review other members' portfolios. Participants also have the rare opportunity to visit classrooms in other school districts of other art educators who teach similar arts disciplines and grade levels. Each participant will also have the assistance of a coach to help them identify and articulate key areas of expertise that they will share with the community. Through these collaborations, we hope that educators will grow in their capacities as leaders of arts education in Los Angeles County.

What are the theoretical frameworks underlying the program?
The program is based on three principles:

• COMMUNITY
• LEADERSHIP in arts instruction
• Evidence of EXCELLENCE

Community of arts educators
The Bravo Awards is a community of practice. Communities of Practice (CoP) are defined by Etienne Wenger in Cultivating Communities of Practice, "...groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion for a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis."

In education communities these are often referred to as Professional Learning Communities. Built upon the premises of communities of practice, the program networks diverse arts educators across the County as well as from all four disciplines. A cohort of 25 teachers will begin the practice in the fall of 2011. Each member will commit to attend four sessions over four Saturdays during the months of November - February on the Music Center Campus.

Leadership in arts instruction
In the structured sessions, twenty-five arts educators will examine the Frameworks of Teaching by Charlotte Danielson to assess their own particular strengths in a collaborative effort to define excellence in their field. They will create rubrics to assess the work they do.

Evidence of Excellence
The community will use the Frameworks and other standards and criteria to create rubrics to review their own and each other's portfolios. Each will choose selected materials from each of the domains of teaching (See Charlotte Danielson's Frameworks link below).

Participants will document and collect their highest quality work accomplished in their classrooms over the course of the Bravo year. Winners will be selected by peer review process of the portfolios.

What are the expected outcomes of the program?
Some of the benefits for each Candidate:

• Complimentary coaching and feedback on the compilation of an accurate professional portfolio
• A stipend for attending all workshops
• Many opportunities to explore the Music Center campus through guided tours, matinees, and other educational arts experiences along Grand Ave. in downtown Los Angeles following the Saturday workshops.
• Presented with Proclamations from the Los Angeles County Supervisors on the evening of the Music Center Bravo Awards in Walt Disney Concert Hall on March 1, 2012
• An opportunity to be selected by peers and recognized with the crystal Bravo Award, and a cash prize for excellence in arts instruction.

What is the difference between a nominee, a candidate, a finalist and a winner?

• A nominee is anyone who has been nominated. All nominees will be contacted by the manager of the program and directed to the next steps for participating in the program. *Not all nominees who submit letters will be selected.
• A candidate is a teacher or school principal who has sent in the letter of intent, the letter of support and the questionnaire and has been selected by the Leadership Committee to participate in the community of practice. These candidates will receive a stipend for participating in all of the workshops and the peer review process. Participating candidates will receive proclamations from their County Supervisors on March 1, 2012 at the BRAVO Awards Ceremony. * All nominees who submit the application materials will receive a complimentary invitation to a Music Center event.
• A finalist is a candidate who has been chosen by the community as an 'expert' in the field and will be advanced for site visits by a committee of coaches to choose who will receive the BRAVO Award.
• Winners of the Award have been selected by the coaches as not only an expert but an exemplary educator or school of the arts. Winners will receive cash awards and the crystal BRAVO award at the March 1st celebration at Walt Disney Concert Hall at the Music Center.