Turning up the Heat Together

By Mike Kennedy

Louisville Metro United Way (MUW) and The Community Foundation of Louisville (CFL) have turned up the heat together and given away $250,000 to 27 local organizations, schools and school systems that are helping to create a college-going culture in Louisville.

At yesterday’s grant presentation at Actors Theatre, CFL CEO Susan Barry spoke about her experiences as a first-generation college graduate. MUW CEO and 55,000 Degrees board member Joe Tolan talked about what it was like growing up as an immigrant’s son, and how important it is for Louisville to set “bold goals.”

Mayor and chairman of the 55K Board Greg Fischer asked the crowd, “Why shouldn’t we have the best public school system in the country?” He said there is nothing more important in this community than education, because Louisville is not just competing with cities in the US, but also cities around the world. He noted that one-third of children born today will not graduate from high school, and another one-third will not graduate from college. “Everyone must have a degree,” Fischer said. “If not, we’ve given up on their potential.”

The awards were designed to target five key tipping points: transition to college or career, high school graduation, middle school transitions, early grade reading, and early childhood education. Grantees will create learning networks for each tipping point in order to share promising approaches with the community at large. Both funding organizations expressed the desire for a similar collaborative next year.

To see the list of winning groups and programs, click here.

To see pictures from the event, click here.

Student Achievement and the Arts

By Mary Gwen Wheeler

What is the importance of an arts-rich education on later overall education attainment? Research presented yesterday by Dr. James S. Catterall from the UCLA Center for Culture, Brain and Development, showed that those who had intensive involvement in the arts in grades 8-12 were more likely to attend college and complete degrees. In his talk at Actor’s Theatre, sponsored by Louisville’s Art and Cultural Attractions Council, Dr. Catterall showed the correlation between arts education and involvement to increased student achievement and higher levels of community engagement in adult life, such as voting. Particularly relevant to 55K, a rich arts education led to a significantly greater likelihood to get an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. (See chart). Importantly, these effects were even greater for low-income students.

He also shared interesting findings from neuroscience. It turns out the same parts of the brain that indicate empathic behavior also light up when the person is involved in an arts activity. So kids involved in the visual and performing arts are building skills in collaborative problem solving, teaming and communication (particularly listening) – all the attributes employers say are important in the 21st century workplace.

Learn more about this connection in Prof. Catterall’s book, Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art (2009 Imagination Group/I-Group Book.)