STEAM Workshops for Neurodiverse Students!

K-12 STEAM education

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Despite the well-documented benefits of STEAM education, many neurodiverse children - especially those in low-income public schools - are not provided appropriate access to STEAM opportunities. This creates compounding problems for special education students, putting them at disadvantages in academic learning, life skills, and job preparedness. Students with disabilities have a graduation rate 15% lower than their nondisabled peers, and perform more than three years below grade level on average. Unfortunately, very little training currently exists for educators at the intersection of STEAM, special education, and arts integration. Once entering the workforce, the achievement gap remains stark - the unemployment rate for people with a disability is 7.2%, more than double the rate for those with no disability, and only 3% of the STEM workforce are reported to have a disability. To address this, educators must create culturally responsive and inclusive STEAM learning environments.

This multi-disciplinary arts initiative supports students with disabilities through direct classroom instruction, educator professional development, and family workshops. Everyday Arts’ educational impact draws on our extensive history working within special education programs to immediately reach the most high-needs students as well as build a sustainable foundation for long term learning. In 2023 we established 3 “Learning Sites” at local public elementary schools, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and California Arts Council. An award from LA2050 will allow us to establish 3 new Learning Sites, each of which will host its own series, including: 36 classroom visits, where our Teaching Artists facilitate hands-on STEAM arts integration activities with special education students
3 Professional Development workshops to train educators and staff in the Everyday Arts methodology
1 community-building family event where youth and their caregivers can participate in accessible STEAM artmaking together Everyday Arts’ methodology is based on the Universal Design for Learning principles, as well as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning “Core SEL Competencies.” Our innovative approach utilizes dance, movement, music, and visual arts teaching strategies that have been proven to improve academic performance and social skills, and our California Common Core standards-aligned curricula is suitable for students with diverse learning needs.

Our goal is to lead to an industry-wide shift in how students with diverse learning needs develop STEAM skills through arts integration. Inclusive arts experiences from a young age help students develop self-efficacy and self-motivation, which in turn leads to academic success and personal flourishing. They are supported in graduating and are able to bring their full lived experiences and contribute to society in ways that will enhance not only their individual lives, but also creative industries throughout LA and beyond. To scale our program, we incorporate feedback from all stakeholders - including students, teachers, administrators, and families - and use our culturally responsive approach to adjust the curriculum. Once we have enough Learning Sites established, we will partner with an independent evaluator to gauge the efficacy of the program, document its impact on STEAM learning, and continue expanding our model to serve as many communities throughout LA County as possible.

Our methodology has been proven by independent research to increase student motivation, attention span, self-confidence, and communication skills, which serve as the foundation for all learning; self-confident, motivated students who are able to communicate clearly and stay on task can more easily reach academic goals across all areas, including science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. As we track student growth, our success is also measured by how many educators participate, and how frequently they are able to implement our strategies in their classrooms. We administer surveys which track teachers’ comfort leading arts integration activities, frequency with which they integrate arts, ability to support social-emotional learning, and student engagement levels. Participants consistently report increases in all areas, with exponential impact - since our founding in 2019, Everyday Arts has trained 879 LA County educators, who in turn have impacted 48,027 students.