Arts in Education: Tilles Center and C.W. Post Helping At-risk Students Learn through the Arts
Major Grants from the Rauch Foundation and U.S. Department of Justice Support Aesthetic Education

January 7, 2006 - Brookville, NY – For more than a decade, Tilles Center for the Performing Arts on the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University has been partnering with Long Island schools to enrich and improve students’ education through the arts. Today, thanks to two major grants, Tilles Center – in collaboration with the C.W. Post School of Education – has been given the opportunity to expand and further assess its aesthetic education programs in several districts on Long Island that have been identified as high-need. 

Recently, the Rauch Foundation awarded Tilles Center’s Arts Education program a new grant of $50,000 over two years to expand, document and assess the methods developed under the U.S. Justice Department grant.

The aesthetic education program combines structured arts experiences, such as hands-on workshops led by visiting artists, with attendance at professional music, dance, and theatre performances at Tilles Center. Approximately 180 students at Atkinson School participated.

“In addition, their academic grades – and self-confidence – are significantly higher,” said Andrew Berger, Director of Education at Tilles Center. All of the students were categorized as at-risk, including English as a Second Language students.

Through the grant from the Rauch Foundation, the methods will now be field tested with students at Gribbin School in Glen Cove and Columbus Avenue School in Freeport.  In addition, the grant will provide opportunities for students to share their experiences with their families through family workshops and repeat performances on the weekends at Tilles Center.  The second year of the grant will allow greater participation at these two schools as well as new programs in other high-needs districts.

Dr. Shaireen Rasheed, education professor at C.W. Post’s School of Education, leads the team that is studying Tilles Center’s aesthetic education program.

 “These activities can be a transforming experience and can open the minds of students to possibilities they had never imagined,” Rasheed said. In addition, the program reinforces academic curriculum, increases literacy skills and supports efforts to keep young people in school, Rasheed said.

In addition to Dr. Rasheed, the education research team at C.W. Post includes professors Nuzhat Amin, Ph.D.; Haeryun Choi, Ph.D.; Andrea McLoughlin, Ph.D.; and Jeongeun Rhee, Ph.D. The group evaluates the activities, gathers feedback from teachers and employs New York State standards to measure reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.

“We are grateful to the Rauch Foundation for their support which recognizes the importance of providing our youngest learners with curriculum that not only supports literacy and academic skills but also engages the whole child and stimulates the imagination,” said Berger. 

Based in Garden City, N.Y., the Rauch Foundation’s mission is to “promote positive outcomes for young children, ages newborn to six, with particular focus on those with a disadvantaged socio-economic start” on Long Island and in Maryland, where Rauch family members have lived and worked.

The Arts Education program at Tilles Center, which began with a modest series of four performances for school audiences in 1992, now welcomes over 10,000 students each year from schools across Long Island to experience the joys of live music, dance and theatre. Professional performances by world-class artists are complemented by artist residencies in schools and professional development workshops for educators.

The most intensive part of the Arts Education program is the School Partnership program, which is administered by Tilles Center and the C.W. Post Institute for Arts and Culture. The School Partnership program is modeled on the highly acclaimed aesthetic education program that has evolved over a 25-year period at Lincoln Center. It is a comprehensive, year-long approach to teaching and learning about the arts and is applicable to all grade levels and academic disciplines. Attendance at professional performances at Tilles Center, or viewing of art works at a museum, is combined with artistic explorations in the school led by teaching artists, classroom teachers, and arts specialists. Students learn what to look for and listen to in a performance or art work, how it relates to other areas of curriculum, and how it relates to their lives and the world around them.

For additional information, call the C.W. Post Office of Public Relations at (516) 299-2332 or e-mail pr@cwpost.liu.edu