By: Shawn K. Smith, Ed.D. ‘05

Three years ago, on a warm April morning, I walked onto the campus of USC and defended that question. It was the culmination of 3 ½ years of study in urban education. The full title of my dissertation, The Arts in Education and Organizational Culture: The impact of the arts on the culture of the school, led me to believe that the arts have a distinct way of changing culture and naturally fit into the four core themes of the USC program: diversity, learning, leadership, and accountability.

Fast forward to April 2008 and I find myself asking that very same question has culture changed? Only this time I am not defending my doctoral dissertation. I am reflecting on three years in the principalship in an urban elementary school on the outskirts of Chicago.

Shortly after that April morning in 2005 I accepted a position as principal of Huff Elementary School. Huff’s student body is 90% minority, nearly 90% qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program, and 85% speak a second language. In 2002 less than half the students passed the annual battery of state tests and by 2005 the school was challenged to raise test scores or be put on a path to closure by 2007.

Many assumed when I arrived in Chicago that I would work reforms around “teaching to the test” I was later told. However, during my years at USC I was continually challenged about leadership and policy, had strong mentors that were proven practitioners, and came in contact with many leading researchers rewriting best practices in learning theory. To that end, I was convinced the arts could help reform educational practices and truly change culture.

How do I really know culture has changed? From an empirical perspective I probably don’t. However, I can tell you about Christo and Jean-Claude, Aaron Copland, and Frieda Khalo. I can recognize Louis Armstrong’s musical arrangements- both written and improvised, and I am provoked by William H. Johnson’s masterful American paintings. By design, so too can Huff students and faculty. It’s the way we do things around here.

For more information, the following article appeared in the October 2007 issue of SchoolArts Magazine. Click here to download it. (PDF)