Project Shine! - KIDCO

Fostering personal and academic excellence through the arts.

Kids who normally didn't come to school can on the days we did our "Drumming and Dancing" Program. We saw how the arts really can influence a child's attendance. This is due to the excitement created by the exposure to something new and different, as well as to the student's experience of doing something well in school, an experience too few students labeled at risk often have. (Joanne Williams, Artist in Residence, Levine School of Music, Washington, D.C.; as cited in Creative Partnerships for Prevention.)

The arts transform the environment for learning. When the arts become central to the learning environment, schools and other settings become places of discovery. The very school cultural is changed and conditions for learning are improved (from Champions of Change, the Impact of the Arts on Learning.)

Project Shine!/KIDCO is an after school program that is a collaborative endeavor between TUSD Fine Arts and the Tucson Parks and Recreation. It is funded by the 21st Century Literacy Arts Infused Literacy Grant. The intent of both programs is to have an after school program that focuses on student achievement through  a multiple intelligences approach to learning. All children will be exposed to an after school rotation involving a literacy block including compurter assisted reading programs and a hands on experiential reading/writing experience. Children will boost reading and writing skills by participatin in the literacy block and having exposure to the arts through drama, dance, music, art, recreation and homework support. Each child is given a reading assessment and placed in a developmentally appropriate reading and writing program. Students also participate in an arts/recreation rotation that gives them multiple ways to identify with school and develop new talents related to learning.