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True Needs

True Partners

MUSEUMS and SCHOOLS

TRANSFORMING EDUCATION
Published in 1996 by the Institute of Museum Services, 1100

Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20506

Activities undertaken by the Institute of Museum Services

through the Museum Leadership

Initiatives Program were supported in part by a grant from the

Henry Luce Foundation. The conference “Museums and Schools:

Partners for Education” was supported in part by a grant from the

Getty Center for Education in the

Arts, an operating program of the

J. Paul Getty Trust.

Editor: Ellen Cochran Hirzy

Designer: Sicklesmith Design

About the

Institute of Museum Services

Established in 1976, the Institute

of Museum Services supports museums’ educational role through

grant programs that encourage

outstanding museum management and comprehensive collections care practices. IMS is the

only federal source of operating

support for a diverse group of museums that provide learning opportunities to 600 million visitors

each year. The director of IMS

receives policy guidance from the

fifteen-member National Museum Services Board. The director

and board are appointed by the

President and confirmed by the

Senate.

For more information about IMS,

call 202/606-8536, or write to the

address above.
=[About the Cover

The graphic images used here and

on the inside pages represent labyrinths, intricate pathways that

ultimately lead to a central place.

Museum and school educators,

working in different but complementary institutions, follow such

pathways together in pursuit of

partnership.

[

Contents

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Foreword by Richard W. Riley, Secretary of Education ....................7

True Needs, True Partners

by Diane B. Frankel, Director, Institute of Museum Services............9

Partnership Profiles.................................................................................15

Partnership Themes .............................................................................. 46

Conditions for Partnership................................................................. 49

Transforming Museums by Robert Sullivan ................................... 61

Transforming Schools by Paula Evans............................................. 67

Selected Readings ..................................................................................... 71

Museum Leadership Initiatives Awards, 1994–95 ........................... 75

Acknowledgments..................................................................................... 79

This book should be a great help

to any educator, parent, or community member seeking to improve their

students’ academic achievement and love for learning. Museums are treasure

houses of materials that enliven our past, stimulate our enjoyment of

the present, and help introduce our future.

After reading Diane Frankel’s review of museum-school relationships one can only be thankful to be living in a time when museums

and schools are rediscovering each other in ever new and more profound

ways. By building local partnerships between schools and museums, you

are strengthening two basic community institutions, and that is good

news for children and families—and for our future. I thank all the schools

and museums who participated in this leadership initiative.

One of the many pleasures of my governorship was orchestrating

the conversion of an old textile mill (what had been the first electric

textile mill in the country) into a state-of-the-art multipurpose facility

housing an interesting combination: the South Carolina State Museum

and the South Carolina Tax Commission. They were, of course, separate entities, but they shared the building and parking facilities, and I

think there must be some benefit in reminding museum visitors of the

source for much of the funding the museum receives and in helping taxpayers see, in part, what their good citizenship provides them. One thing

by Richard W. Riley

Richard W. Riley was appointed U.S. secretary of education by

President Bill Clinton after serving as governor of South Carolina for two terms. As governor, he

spearheaded a comprehensive reform of the state’s school system,

bringing together a coalition that

included business people, educators, and parents. He has continued to build bipartisan coalitions

as secretary of education, helping

to refocus national attention on

positive solutions to challenges in

education.

Page 7

Foreword
Page 8

we knew must be part of the museum’s mission is its obligation to reach

out to schools and smaller museums all around the state. To have combined all that in a place that celebrates the natural history, arts, technology, and history of South Carolina is of much importance to my children, my grandchildren, and me.

I hope that schools and museums will take heart from this book

of inspiring examples. I hope that readers will not be shy about approaching

their elected officials for help in finding creative solutions to the challenges they encounter as they seek to enhance educational opportunities for their communities’ students. It is a challenge well worth the

effort. I thank Diane Frankel for her leadership in providing support, through

the Institute of Museum Services, for improving the education of so many

students around our country.

Foreword
1Imagine that you are a fifth-grade

teacher who has just found out your curriculum is changing to include a

half-year unit on Latin America. You are apprehensive, to say the least,

because you know very little about Latin American cultures. Although

you have always been able to find creative solutions during your 10 years

of teaching, this time the resources available to you just aren’t adequate.

Still mulling over your options, you run into a teacher from the

local art museum. You know her casually from the many field trips you

have taken with your students over the years. When you mention your

problem, she nods and says that she just might have a solution. She promises to call the next day. Not only does she call, but she has already spoken to the head of the museum education department, and they both

want to come to see you. She sounds excited but mysterious, and she

won’t give you a clue about their ideas.

That was three years ago, and the collaborative program that the

museum developed with your entire school system is the result of that

first fruitful conversation. As a teacher, you described a real problem,

and they proposed a real solution. After a needs assessment confirmed

the system-wide shortage of teaching resources on Latin America, the

museum’s pre-Columbian collection became the core of an exciting social studies curriculum for all the fifth-graders in your community. This

Diane B. Frankel is director of

the Institute of Museum Services. The role of the museum as an

educational institution has been

a focus of her career. Most recently,

she was founding director of the

Bay Area Discovery Museum in

Sausalito, California. She has

also held positions at the Center

for Museum Studies, John F.

Kennedy University, San Francisco, and at the San Francisco

Museum of Modern Art.

Page 9

by Diane B. Frankel

TrueNeeds

TruePartners

by Diane B. Frankel
collaboration has been one of the richest experiences you have had as a

teacher. You and your students will never think about learning in the

same way again.

This is just one of the stories you will read in this book—stories

about museums and schools working together as partners to craft real

solutions to the challenges in education today. The common thread is

this: when a partnership is developed in response to an expressed need,

the result is a transformative experience. Teachers, students, and museum educators never think about learning in the same way again.

Is this change in the relationship between museums and schools

genuine and deeply rooted, or is it just another educational fad? My

conversations with colleagues in the museum field and in education confirm

that a new national vision of partnership is emerging, a vision that will

bring lasting change in both museums and schools.

Almost from the time museums were established in the United

States, educational programs have been part of their fare. Museums have

always defined themselves as agents of education, and their educational

mission has influenced their programs and activities. While there was

never a question about whether museums were educational institutions,

the relationship between museums and schools has been slow to evolve.

Adults were seen as a primary audience in the early days. In the

1920s and 1930s, John Dewey’s educational philosophy, with its emphasis on learning by doing, caught on in the schools and encouraged

the relationship between the elementary school and the museum. The

principal educational component for elementary students was the field

trip. Teachers brought their classes to the museum for a rapid race through

the exhibition halls. Museum staff usually led students into the galleries, letting objects and exhibitions speak for themselves. This approach

proved more or less satisfactory for the students and the museum, and

it continued to dominate the museum-school relationship for many years.

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True Needs, True Partners
Over time, museums began to look more critically at the role they

could play vis à vis schools. They decided that they had a true educational role and that the museum could be a place where significant learning

could occur. As their education staffs became more professional and more

familiar with the needs of their audiences, museums organized more substantial programs. They invited active participation in learning by making their collections accessible and providing firsthand experiences with

real objects.

Gradually, what was once experimental became usual, and what

was once imagined became traditional. Creativity flowed as museums

began to try innovative approaches with schools. Teachers could take

advantage of outstanding original programs just by calling and making

an appointment for their classes. Docents visited the classroom, met the

same group of students back at the museum a week later, led small groups

of children into exhibitions, and provided a number of models for interactive teaching and learning. Federal agencies and private foundations

supported some of these endeavors.

My own venture into museum education began in the 1970s. Then

museum educators felt a sense of euphoria. We were making a difference by engaging students in an interactive educational experience. There

was a problem, however: Many museum educators were planning programs that classroom teachers enjoyed and participated in but continued to see as “add-ons.” There was no systemic support for the teaching

going on in museums or for the programs being offered. If museum directors and school administrators knew about these programs, they probably endorsed them. But they were not engaged in making programs for

schools a priority, so relationships between teachers and museum educators remained informal.

While my analysis may seem harsh, my conversations with other

practitioners over the years indicate that others have shared my experiPage 11

True Needs, True Partners
ence. But things have changed during the past decade. As museum education departments came of age and school systems defined what it means

to educate their students, they began paying serious attention to how

they could work together formally. Schools have articulated real educational needs, and museums have proposed real solutions. If a museum

has a collection or an exhibition that can make a concept in the curriculum more vivid, if a teacher can integrate what the museum has to offer

into a curriculum package, the museum program becomes essential.

True collaborative programs that involve partnerships blessed at

the highest levels of both educational institutions are beginning to emerge

everywhere. As museum educators respect school educators as equals,

they have become more sensitive to developing programming that applies

directly to what is happening in the classroom. As teachers watch students

who have problems with traditional learning models come alive in

museums, they find new ways to reach these students. As directors and

board members view education as a core principle of a museum, they

endorse and actively support the formation of long-term relationships

with schools. In the ultimate partnership, a number of museum schools

have opened, and many more are on the horizon. Technological advances,

which are having a strong impact on the way we educate our youth,

also have tremendous potential to enrich museum-school partnerships.

Museum educators are feeling euphoric again, and rightly so. I

believe that new partnerships like those described in this book are signs

of profound change. The need to educate our young people is so great,

and the problems are so enormous, that no educational institution can

afford to sit on the sidelines. There will be moments of hesitation and

questioning about the value of these partnerships, but the successes will

so outweigh the concerns that we can look forward to many more fruitful collaborations between these two different but compatible educational institutions.

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True Needs, True Partners
As head of one federal agency that supports these partnerships,

I acknowledge that one of the critical issues still to be tackled is funding.

Grants from public or private sources can provide start-up funds, but all

too often the program disappears when the money runs out. Outside

funding is useful to begin a museum-school program, but then the program must become an integral part of the institutional budget.

About This Book

True Needs, True Partners: Museums and Schools Transforming Education

results from the Institute of Museum Services Museum Leadership Initiatives program, which provided planning grants in 1994 to help museums and schools extend and deepen their relationships. One intent of

the program was to learn about relationships that exemplified the best

practices and to promote similar relationships nationally. More than 300

institutions applied, and fifteen received grants; unfortunately, many

excellent programs were not funded. In 1995, the IMS Museum Leadership Initiatives grants focused on the same topic but included implementation as well as planning. Again we received many more applications than we could fund, and again we were impressed with the outstanding work in progress throughout the country.

Although this book is aimed primarily at a museum audience, it

is also a guide for school educators who want to work in partnership

with their museum colleagues. The fifteen projects described in the following pages—all of which received Museum Leadership Initiatives grants

in 1994—exemplify the tremendous potential for forging alliances. The

educators who joined in these efforts are refreshingly honest about their

challenges and justifiably proud of their successes. Their firsthand experiences, which are related in “Partnership Profiles,” reveal that a successful collaboration has identifiable characteristics. “Conditions for Partnership”

outlines twelve factors that should form the foundation when museum

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True Needs, True Partners
educators and school educators seek true partnership.

The two essays that conclude this book are based on presentations at the IMS conference, “Museums and Schools: Partners for Education,” held in November 1995. From the museum perspective, Robert

Sullivan writes of the compelling need to “offer a counterbalancing curriculum, stressing the development of critical judgment, awe, piety, sensitivity, empathy, affection . . . to transform and improve learners.” From

the perspective of formal education, Paula Evans describes the innovative work of the Coalition for Essential Schools, a national reform effort

aimed at redesigning high schools so that they, too, can transform and

improve learners.

Measured against the long history of museums working with

schools, what makes these fifteen partnerships different is their grounding in true needs. We believe that they exemplify the best practices at

work today in education, both in museums and in schools. They suggest a variety of avenues for cultivating relationships, inviting dialogue,

and pursuing solutions together. Most important, they testify to the value

of museums planning with schools, not for them. The result can be true

partnership and—for the nation’s youth—true learning.

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True Needs, True Partners
2For guidance in building and sustaining

partnerships, we turned to the educators who created the programs

supported by Museum Leadership Initiatives grants in 1994. What were

the strong points of their partnerships, and where did they encounter

challenges? What advice would they give colleagues who want to pursue

similar collaborative efforts? These profiles, based on the museums’ reports

of project activities, present the highlights of each partnership and include

the participants’ own reflections on their experiences.

Strong testimony to the process and the results of partnership

comes from Bruce Evans, president and chief executive officer of the Mint

Museum of Art:

From my vantage point, it was like watching a tornado develop. The first

contacts between museum educator and curriculum specialist were tentative,

exploratory. As the trust level built, so did the intensity of thinking. Then other players joined the game: first computer-based learning consultants, then

teachers, then students. The project had taken on a life of its own. The final

result really is a tribute to community-based teamwork.

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Partnership

Profiles
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Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ Involving parents enriches

the experience for students and

pays off in the form of sustained

parent interest in the museum

as an educational institution.

✓ Museum educators need to

recognize the complexity of

school schedules and the importance of planning, and teachers need to understand the cooperative nature of exhibition

development and the museum’s

role in educating children.

Autry Museum of Western Heritage / Mount Washington Elementary School

Los Angeles, California

Cooperative Learning in the Museum Classroom

Of more than 1,000 public-private partnerships at 700 schools in the Los

Angeles Unified School District, the collaborative effort between the

Autry Museum of Western Heritage and Mount Washington Elementary School is the only one involving a museum. With a Museum Leadership Initiatives grant, museum and school educators spent the 1994–95

academic year working together to develop a new curriculum based on

the multicultural character of western communities, family heritage, and

museum skills.

As the fifth-grade students used cooperative learning techniques

to investigate primary source material and hands-on replicas, the museum’s Spirit of Community Gallery became a learning laboratory for exploring the personal stories of families who settled the American West

from the 1890s to the present. Students discovered the process of exhibition development, collected their own artifacts, researched their family

histories, and wrote label copy and related essays. The exhibition they

produced, A Gallery of Our Own, illuminated the rich mosaic of their cultures and communities.

Parent and community participation was among the most successful aspects of the project. Even though the museum-school partnership was strong, both partners benefited from involving others in the

community.

At first, museum staff confronted the challenge of parents’ busy

schedules. But when it became clear that the museum was serious about

using the partnership to enrich their children’s education, parents began to take a sincere interest. Now, many see the important contribution the museum makes, and the museum has begun to develop a core
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Partnership Profiles

group of parents who want to be involved in the next project. Teachers,

curators, elders, and professionals from various parts of the community

also were excited about lending their expertise once they realized that

the museum and school partners were interested in them and their heritage. They contributed many volunteer hours and invaluable guidance

to the project.

For more information: Cynthia Harnisch, Director of Education and Programs, Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles,

CA 90027–1462, 213/667–2000

Ideas and notes:

Partners‘

Voices

“Each partner was required to

set aside time for lesson planning, brainstorming, understanding the nature of each other’s work flow, and just discussing the project. As a result, the

partners had more access to students, teachers, and community

partners than we would have

had working separately.”

Elizabeth Smith, Teacher, Mount

Washington Elementary School

“To me, this project means that

the museum is trying to get students to be a part of the museum and learn more about it.”

Patricia, Student, Mount Washington Elementary School.

Page 17
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Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ A partnership cannot be

accomplished without time—

not simply the time required for

planning and implementation,

but the long-term commitment

that evolves over the years as

the partnership matures.

✓ Through carefully crafted

bonds among school administrators, teachers, parents, members of the community, and

museum educators, a productive synergy can result where

no relationship existed.

Byron Public Schools #531 / Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Byron, Minnesota

A Theoretical Framework for Art Museum Education

The partnership between the Byron, Minnesota, Public Schools and the

Minneapolis Institute of Arts is based on the belief that if art museums

are to survive as public educational institutions, they need a committed

and educated audience. Achieving an educated audience requires building a sound theoretical framework for learning in the arts—a teaching

and training program that addresses and involves the needs of the learner, the school, and the community.

Most research in museum education has revealed only fragmentary information about how we develop the thinking skills we need in

order to respond to a work of art. In their Museum Leadership Initiatives project, the institute and the Byron schools continued an innovative five-year arts-in-education partnership to extend and refine museum and school educators’ understanding of this learning process.

The partners want to uncover insights that are truly useful and

meaningful to educators and their students. This goal requires working

with students and teachers over time. The longitudinal study tracks the

aesthetic development of 100 randomly selected primary and intermediate school students and twelve primary school teachers. Findings from

other studies—at Bard College in upstate New York, at the Museum of

Modern Art in New York City, in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in Urbana,

Illinois—inform the research in Byron.

Students in the rural, primarily agricultural community of Byron

generally do not visit the museums and cultural institutions in Minneapolis, nearly two hours away. But administrators, teachers, and the community support a strong art program. The school system has given its

wholehearted commitment to the partnership, providing busing for all

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Partnership Profiles

students to the museum and substitute teacher stipends on the days

teachers attend meetings or seminars.

The current program components include professional development for administrators and all teachers in kindergarten through seventh grade. Teachers use a sequential Visual Thinking Strategies Curriculum® (VTS) in both museum and schools, and every student visits the

museum once a year. Artists-in-residence, community programs, and an

annual spring Arts Festival are also integral to the partnership.

The curriculum and professional development that result from

the study are adaptable to other sites. Working together, the Minneapolis

Institute of Arts and the Byron schools have forged a research-based

partnership that will eventually make a difference not just in Minnesota,

but in the teaching of art in schools and museums across the country.

For more information: Catherine Egenberger, Project Coordinator, 509 4th Ave., NE,

Byron, MN 55920, 507/775–7123

Kate Johnson, Chair, Education Department, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400

Third Ave. So., Minneapolis, MN 55404, 612/870–3188

Abigail Housen, 213 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA 02138, 617/492–5488

Ideas and notes:

Partners‘

Voices

“Museum educators need more

time and contact with students

to get to know and understand

students’ developmental needs

so they can help make the museum experience relevant to the

classroom curriculum. Teachers

need more time for professional development, peer interaction, and thoughtful reflection.

The exciting thing about museum-school partnerships is

that they offer both partners

these kinds of opportunities.”

Catherine Egenberger, Project

Coordinator
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Partnership Profiles

Carnegie Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History /

McCleary Elementary School

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Melding Museums and Curriculum

Not long after this museum-school relationship got under way, some

McCleary Elementary School students were overheard fantasizing about

building a tunnel between the museums and their school so they could

visit any time they wanted to. Their enthusiasm is evidence of a partnership that is winning students over to new ways of learning. For them,

the Carnegie museums are more than just a field trip; they are an integral part of daily life in their school and community.

Students at McCleary had tested lower than their counterparts

across the Pittsburgh Public School District, so the school had been restructured to meet their needs. The teaching philosophy emphasizes language-focused, developmentally appropriate, theme-based, and interdisciplinary learning. The teachers develop their own curriculums and allocate flexible blocks of time for long-term interdisciplinary projects. This

structure allows a subject to be studied in depth, an approach consistent with the research and development procedures that are basic to

museum culture.

The purpose of the partnership was to make museum resources a

seamless part of learning at McCleary. Teachers and the museum coordinators chose four themes for collaborative planning. Students studying

rivers, for example, examined river ecosystems through the Museum of

Natural History and artists’ representations of rivers through the Museum of Art. Students and teachers at McCleary came to value the museums in many different ways—as resources for learning, to stimulate ideas

for projects, and for enjoyment individually and with their families.

The use of a museum-school coordinator from each museum was

Try This!

✓ Understand the school’s

teaching philosophy and style

so learning in the museum is

as effective as in the classroom.

✓ Use a museum coordinator in the school to promote immediate rapport with teachers,

facilitate scheduling and planning, and make the collaboration comprehensive within the

entire school.
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Partnership Profiles

a positive factor in this partnership. Working up to 15 hours a week at

the school, the coordinators created programs based on teachers’ requests

and collaborated with museum staff to offer appropriate activities. The

McCleary School staff, in turn, suggested innovative, inquiry-based teaching

methods that enhance the museums’ abilities to respond to different

learning styles. This exchange of philosophies and methods enriched the

experience for both teachers and museum professionals.

For more information: Marilyn Russell, Curator of Education, Carnegie Museum

of Art, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, 412/622–3374

Judith Bobenage, Chair, Division of Education, Carnegie Museum of Natural

History, 4400 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213, 412/622–3375

Ideas and notes:

Partners‘

Voices

“Imagine the following outcomes from a partnership: parents and children become regular museum visitors; children

feel ownership in the museum;

teachers see the museum as being as much a part of the school

as the library; a number of children tell you, ‘I’m thinking of

working in a museum when I

grow up.’ When these outcomes

happened, we knew our collaboration had been a success.”

Mary Ellen McBride, Principal

McCleary Elementary School
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Partnership Profiles

Chester County Historical Society / West Chester Area School District,

Downingtown Area School District, Tredyffrin-Easttown School District

West Chester, Pennsylvania

Expanding Resources for Secondary School Teachers

The Chester County Historical Society (CCHS) has an impressive record

of serving the educational needs of elementary schools in its region. But

the staff recognized that, like most museums, it was less effective in

reaching secondary school audiences. High school students are well positioned intellectually to use museum materials, but logistical considerations restrict class visits, and teachers often know little about the breadth

of resources available.

The society’s Museum Leadership Initiatives project was designed

to provide workable ideas for creating museum education materials that

would reach high school students, motivate teachers to use museum resources, and sustain a flow of information to schools. The project coincided with a major expansion that tripled CCHS’s facilities as well as

with a statewide mandate for school reform. The project team included

one teacher from each middle school and high school in three school

districts. Working with them were four university-level consultants, experts in teaching methodologies and educational technology, and the

CCHS education staff. Together they examined a series of museum education formats to determine which was most suitable for secondary school

audiences.

After two needs assessments and several meetings, the project took

an unexpected but positive turn. No single format emerged as the best

method for extending museum resources into the classroom. Instead,

the teachers were far more interested in grasping the nature of the museum environment as an educational resource. They felt the key to effective partnering at the secondary level was to offer teachers more exTry This!

✓ Many educators still think

only of field trips when they

think of museums. Schools need

more information about museums and more meaningful contact with them to change this

stereotype and promote full use

of museum resources.

✓ Don’t hesitate to change

course in a partnership project

if you find that your goals and

expectations are not what you

thought they would be. Listening sensitively may yield far

more significant goals.
[

Partnership Profiles

Page 23

posure to the museum culture, the methodology of teaching with objects, the scope of ideas represented in the CCHS collections, and handson opportunities with teaching materials.

This change of direction gave the project a new vitality and scope.

It also enhanced the concept of a planned teacher resource center. Instead of being a repository for teaching materials, it will be a dynamic

pre-service and in-service educational center that invites teacher participation in learning about and developing museum education materials.

The center will also be the focal point for exploring the educational possibilities of the Internet.

As a result of the Museum Leadership Initiatives project, CCHS

introduced a comprehensive program of teacher services for 1995–96,

including an introductory in-service workshop, subject-specific teacher

forums, and credit courses in museum education techniques given through

the Chester County Intermediate Unit, a division of the state department of education. Museum internships offered for continuing education credits, incentive grants to develop new museum-school materials,

and Internet and e-mail services complete the package.

For more information: Beverly Sheppard, Associate Director, Chester County Historical Society, 225 North High St., West Chester, PA 19380, 610/692–4800

Ideas and notes:

Partners‘

Voices

“Start small, but think big.

Cultivate the friendship of one

or two teachers. Get them involved with an eye to how they

and their students will benefit. As the word spreads, so will

the participation of others.”

Tom Beccone, Teacher

Downingtown Senior High School

“Museums hold the major responsibility for creating accessibility to and understanding

of the extraordinary range of

educational resources we can

offer to schools. Schools need

more information about us. If

we want true partnerships, and

if we want to be more than ‘enrichment’ or ‘add-ons,’ we will

have to work hard at meeting

real needs in the school environment.”

Beverly Sheppard, Associate

Director, Chester County

Historical Society
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Partnership Profiles

Chicago Academy of Sciences / Roald Amundsen High School and

Seven “Sender” Elementary Schools

Chicago, Illinois

Nurturing Eco-Citizens

Ecological Citizenship (EcoCit), the Chicago Academy of Sciences’ community-based outreach education program, owes its effectiveness to partnership. This spiraling environmental curriculum for kindergarten through

twelfth grade is designed by, for, and with the urban students, teachers,

and parents it serves.

EcoCit is now in place at seven elementary schools that feed into

the high school in Chicago’s Amundsen neighborhood. With its Museum Leadership Initiatives planning grant, the academy looked at how

well the program is working for students and teachers in these schools

and planned for future collaboration. They used research findings to confirm

that formal and informal educational institutions can forge effective

partnerships with broad benefits.

As a result of their participation in the EcoCit program, teachers

expressed greater confidence in teaching science and environmental education, and students increased their knowledge of environmental issues while developing a heightened sense that they can take action and

make a difference. From the community needs assessment conducted

during the Museum Leadership Initiatives project, the academy gained

vital insights that will help staff and teachers customize the curriculum

for a school’s particular needs, develop service-learning projects, and adapt

teacher in-service training.

Through the EcoCit program, the Chicago Academy of Sciences

has developed a strong partnership with Amundsen High School (the

city’s first environmental high school), its “sender” elementary schools,

and their community. In addition to serving students’ learning needs in

Try This!

✓ Working and thinking together in the community is a

key component of a viable partnership. Future EcoCit activities will include more opportunities and invitations for the

community to participate.

✓ Research yields valuable

information—both quantitative

and qualitative—that can

guide the priorities of a partnership and lead to improved

learning experiences.
Partnership Profiles

the classroom, the program is a catalyst for learning through community service and for gaining a stronger sense of identity, ownership, and

empowerment. It is a convincing example of how museums can take

advantage of their expertise in informal learning to play an active partnership role in their communities.

For more information:= Carol Fialkowski, Vice President of Education and Exhibits,

Chicago Academy of Sciences, 2001 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614, 312/549–

0606, ext. 2028

Ideas and notes:

Page 25

Partners‘

Voices

“Students must have stimulating and challenging activities

that allow them to relate reallife experiences to those of the

museum.”

Colleen Quinn, Teacher

Waters Elementary School

“Rather than approaching the

situation with the attitude that

we can save them, museum

and community members—

teachers, administrators, and

parents—can work together to

identify needs and meet them.

To promote change and to be a

member of the community, museums must concentrate on audience involvement.”

Carol Fialkowski, Vice President

of Education and Exhibits, Chicago

Academy of Sciences
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Partnership Profiles

Page 26

Chicago Children’s Museum / Hartigan School and Center for Successful

Child Development

Chicago, Illinois

Parents as Partners

At Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes, one of the nation’s largest and poorest

public housing developments, the Chicago Children’s Museum is working to break down barriers that inhibit low-income families from seeking and gaining access to enriching educational opportunities. In an environment that has few resources to offer, the everyday work of being a

parent becomes an even greater challenge.

Through Taylor Action, begun in 1992, the museum offers extension programs that stimulate the social, emotional, and intellectual growth

of parents and their children. Among these programs are two joint efforts with schools: the Hartigan School’s Books Alive! program and the

Center for Successful Child Development’s Preschool/Parents Partnership

Program.

A year after the inception of Taylor Action, evaluation results revealed the need for greater parental participation. Museum and school

staff conceived the idea for Parent Networks that would provide a framework for involvement. As more parents are motivated to participate, they

become models for others in the community. And when parents are excited about learning, their children become excited, too.

The Hartigan School network’s first year demonstrated the power of partnership. With the assistance and encouragement of museum

and school staff, parents assumed leadership roles in the network; planned

family field trips, a weekly tutoring program, and enrichment activities;

held workshops on parenting topics; and helped develop in-school programming for Books Alive! As a result, they could point to strengthened

relationships with the museum, the school, and their children.

Try This!

✓ Successful collaboration

takes time, patience, and flexibility. Understand that lasting results emerge as the partnership develops and solidifies.

✓ Frequent and detailed

communication with parents

through meetings, phone calls,

and printed materials strengthens the partnership and builds

trust.
[

Partnership Profiles

The preschool network encountered obstacles in its development.

Mindful that viable collaboration develops with time, the museum hopes

that staff changes at the preschool will bring greater stability to this aspect of Taylor Action in the future.

The Chicago Children’s Museum’s evolving relationships with

schools, parents, and children in Robert Taylor Homes have yielded valuable

lessons and helped staff create a model for other cultural institutions

interested in partnerships with families and schools in low-income communities. A highly important quality is flexibility. “The museum’s way

is not necessarily the only way or the right way,” says Darchelle Garner

of the museum staff. All perspectives need to be valued and incorporated throughout the process.

Perhaps the key to success is commitment. The Chicago Children’s

Museum management and board have pledged their support to the community, its schools, and its families. It will take a number of years to

gain trust and build involvement before the impact of the program is

widespread.

For more information: Darchelle Garner, Vice President, Community Services and

Strategic Initiatives, Chicago Children’s Museum, 700 E. Grand Ave., Suite 127,

Chicago, IL 60611, 312/464–7677

Ideas and notes:

Page 27

Partners‘

Voices

“Commitment is the driving

force that says to others, ’I am

here to do what I can to make

this program a success.‘

Through my commitment to the

Books Alive! program, I have

developed a stronger commitment to my children and their

educational needs, my family,

school, and community.”

Jerline Body, Parent Network

Chairperson, Hartigan School

“Collaborations take years to

produce successful outcomes.

The museum’s management

and board have made the commitment to direct resources to

this initiative. Success could not

be achieved otherwise.”

Darchelle M. Garner,

Vice President, Community Services

and Strategic Initiatives, Chicago

Children’s Museum
[

Partnership Profiles

Connecticut Historical Society / Eight Schools in Farmington, Glastonbury,

Granby, and Willimantic, Connecticut

Hartford, Connecticut

Connecting with Connecticut History

A planned permanent exhibition on Connecticut history at the historic

Old State House in downtown Hartford presented an opportunity to

involve teachers in shaping the ways the Connecticut Historical Society

could teach history to schoolchildren. With a Museum Leadership Initiatives grant, the museum sought the advice and participation of nine

teachers in creating a collection of classroom activities that complement

the exhibition themes but can be used independently.

Although an activities workbook is the tangible result, the actual

benefits are far broader. During the year, the Connecticut Historical Society took significant steps toward creating an environment in which to

work productively with teachers—a responsive, participatory atmosphere

that stimulates and supports true partnership.

The staff learned that to meet people’s needs effectively you must

open a dialogue with them. The project began with three meetings at

which staff members described the new exhibition and teachers gave

advice about exhibition plans and tour programs. These meetings were

essentially reactive in nature. In the next phase of the project, participants worked in small groups to define, research, and produce classroom

materials based on exhibition themes. The heart of the project became

dialogue—talking and listening in small group meetings and informal

conversations. Instead of inviting teachers to react to ideas that originated among museum staff, the staff asked teachers to show them what

they meant and wanted.

Another key to the project’s success was the acknowledgment

that teachers want freedom of choice. They are looking for a variety of

Page 28

Try This!

✓ Open a dialogue with

teachers in which museum staff

do more listening than talking.

✓ Museums need to recognize

the complexity of school schedules and the importance of

planning, and teachers need to

understand the cooperative nature of exhibition development

and the museum’s role in educating children.
=

Page 29

Partnership Profiles

teaching options rather than a tightly organized plan. The workbook

contains a loosely connected group of activities from which teachers can

select according to their own interests and their students’ needs.

If the project participants have any regrets about this first phase

it is a familiar one: too much to do in too little time. One teacher said,

“We clearly had more planned to do than we could achieve. But if we’d

thought we couldn’t do it, it wouldn’t have happened at all.”

For more information: Kate Sawyer O’Mara, Education Associate, Connecticut Historical Society, One Elizabeth St., Hartford, CT 06105, 860/236–5621, ext. 233

Christine Ermenc, Director of Education, Connecticut Historical Society, One

Elizabeth St., Hartford, CT 06105, 860/236–5621, ext. 224

Ideas and notes:

Partners‘

Voices

“Going into our project, our focus was how to best teach children. Now I know that we’ve

got to begin a dialogue with the

right audience: the teachers. If

they believe in our exhibit and

our programs, they will bring

the students; if they don’t, they

won’t.”

Kate Sawyer O’Mara,

Education Associate, Connecticut

Historical Society

“Find teachers who are interested in the partnership and

have a stake in seeing it

through. In our case, the museum staff was equally dedicated. The fact that we all listened and shared ideas and

concerns made this project

work.”

Teacher’s unsigned evaluation
=

Kentucky Historical Society / Museum Educators, Teachers, Kentucky

Department of Education, and Others

Frankfort, Kentucky

Museums Seek a Role in Educational Reform

Enacted in 1990, the Kentucky Education Reform Act has reshaped school

finance, governance, and curriculum to guarantee equal educational opportunities and high levels of achievement for all Kentucky students.

Reform guidelines calling for hands-on learning and an emphasis on community resources have created an opportunity for museums to become

an integral part of the state’s changing schools. For museums with strong

relationships with schools, adapting programs to meet new standards

has been an exciting challenge. For those with fewer connections and

newer education programs, it has been overwhelming.

Realizing the potential for Kentucky’s museums in this new educational age, the Kentucky Historical Society drew on a new museum

education network to put together a team of individuals willing to participate in the Museum Leadership Initiatives project. This “think tank”

consisted of museum educators, teachers, Kentucky Department of Education staff, and other arts and education partners. Based on the results of a needs assessment of educators in elementary, middle, and high

schools, the team identified the common ground between education reform and museums and produced an action plan for incorporating museums into the state’s comprehensive education reform program.

This project, with its multiple partners represented by twentysix participants, demonstrates that creating an environment where minds

can meet is an essential first step in partnership. Fundamental principles

such as communication, flexibility, mutual respect, and open-mindedness take on especially important meaning when a group is laying the

foundation for ongoing collaboration.

Page 30

Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ Create a productive working atmosphere that promotes

mutual respect and open-mindedness.

✓ Develop an action plan

that lists concrete steps toward

the partnership’s goals.
[

The action plan leads to the next steps in promoting closer relationships between museums and schools: a directory of school services

offered by museums; a televised seminar for teachers about ways to use

museum resources in education reform; and a televised seminar for museum staff introducing the basic elements of state education reform and

illustrating how museums can implement them.

Building on the spirit of partnership established during the planning year, these activities will be carried out by a team of museum educators; teachers; and curriculum, technology, and professional development specialists from the Kentucky Department of Education, Kentucky

Educational Television, and the State Department of Information Systems.

For more information: Vicky Middleswarth, Museum Education Branch Manager,

Kentucky Historical Society, P.O. Box 1792, Frankfort, KY 40602–1792, 502/

564–3016

Ideas and notes:

Page 31

Partnership Profiles

Partners‘

Voices

“Work with principals and

with district and state education officials. Their support and

review of programs will help

keep you in line with state and

local education goals. As you

seek advice and information

from these officials, you will also

breed support for your museum

and the teachers who work with

you.”

Melissa Spalding, Manager of

Program Development, Louisville

Science Center

“Sit at the schools’ planning

table, wrestle with curriculum

design, and pitch in. Get to be

a common face at school functions, and let teachers know

that you’re there for the long

haul.”

Dennis Horn, Interim Director,

Kentucky Arts Council
[Maryland Historical Society / Baltimore City Public Schools, Baltimore

County Public Schools

Baltimore, Maryland

Mining an Educational Resource

African-American installation artist Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum, a

work of art masquerading as a history exhibition, opened the Maryland

Historical Society to new audiences and provided a much-needed teaching resource when it was on view in 1992. Mining the Museum presented

objects from the historical society’s collection in unusual, often jarring

juxtapositions to provoke questions about race, cultural identity, and

truth. It offered great possibilities as a catalyst for teachers and students

to explore their thoughts and feelings about these issues.

After the original installation closed, the historical society invited

Wilson to create a smaller permanent exhibition. To capture the educational potential of Mining the Museum, the partnership with Baltimorearea public schools brought together the artist, museum educators, and

an advisory committee of school personnel, parents, consultants, and

evaluators. The aim was to plan, develop, and conduct a program of

teacher training, classroom activities, museum-based programs, and creative projects based on the exhibition.

The partnership was grounded in a solid relationship between the

Maryland Historical Society and area schools and educators. The society offers school tours, outreach programs developed in collaboration

with educators, teachers’ workshops, and a summer teachers’ institute.

In recent years the staff have made a special effort to respond to the

growing need for multicultural approaches to teaching. They believe that

this history of partnership was an important building block in the success of the Mining the Museum project. Aside from the ways the partnership program affected students, teachers, and parents, it initiated and

Page 32

Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ Invest time in planning to

develop a set of measurable

goals that can be achieved realistically during the period of

the partnership.

✓ Build and expand on existing relationships with schools.
renewed connections between the historical society and the teachers and

administrators. It also expanded the museum audience in quantitative

and qualitative terms, reaching them at an intense personal level that

many programs cannot.

For more information:

Historical Society, 201 W. Monument St., Baltimore, MD 21201, 410/685–3750

Ideas and notes:

 Michelle L. Carr, Education Outreach Specialist, Maryland =Page 33

Partnership Profiles

Partners‘

Voices

“Museum educators need to

understand the experience of

many of our youngsters. Traditionally, children raised in

poverty are not exposed to programs at cultural institutions.

Their parents feel a sense of

alienation from these institutions. Financially, they cannot

afford entrance fees, and they

are often too intimidated to visit

unfamiliar places that are perceived as elitist.”

Joan Cohen, Specialist, Division

of Instruction, Baltimore City Public

Schools
=Mint Museum of Art / Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

Charlotte, North Carolina

Digging Into Art and History

Using art as a window to history is the underlying principle of the Mint

Museum of Art’s sixteen-year collaboration with educators in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. It was only natural that the museum staff

would take the opportunity offered by the Museum Leadership Initiatives planning grant to enrich and expand these already-strong links.

An imaginative interdisciplinary program, D.I.G.S.: Deciphering

and Investigating Great Societies, combines community partnership,

education, and inventive uses of technology. With the museum’s collection of pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial art as the focus, a team of

educators, museum staff, and local Latin American leaders designed, tested,

and refined a comprehensive fifth-grade curriculum on Latin American

history, culture, art, and language. Six elementary schools tested and

evaluated the program in the spring of 1995. In the 1995–96 school year,

D.I.G.S. reached all fifth-graders in the school system, the nation’s twentyseventh largest.

The project includes an in-school program by a museum docent

and a Latin American volunteer; a five-part teacher training program; a

teacher slide packet; sophisticated computer software (Dig It!) for previsit classroom use; classroom lessons for art, social studies, and foreign

language; a two-hour interactive museum visit; a printed family guide

to the pre-Columbian collection; and a family pass to return to the Mint.

Results from the six pilot schools showed an increase in enthusiasm on the part of D.I.G.S. students and a deeper understanding of the

material. Teachers valued the project as a creative and effective tool for

communicating about what had been very difficult subject matter. As a

result of D.I.G.S., the school system endorsed the museum as a mandaPage 34

Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ Address specific needs regarding curriculum resources

and local and state performance

standards.

✓ Form a teacher advisory

team to spread the word among

teachers about the program,

explain where it fits in the curriculum, and implement program components in the classroom.
[ tory fifth-grade field trip for 1995–96 and has committed to installing

the Dig It! software in seventy-seven elementary schools.

Both museum staff and educators credit the D.I.G.S. project with

giving them valuable insights about developing educational programs

that revitalize state and national curriculum goals and standards. D.I.G.S.,

they suggest, is a model field trip for the twenty-first century. It links

community resource people, educators, students and their families, and

museum staff to the content, technology, and assessment tools that make

for a positive learning experience.

For more information: Jill Shuford, School Programs Coordinator, Mint Museum of

Art, 2730 Randolph Rd., Charlotte, NC 28207, 704/337–2033

Ideas and notes:

Page 35

Partnership Profiles

Partners‘

Voices

“Schools are much more receptive to plunging into a museum program if there is a solution that can best be addressed

within a partnership.”

Jill Shuford, School Programs

Coordinator, Mint Museum of Art

“It is important for the museum to know the organization

and protocol of the school system, especially one as large as

ours. Then you can cut through

the red tape and work faster

and more smoothly at every

level.”

Faye Bowman, Teacher, Sharon

Elementary School
[

Page 36

Partnership Profiles

Museum of Science and Industry / Elementary Professional Development

School, Hillsborough County District Schools, University of South Florida

Tampa, Florida

Collaboration from the Ground Up

A new school is being created in Tampa, Florida. The Elementary Professional Development School, set to open in 1998, is conceived as a model

for exploring new methods of teaching teachers and students. The innovative curriculum will combine the varied resources of the partner institutions, and a teacher training program will provide hands-on preservice education for educators in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

With the Museum Leadership Initiatives grant, the three collaborating

agencies began a planning process to define their respective roles in the

new school.

A three-tiered management structure evolved: a management team

to provide policy and legal direction, a leadership team to guide the development of the plan, and a site operations team to staff the school

itself. Each team includes representatives of the three partners.

The Museum of Science and Industry, located across from the

school site, will offer special expertise in interactive science, math, and

technology using its exhibits, collections, and programs. The museum

will strengthen the new school’s neighborhood connection, providing

opportunities for family involvement and community programming.

A valuable aspect of the year’s planning and development activities was site visits to the Museum Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Science Magnet School in Buffalo, New York. The Florida

team asked about planning, operations, teacher and student selection,

evaluation, and facilities, coming away with information that has influenced their own planning. A vision and planning workshop held during

the year helped team members understand their personal roles and stimTry This!

✓ Before you begin, secure

top-level support from the management of each partner institution. As the project progresses, access to these decision makers is also essential.

✓ Capitalize on the positive

power of teamwork. With trust,

respect, and a shared vision,

multilevel team leadership can

have a dynamic impact on a

collaborative project.
ulated first steps toward developing a shared vision for the new school.

As the school takes shape, the spirit of collaboration that emerged during the planning year will serve each of the partners well. Ultimately,

the considerable resources of a science museum, a school district, and a

university will coalesce to the benefit of teachers, students, and the community.

For more information:

Manager, Museum of Science and Industry, 4801 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, FL

33617–2099, 813/987–6333

Ideas and notes:

Partnership Profiles

 Antoinette Carregal, School and Demonstration Program

Voices

Partners‘

“Share everything with the

leadership team. Together there

is no hurdle that you won’t get

over somehow.”

Lamar Hammer

County School District

, Hillsborough

=Page 37
=New England Aquarium / McKay Elementary School, Harvard Kent

Elementary School, J. P. Manning School, Donovan School, Rupert A. Nock

School, Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Television

Boston, Massachusetts

Science by Satellite

As the foundation for this initiative, all of the partners brought valuable

ingredients to the mix. The New England Aquarium had Project Aqua

SMARTS, an aquarium-based elementary school science curriculum; the

Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Television (MCET) had expertise in interactive satellite television transmission; and educators at

the five schools had classroom experience and a knowledge of their students’ needs. By merging their resources, these organizations were able

to create a unique, exciting, and readily accessible program that includes

a year-long curriculum using water as the basis for science education

programming for grades two through five.

A trip to the New England Aquarium is a highlight of science learning, but it may be a fiscal or a geographical impossibility for some schools.

Increasingly, on-site science and environmental education is a focus of

the aquarium’s educational services. Using the familiar medium of television combined with more traditional teaching approaches, the aquarium has tremendous potential for reaching large numbers of students in

school-based programs. Project AquaSMARTS presented a good opportunity to experiment with innovative technology and present science in

a fun, engaging, and memorable way.

In the first phase of the collaboration, a planning team of teachers and staff completed the evaluation and preparation of a five-part

AquaSMARTS curriculum segment on fresh water, which was broadcast to schools. The team then incorporated what they had learned in

the planning and development of a second segment on global oceans.

Page 38

Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ Interactive communication

technology offers tremendous

potential for extending the reach

of a museum’s educational

services.

✓ Teachers respond best to

workshops that are structured

around cooperative learning.

They are enthusiastic about

working together so they can

share ideas and answer each

other’s questions.
[

MCET, a state-funded agency that works with nonprofit organizations,

other agencies, and individuals to enhance existing educational offerings

with telecommunications, was an invaluable partner.

As a result of the Museum Leadership Initiatives project, the aquarium now has a model for collaboration with teachers and MCET to develop future school-based learning opportunities.

For more information: Lisa Frederickson, Supervisor of Outreach Education, New

England Aquarium, Central Wharf, Boston, MA 02110, 617/973–6596

Ideas and notes:

Page 39

Partnership Profiles

Partners‘

Voices

“Schools and aquariums operate differently and exist in different communities, so assumptions should not be made about

what schools can or cannot do.

Realistic goals and objectives

will utilize each partner’s

strengths to the fullest.”

Lisa Frederickson, Supervisor of

Outreach Education, New England

Aquarium
[

=

Page 40

Try This!

✓ Observe teachers in action

in their classrooms. Work with

them to consider how best to

integrate museum resources into

their curriculums. Respect their

professionalism, their expertise,

and the issues and concerns

they confront.

✓ An atmosphere of experimentation yields innovative results. Given the time and the

freedom to experiment, teachers bring multiple voices to a

project that enrich the final

outcome.

Oakland Museum / Oakland Unified School District

Oakland, California

Window on History

Curriculum development was the tangible focus of the Oakland Museum’s Museum Leadership Initiatives partnership. But beyond the prototype curriculum that resulted from the year-long planning project, the

museum also expanded its relationship with teachers and administrators in the Oakland Unified School District and extended its connections to community organizations. By understanding the demands of

teaching and learning in an urban classroom, the museum staff became

more aware of what is required to deeply integrate the museum’s resources into the school curriculum.

The new fourth-grade unit about immigration to California in the

twentieth century, called California Newcomers, incorporates museum resources with family histories to help students appreciate the state’s multicultural heritage and to foster crosscultural respect. In the belief that

personal voices underscore the continuity between past and present, oral

histories were a cornerstone of the project. To highlight issues of assimilation and acculturation, ten people from three generations of a Mexican-American family and a Japanese-American family were interviewed.

So that the partnership would fit into the larger picture of educational reform, the museum designed it to address two particular issues:

using primary source materials in the teaching of history and trying new

approaches to assessment. The museum’s collections, which are rich in

California history, provide first-person accounts, artifacts, photographs,

documents, and works of art that are important elements of the curriculum. In evaluation, the museum environment offers possibilities for

assessing student learning through the performance of tasks and assignments rather than traditional tests.

Partnership Profiles
included scholars from ethnic studies programs as well as community

leaders, teachers, and museum and school staff. Although there were differences of opinion, the group was uniformly committed to the success

of the project. They were willing to suggest other community resources

and opened the door to future community collaboration.

teaching materials will be distributed to sixty Oakland elementary schools.

The ultimate goal is to implement the curriculum statewide to promote

a multicultural, museum-based approach to teaching and learning CaliA broad-based advisory group strengthened the project. Members

After field testing, evaluation, and revision, the curriculum and =fornia history.

For more information: Janet Hatano, Education Coordinator, Oakland Museum,

1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94607, 510/657–5432

Ideas and notes:

Page 41

Partnership Profiles

Partners‘

Voices

“What does successful teaching

look like in a multilingual,

mixed-ability classroom? What

are the challenges teachers face

on a daily basis? What is life

in school like? These are all

questions we need to constantly keep in mind as we develop

museum programs.”

Janet Hatano, Education

Coordinator, Oakland Museum

“We are an institution that either is, or appears to be, in perpetual chaos. To be kinder, any

large urban school district is

going to be moving in several

directions at once. Our teachers are without many resources and feel generally beleaguered. To work with us means

to be flexible, to be open to constructive criticism, and to appreciate the tremendous contributions of the students and the

teachers.”

Shelly Weintraub, Social Studies

Coordinator, Oakland Unified

School District
Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities / Triton Regional

School

Boston and Newbury, Massachusetts

Shared Needs and Mutual Benefits

The resources of museum, school, and community have helped eighthgrade students in the Atlantic coastal town of Newbury, Massachusetts,

learn that they are part of the continuum of history. In a collaboration

between the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities

(SPNEA) and Triton Regional School, staff and teachers integrated

SPNEA’s Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm into an interdisciplinary curriculum

unit on New England and the Sea (NETS). Conscious that museumschool programs yield disappointing results when they are not genuine

joint efforts, the project team deliberately shaped the curriculum ele- =ments according to the school’s needs and the historic site’s strengths.

Through the NETS unit, students learn about the need to preserve the ocean as a vast natural resource and to understand the unique

relationships New Englanders have with the sea. On their four-and-ahalf-hour visit to the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, students explore the lives

of people who lived there and in Newbury in the late 1700s and early

1800s and learn how their livelihoods depended on the sea.

Development of curriculum materials and activities took full advantage of teacher and staff expertise. In a series of intensive meetings

they worked out preliminary plans and activities as a team, but ultimately the teachers were responsible for the final in-class lesson plans

and SPNEA staff for the final site visit activities.

Students come away with the understanding that history is a process

of inquiry, not a collection of facts. For adolescents who are searching

for self-definition, the program provides context and history. For teachers, the project speaks directly to their professional development needs.

Page 42

Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ Constant, ongoing communication, mutual respect, and

a “spirit of neighborly collaboration” contribute to a successful partnership.

✓ Involve as many teachers

as possible from the partner

school, not just one or two representatives.
Preservation of New England Antiquities, 141 Cambridge St., Boston, MA 02114,

617/227–3956

Every eighth-grade teacher in the district has been able to develop skills

and experience in using historical and primary sources, objects, and sites

as supportive resources for their classroom work.

For more information:

Ideas and notes:

 Jocelyn Young, Manager of School Programs, Society for the [

Page 43

Partnership Profiles

Partners‘

Voices

“Teachers need time to work on

creating the program during

their regular school hours. They

should not have to work on it

after school, at home, or on

weekends. When writing grants

for planning museum-school

collaborations, include a budget line to pay for substitute

teachers to cover the teachers’

regular classes on your meeting or work days.”

Jocelyn Young, Manager of School

Programs, Society for the Preservation

of New England Antiquities

“Communicating with each individual who plays a role in

the evolution of the curriculum

at each step of the way is the

crucial strategy for success. Providing time for practitioners to

create new learning experiences is also vital.”

Cheryl Stuart, Director of

Curriculum and Staff Development,

Triton Regional School
[

Page 44

Partnership Profiles

Try This!

✓ A strong partnership depends on both partners’ realization of the vision for the

project and the value for students. Outline each partner’s

expectations ahead of time, and

establish standards for collaboration.

✓ Plan for regular assessment

of progress toward the project

goals.

Utah Museum of Natural History / Glendale Middle School

Salt Lake City, Utah

Enrichment through Peer Teaching

Students at Salt Lake City’s Glendale Middle School, which has a diverse population, high mobility, and high poverty rate, are often unable

to participate in traditional museum enrichment opportunities. But through

a partnership between their school and the Utah Museum of Natural

History, they became an integral part of the museum, benefiting intellectually, emotionally, and socially from their involvement.

In a program called Youth Teaching Youth, eighteen seventh- and

eighth-grade students developed their knowledge of science and natural

history topics and then were trained to teach what they learned to sixty

children ranging in age from six to twelve. With their young students,

they used the museum’s outreach teaching kits to explore geology, anthropology, and biology through hands-on learning in school classrooms

and after-school programs.

The middle school students had thirty hours of training in use of

the outreach kit and nearly two hundred hours of enrichment, including

team-building workshops, retreats, and field trips. All the enrichment

activities were designed to increase their understanding of natural history, develop positive peer interaction, build leadership skills, and enhance

self-esteem. They also learned how to serve as role models and mentors

for the elementary-age children. The museum required a commitment

to learn, teach, and work with the group for an entire school year.

Youth Teaching Youth gained the backing and respect of teachers,

school administrators, and parents. Several local organizations made

donations in support of the program. Most important, Youth Teaching

Youth provided valuable educational opportunities for young people in

the community. When asked to evaluate the project, teachers and parents
Partnership Profiles

Voices

Partners‘

“A partnership should be exactly what the term implies. Each

side should articulate what

roles they will have in the collaborative relationship in an

effort to accomplish the students’

goals. The partnership will only

be as good as the partners’

efforts to realize the vision of

the project and the value for

students.”

Larry Odom

Middle School

, Principal, Glendale =

Page 45

reported that the students showed greater interest in science as well as

increased self-esteem and self-confidence. “My son loved being involved,

and he took his love and enthusiasm to the younger children,” wrote

one parent. “This project has restored my faith in the education system.”

For more information: Beth Kaplan Steele, Curator of Education, Utah Museum of

Natural History, President’s Circle, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112,

801/585–6310

Ideas and notes:
Page 46

Autry

(p. 16)

Byron

(p. 18)

Partnership Themes

preschools

elementary schools (K-5)

middle schools (6-8)

high schools (9-12)

museum schools

urban schools

rural schools

curriculum development

professional development

resources for teachers

needs assessments

museum-school coordinators

parent involvement

community involvement

museum education research

exhibitions

interactive television

software development

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Chicago

(p. 24)

Chester Co.

(p. 22)

Children’s

(p. 26)

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Carnegie

(p. 20)

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓
Page 47

Mint

(p. 34)

MOSI

(p. 36)

NEAq

(p. 38)

SPNEA

(p. 42)

Oakland

(p. 40)

Utah

(p. 44)

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

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3Partnerships with schools strengthen

a museum’s community involvement, enrich its educational capacity,

build an enlightened audience, and signal a commitment to educational

reform and improvement. Museums have a healthy history of collaboration with schools. The challenge is to transform traditional concepts

of museum-school relationships so that museums can engage fully in

supporting education in their communities.

What does it take to create a partnership that benefits museum

and school, teacher and student, parents and community? The experiences of the fifteen partnerships that received IMS Museum Leadership

Initiatives grants in 1994 confirm that a museum needs to meet twelve

conditions for success.

Meeting these conditions fully will require a willingness to change.

A partnership can disintegrate when one or both of the institutions is so

locked into familiar ways of doing business—or so paralyzed by the restrictions of a bureaucracy—that dialogue, vision, and genuine collaboration are difficult or impossible.

The goal should be to integrate all of these conditions—not just

some of them—into the attitudes and actions that define the partnership. Each condition then becomes part of an overall institutional strategy for educational collaboration.

Page 49

Conditions

for Partnership
Commitment from administrators

1.-Obtain early commitment from appropriate school and museum administrators.

Teachers and museum educators alike emphasize the importance of leadership and endorsement from top management. When school principals,

curriculum specialists, the museum director, and department administrators believe in the partnership, there will be fewer roadblocks.

Begin early to build commitment. “Before entering a program with

a school,” advises Lisa Frederickson of the New England Aquarium, “it is

imperative that the administration of the school fully supports the proposed program. Planning should include both teachers and administrators with clear roles and responsibilities designated from the beginning.”

Establish a collegial atmosphere for communication. A formal

mechanism is necessary, but the interaction can be relaxed and informal. Early in the year, the Chester County Historical Society invited secondary school administrators to the museum for a reception, a behindthe-scenes tour, and a project overview. The administrators were kept

up to date throughout the project.

Make the connection between your program and the issues administrators deal with daily. Oakland Unified School District staff point

out that administrators are willing to work with museums when they

understand how collections and programs can relate to the larger picture and contribute to reform efforts.

Museum administrators must stand behind the partnership, too.

Jane Nylander, president of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, explains why: “It is very important for museum management to understand and be deeply committed to programs that have

lasting effects in communities. In doing so, we are guiding teachers in

the use of local resources, helping families gain a historical perspective

on their environment, and bringing greater meaning to the historical resources that we preserve.”

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Conditions for Partnership

Conditions

for Success

1. Obtain early commitment

from appropriate school and

museum administrators.

2. Establish early, direct involvement between museum

staff and school staff.

3. Understand the school’s

needs in relation to curriculum

and state and local education

reform standards.

4. Create a shared vision for

the partnership, and set clear

expectations for what both

partners hope to achieve.

5. Recognize and accommodate

the different organizational

cultures and structures of museums and schools.

6. Set realistic, concrete goals

through a careful planning

process. Integrate evaluation

and ongoing planning into the

partnership.

7. Allocate enough human and

financial resources.

8. Define roles and responsibilities clearly.

9. Promote dialogue and open

communication.

10. Provide real benefits that

teachers can use.

11. Encourage flexibility, creativity, and experimentation.

12. Seek parent and community involvement.
Teacher involvement

2.-Establish early, direct involvement between museum staff and school staff.

Even before establishing general project expectations and specific goals,

cultivate relationships with the teachers and administrators with whom

you want to work. When you approach school educators, do more listening than talking, more asking than explaining. Your objective is to

build an atmosphere of respect, trust, and dialogue that will provide a

solid foundation for partnership.

Museums must overcome some stereotypes when communicating with teachers. Says Beverly Sheppard of the Chester County Historical Society, “Most of the teachers we encounter think of museums strictly

in terms of field trips or classroom visits. Few have considered the potential for sustained relationships with significant learning impact.”

Museums have to make their case with educators by inviting them to

join in the early planning, allowing a free flow of ideas, and listening

carefully.

No matter how enthusiastic you are about the partnership, let

teachers know that it is a choice, not a requirement. Karen Roos, principal of the Byron Primary School in Minnesota, notes that “allowing teachers

the right to choose whether or not to be involved has been critical to the

success of the program.” Kate Sawyer O’Mara of the Connecticut Historical Society found that “the recurring theme [among teachers] was

choice. The next time I develop a program, I will include many resources which allow teachers the freedom to choose.”

Jocelyn Young of the Society for the Preservation of New England

Antiquities recommends involving as many teachers as possible from a

school in creating a program—all teachers of an elementary grade level,

for example, not just one or two representatives. In many cases, administrators, curriculum specialists, resource teachers, and others should also

participate.

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Conditions for Partnership
Understanding of schools’ needs

3.-Understand the school’s needs in relation to curriculum and state and local education reform standards.

Effective, long-term partnerships succeed because the partners have identified a problem to be solved or a need to be fulfilled and then worked to

match museum resources to what is happening in the classroom. Melissa Spalding of the Louisville Science Center emphasizes the museum’s

obligation to “know and understand education reform and its impact

on teachers. Think about how you can design your partnership to support reform and to support teachers.” Joan Cohen of the Baltimore City

Public Schools commends the Maryland Historical Society for its onsite efforts to appreciate students’ needs, correlate the project to the curriculum, and solicit teachers’ support. “Even the best-intended program

will fail,” says Janet Hatano of the Oakland Museum, “if it does not

fully take into account the issues and concerns of the people who will

be actually implementing it—teachers and students.”

Conducting a needs assessment is a good way to identify curriculum requirements and obtain background information about the schools.

The assessment can focus on the schools alone or encompass the community. The results can be critical in determining the direction of a project:

The Chicago Academy of Sciences’ community needs assessment changed

the project planners’ perceptions of community priorities and is shaping the development of customized curriculum, service-learning projects,

and teacher in-service. The Chester County Historical Society shifted

direction after museum staff gained new insight into teachers’ needs and

interests.

Informal observation can also yield meaningful insights. Janet Hatano recommends “shadowing a teacher for a day and talking to students, teachers, and principals. This is the context we need to keep in

mind as we develop programs.”

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Conditions for Partnership
Shared vision

4.-Create a shared vision for the partnership, and set clear expectations for what

both partners hope to achieve.

As you cultivate the relationship with school educators, talk about

everyone’s personal hopes. Translate these ideas into a vision of what all

the participants would like the partnership to be. Think about the needs

of the museum, the school, students, teachers, museum educators, parents, and the community. Creating a vision involves thinking about what

you want to accomplish, not how you want to accomplish it.

The Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History envisioned a partnership that would integrate the museums’ resources into the daily life of McCleary Elementary School and

the surrounding community—a significant step forward from the stereotypical view of museums as “add-ons” to the curriculum. McCleary’s

principal Mary Ellen McBride believes that this expanded, innovative

vision was what made the collaboration a success.

Chicago parent Jerline Body, an active participant in the partnership with the Chicago Children’s Museum, speaks to the value of conceiving a vision that reflects everyone: “The overall vision of the program must be communicated to all partners, because then it becomes a

shared vision.” Steve Permuth of the University of South Florida, Tampa, agrees: “Different partners can take the lead in different areas, but

for the partnership to work it must evolve as a common vision.”

Difference in cultures

5.-Recognize and accommodate the different organizational cultures and structures of museums and schools.

The organizational cultures of museums and schools—their underlying

internal values and assumptions—affect many aspects of a partnership,

including planning style, short-term and long-term schedules, commuPage 53

Conditions for Partnership
nication, and the perceived accessibility of museums. “Museum time is

different from school time,” comments Janet Hatano of the Oakland

Museum. Museums often plan far in advance (three to five years for an

exhibition, for example), while schools are accustomed to implementing programs in a shorter time frame. Museums can sometimes be more

flexible in their schedules, while schools and teachers are limited by strict

class schedules and teacher work times. Museum educators may be able

to make a partnership a high priority, but teachers must focus on the

education of their students; they may have to move more slowly and fit

the project into crowded agendas.

Teachers want to learn about museums’ organizational culture.

Work to create greater access to the range of resources the museum can

offer, and explain how museums function as educational institutions

and how they can complement schools. In turn, seek direct involvement

with the school culture in order to maximize the effectiveness of museum programs.

Museum educators need basic facts about the demographics of

community and school; teachers’ background; administrative organization; student academic performance; school mission and vision; and the

socioeconomic variables of the students. They need qualitative information as well: an understanding of the teacher’s or the school’s teaching

philosophy and style and a sensitivity to the complex concerns and issues that teachers face every day in their classrooms.

Planning and evaluation

6.-Set realistic, concrete goals through a careful planning process. Integrate evaluation and ongoing planning into the partnership.

Planning provides a framework for a partnership and an orientation point

for assessing progress periodically. Use the project plan as the basis for

continuing evaluation, and do not hesitate to adjust expectations based

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Conditions for Partnership
on evaluation results. The goals and strengths of each partner should

inform the planning process and lead to realistic goals that capitalize on

your respective strengths. In the Mint Museum of Art’s project, the

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools sought an enhanced social studies curriculum, and the museum sought to integrate emerging technologies into

its exhibitions and programs. Together they used a year-long planning

phase to set goals for a mutually beneficial project.

Allow adequate time for planning. Remember that school schedules may require a different time frame for planning than is usually needed

in the museum setting. Curriculum specialist Joyce Bucci of the Baltimore County Public Schools attributes the success of the partnership

with the Maryland Historical Society to “an expert planning committee, a successful communication network, and the appropriate allotment

of planning time.”

Build in assessment and accountability from the start. Using formal and informal evaluation, you can test a prototype partnership, check

progress toward goals, keep logistics on track, and assess outcomes. In

the Maryland Historical Society partnership, an evaluation consultant

participated in every phase. For the New England Aquarium and other

Museum Leadership Initiatives projects involving curriculum development, evaluation was essential to test the effectiveness of materials and

revise them for optimum classroom use. The Chicago Academy of Sciences designed a new evaluation strategy expressly for the school-community-museum partnership.

Jocelyn Young of the Society for the Preservation of New England

Antiquities points to another valuable benefit of planning time: It provides the opportunity to build trust. “Trust grows through good communication and demonstrated dependability,” she says, “so do not underestimate the time needed to plan a collaborative program.”

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Conditions for Partnership
Sufficient resources

7.-Allocate enough human and financial resources.

The bottom line is critical in museums and in schools, but an investment in human and financial capital from both partners is essential to a

lasting program. When planning the project, determine what resources

are available to enable teachers to participate fully. These resources can

be used in a variety of ways, depending on the particular circumstances.

The Maryland Historical Society compensated school personnel involved

in planning and supervising the program and provided stipends for teachers

attending workshops. Many museums built in funding for program coordinators, instructors, and substitute teachers.

Appointing a liaison between museum and school will smooth

project administration and communication. The Carnegie Museum of

Art and Carnegie Museum of Natural History named two museum-school

coordinators who worked closely with each other and as resource specialists in McCleary Elementary School.

Clear responsibilities

8.-Define roles and responsibilities clearly.

Build on the respective strengths of each partner and compensate for

the weaknesses or challenges. Some responsibilities are clearly more appropriate for schools and teachers, and some are more appropriate for

museums. From the outset of the Mint Museum’s program with the

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the partners agreed on a shared work

plan that strengthens and helps sustain the partnership. School administrators coordinate scheduling and arrange transportation; school personnel have conducted student evaluation; and a teacher advisory council

has guided teacher participation. In other partnerships, similar team approaches work well. Each partner brings different resources to the table,

sometimes educating others to new possibilities. At the Museum of SciPage 56

Conditions for Partnership
ence and Industry, Tampa, a written contract outlines the roles, responsibilities (including fiscal), and expectations of each partner.

Dialogue

9.-Promote dialogue and open communication.

Dialogue is more than conversation or information sharing. In dialogue,

the goal is to inquire, learn, offer thoughts, discover shared vision and

common meaning, and explore how to think and learn together. Through

dialogue we can pave the way to genuine problem solving and teamwork.

Sometimes formal mechanisms such as advisory teams or open

houses for teachers and administrators help promote dialogue. More often, dialogue occurs simply because the project leaders promote a working atmosphere that values individual contributions to the whole. The

Chester County Historical Society deliberately created a “level playing

field” in the early planning sessions. The resulting partnership reflects

the core needs of all the participants. Later, the project director held individual meetings that encouraged another aspect of open conversation,

allowing less vocal participants to share their ideas.

Capitalize on ongoing partnerships to build new ones. When trust

has been established, open channels of communication result. The Mint

Museum of Art, for example, found that its history of collaboration enabled staff to include additional partners, implement new programs, and

reach wider audiences. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts also built on

longstanding relationships, as did the Maryland Historical Society and a

number of the other partnerships.

When starting from the ground up, devote time to establishing

contacts, developing trust, and defining communication procedures. Tom

Beccone of Downingtown, Pennsylvania, Senior High School notes that

“schools exist within a bureaucratic framework that, at times, must seem

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Conditions for Partnership
Byzantine to the outsider, so one must take great care to establish clear

lines of communication. As no two school districts are organized alike,

it is necessary to establish contacts on a district-by-district basis.” Hillsborough County, Florida, School District representatives stress the importance of valuing the potential of each partner’s contributions. Specific communication procedures are also important. A framework for distributing information among institutions helps everyone participate on

equal footing.

Tangible benefits for teachers

10.-Provide real benefits that teachers can use.

Teachers need time, professional development opportunities, and relevant curriculum and materials that they can use in the classroom. With

these tools, they can create the highest-quality experiences for their students. Several museums allocated resources that enabled teachers to participate in planning and project development. Professional development

opportunities included workshops, site visits, and internships.

Teachers involved with the Mint Museum of Art’s project attended

in-service workshops and took research trips to other museums that guided

the preparation of classroom resources. A teacher-museum internship at

the Chester County Historical Society will help the museum explore

possibilities for future programs. An abundance of curriculum materials

resulted from Museum Leadership Initiatives partnerships—from the New

England Aquarium’s comprehensive science curriculum, disseminated via

interactive television, to the Oakland Museum’s curriculum for fourthgraders that incorporates the museum’s California history collection with

community resources. Research findings, such as those from studies conducted by the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, are also critical to educators developing museum and classroom learning experiences.

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Conditions for Partnership
Flexibility and experimentation

11.-Encourage flexibility, creativity, and experimentation.

A museum-school partnership will be stronger and richer when educators from both institutions have the freedom to experiment, shift directions, and grow professionally. The Chester County Historical Society’s

partnership took a new, more constructive course because of teachers’

ideas. At the Chicago Children’s Museum, the staff understands that

the museum’s way is not necessarily the only way or the right way, so

they are able to respond to needs and interests of parents and families.

At the Connecticut Historical Society, teachers developed learning objectives for an exhibition before the design was in place, not in response

to a preconceived framework. Several curriculum development partnerships—including the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, the Oakland Museum, and the New England Aquarium—built

in room for testing, critiquing, revision, and further testing.

Parent and community involvement

12.-Seek parent and community involvement.

The future health and survival of museums depends on their ability to

form new relationships with their communities. Unlike the outreach

efforts of the past, effective community relationships today revolve around

inviting the community inside—into a welcoming place that thrives

because of their participation. Parent and community involvement in a

museum-school partnership has short-term benefits in the form of validity for the program in the museum’s larger community. Over time,

such participation helps build an audience that wants and needs to use

the museum as an educational institution. Parents and community members can be involved in program planning and curriculum development,

as content specialists and as general resource people. The central purpose of the Chicago Children’s Museum project is to forge long-term

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Conditions for Partnership
partnerships with parents in a large public housing development. Sustained parent participation has strengthened parents’ relationships with

the museum, the school, and their children. The benefits of community

involvement are also evident to staff at the Chicago Academy of Sciences, who understand that “working and thinking together in the community are the key components for creating a real partnership.”

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Conditions for Partnership
4

Page 61

Robert Sullivan’s lifelong interest in museums and three-dimensional objects has motivated his

career focus on museums as learning environments. He is associate director for public programs

at the National Museum of Natural History, where he manages

all aspects of exhibition and public

program development. From 1981

to 1990, he was director of museum services at the New York State

Museum. This essay is excerpted from his presentation at the

conference “Museums and

Schools: Partners for Education,”

sponsored by the Institute of

Museum Services in November

1995.

Transforming

Museums

by Robert Sullivan

We in museums talk too little about

an important part of our educational enterprise: how we as change agents

affect and shape not only the knowledge and the information that learners receive but some of the wisdom that they receive as well. How do we

develop such aspects of the human being as piety, awe, reverence, and

humility, as opposed to merely the skills necessary for a better economy?

Let’s begin with two points of view. The first was expressed in

America’s Museums: The Belmont Report, published nearly thirty years ago

by the American Association of Museums: “Museums have a great potential, not only as a stabilizing, regenerative force in modern society,

but as a crusading force for quality and excellence.” The second is that

of Thomas Hart Benton, writing forty-three years ago: “The museum in

America is almost invariably a memorial to a cash-grabbing career. It is a

monument to that self-estimated superiority which is the almost invariable curse of large-scale success at money making. It is dedicated to

the snob notion that the personal possession of things others do not

have and cannot get establishes superiority, greatness, magnificence, and

the right and ability to pass judgment on everything under the sun.”

Cherished, despised, and adored as repositories of all that is valuable in human creativity and expression, history, and ingenuity, or even

ignored as frivolous diversions of the elite, museums inspire perceptions
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Transforming Museums

that are as ambivalent as the meanings of the artifacts they contain.

One conclusion, however, is inescapable. Museums, in and of themselves,

are artifacts—social documents that reflect, present, and transmit the

beliefs and value systems of the societies that create them. Their very

existence in a society begins to reveal the attitude of that society’s people about themselves and about the world around them. Museums, indeed, are ritual places where societies make what they value visible. Through

the selection and preservation of artifacts, specimens, and documents,

museums begin to define for their societies what things are consequential, what things are valuable, what things are suitable as evidence of

the past. Through the presentation and interpretation of this evidence,

museums define both what is memorable and how it is to be remembered. Each of these institutional activities is, of course, value-laden and

culture bound.

The point of these sweeping and unguarded generalizations is simple. Museums, as social and educational institutions, are unavoidably linked

to their cultural settings. They are a form of collective self-reflection that

culminates in cultural institutions that maintain, sustain, and present a

cultural identity and that embody a set of values and attitudes believed

by their culture to be important. Museums are selective in that they collect, preserve, and interpret objects and ideas that symbolize and transmit

some but not all of the values and beliefs of their society. In these choices

of what social values and ideas to transmit and how to transmit them,

museums reveal their moral nature, competence, maturity, and character.

While museums often claim to be value-neutral, nonmoral, and

nonpolitical in intent, in practice and behavior they are value-laden,

moralizing institutions. The core of the moral dimension of a museum

is found in the decisions and choices that museums must make and then

visibly enact. What do they choose to collect, and what do they choose

not to collect? What themes and materials are exhibited, and under what
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Transforming Museums

interpretive conditions? What audience is courted and made to feel comfortable and welcome in the museum? What audiences are ignored? Who

is given comfortable psychological, intellectual, and physical access to

the museum and its resources? What programmatic themes are addressed?

How is the museum governed? Who is on the board? Who is on the

staff? Each of these choices is necessarily value-laden. And these judgments, taken together, establish a pattern of policies, procedures, and

public programs that define and communicate the norms, ethics, and

moral identity of the museum, its compelling sense of self.

The contention that museums, because of their educational, social intent and their institutional choices, cannot be value-neutral or

nonmoral in their actions and behaviors suggests that the question to

be addressed is not whether museums should be involved in education,

even moral education, but how they should be involved. How can museums develop a conscious educational purpose based on appropriate aims,

concepts, and content? If the goal of museums as educators is to assist

in developing the whole person—a person’s knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and feelings—then how should a museum develop the intellectual,

esthetic, and moral judgment of its visitors and communities?

To start, museums should not attempt to duplicate the educational

agenda of other institutions in their communities. They must take full

advantage of their moral and social status and image, their collections,

and their novel educational environment to develop their visitors’ intellectual, emotional, esthetic, and moral character. Albert Camus writes

that “art advances between two chasms, frivolity and propaganda.” Perhaps museums must tread delicately between these same chasms. If the

public perceives museums as totally uninvolved in social and educational

dilemmas and contemporary moral concerns, they may label museums

as irrelevant and frivolous. If museums become involved in advocacy and

social issues, they may be accused of partisanship and propagandizing.
What, then, should a museum do as an educational institution?

Two variables must be considered. First, what can museums do that no

other institutions can do? And second, what does the museum’s community need? The overarching function for museums as educators can

be to provide alternative educational experiences for their communities,

a counterbalancing educational bias, offering a new way of seeing, understanding, and learning. Or, as Neil Postman says, they must “free the

young from the tyranny of the present.” In a rational, logical, technocratic society, education has come to be defined in terms of quantifiable

performance, behavioral objectives, inputs, outputs, expertise, and technical skills. Museums can offer a counterbalancing curriculum, stressing

the development of critical judgment, awe, piety, sensitivity, empathy,

affection. They can provide an alternative set of experiences that seek

to transform and improve learners, not merely to improve their statistical performance. In a society that stresses discontinuity, disposability,

change, and fragmentation, museums and their collections can be symbols of continuity, tradition, preservation, posterity, and human respect.

The primary resource for education in a museum must remain

the object and the image. These resources teach through what viewers

see, feel, and reflect upon—activities that all have a strong moral and

emotional basis. The very nature of museums as voluntary, open educational environments encourages holistic, confluent educational experiences. A learner’s intellect, feelings, values, and interests are instantaneously and simultaneously engaged. Isn’t it amazing how light, color,

and form arranged in an extraordinary way can affect every fiber of a

human being?

“Relevance” is a word that hounded museums through the 1970s

and 1980s. “Excellence” was a word that hounded us in the 1990s. I propose two different words that might serve us more fundamentally and

purposefully in the future: mission and principle. Museums must be driven

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Transforming Museums
by their critical purpose, by their passion and commitment to preservation and by the concept of posterity. This focus necessarily will draw

museums into issues of environmental conservation, peace, technology,

and the ethics of science. On these issues museums must speak with

confidence, objectivity, and competence. Similarly, if museums are to

maintain their educational integrity in society, they must have the strength

of character to stand firm and be impervious to social pressure on matters of principle that are central to their mission.

Certainly, high on this list are principles of justice, fairness, and

consistency in their treatment of minority ethnic themes, their portrayal of the roles and contributions of men and women, and their commitment to fairness and justice in collection, interpretation, personnel, and

governance policies and access to museum resources.

Museums are educators. They can be forums for free and open

discussion of authentic historic, esthetic, and scientific dilemmas. They

can ask good questions, too good ever to be answered completely. In the

end, the effectiveness of museums as educators will be measured by what

they can make us realize about ourselves.

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Transforming Museums

5

Page 67

What do we mean when we talk

about a “transformative educational program”? We can find the answer

to this question by looking at the guiding principles of the Coalition of

Essential Schools, which since 1984 has been focused on redesigning the

American high school for better student learning and achievement. The

coalition is a partnership between Brown University and more than 900

schools across the country that extended from an inquiry into American secondary education conducted during the late 1970s and early 1980s

sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals

and the National Association of Independent Schools.

This research identified five imperatives for better schools:

✓ Give room to teachers and students to work and learn in their own,

appropriate ways.

✓ Insist that students clearly exhibit mastery of their school work.

✓ Get the incentives right for students and teachers.

✓ Focus the students’ work on the use of their minds.

✓ Keep the structure simple and flexible.

Simple though they may at first sound, these imperatives, if addressed

seriously, have significant consequences for many schools, affecting both

their organization and the attitudes of those who work within them. It

is these consequences that the Coalition of Essential Schools addresses.

Paula Evansis director of professional development at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform,

Brown University. From 1990 to

1995, she was associated with

the Coalition of Essential Schools

as director of the National

Re:Learning Faculty, a partnership with participating states to

build support for school change

at the state and district levels, and

as director of the Citibank Faculty Project, which provides advanced training for educators in

facilitation and consultation

skills. This essay is excerpted from

her presentation at the conference

“Museums and Schools: Partners

for Education,” sponsored by the

Institute of Museum Services in

November 1995. For more information about the Coalition of Essential Schools, write to P.O. Box

1969, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, or call 401/863-

3384.

by Paula Evans

Transforming

Schools
The “common principles” that guide the coalition call broadly for

schools to

✓ set clear and simple goals about the intellectual skills and knowledge

to be mastered by all students;

✓ lower teacher-student loads, personalize teaching and curriculum, and

make student work the center of classroom activity;

✓ award diplomas based on students’ “exhibition” of their ability to use

and transfer knowledge; and

✓ create an atmosphere of trust and respect for the school, faculty, students, and parents.

The coalition offers no specific model or program for schools to

adopt. What the participating schools hold in common is the guiding

principles, which focus each school’s effort to rethink its priorities and

redesign its structures and practices. Each school develops its own programs suited to its particular students, faculty, and community. No two

Essential Schools are alike. Collectively, they serve as examples of a variety of thoughtfully redesigned schools.

From our experience, schools engaged in creating transformative

educational programs have four characteristics, which are closely related to the imperatives described earlier. First, they make it their primary

focus to teach students to use their minds well—in all possible intelligences, as Howard Gardner has advocated. Second, they set high standards for every student. No matter what abilities or experiences students

might bring with them to school, all strive for the same level of accomplishment. Third, a transformative educational program provides for closeup knowledge of each student so that educators can understand how to

connect learning with the individual. To know every student well at

school requires lower teacher-student ratios, because the overwhelming

ratios that often exist today—especially in high schools—are detrimental to learning, no matter how extensive a school’s resources. The fourth

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Transforming Schools
criterion for a transformative educational program, from our point of

view, is regular and diverse opportunities for students to exhibit their

knowledge—in papers, in oral work, in group work, in community work.

These opportunities are built into the curriculum. No one graduates from

high school without doing a final “exhibition,” which includes portfolios in a range of subject areas and might take two years to prepare.

What do we know after more than a decade of work by the Coalition of Essential Schools? We know that it is very difficult to create

transformative programs that attend to all the principles and exhibit all

the characteristics I have just described. Change takes time, and no matter

how appealing the principles sound, there will be resistance from administrators, teachers, students, and parents. To imagine a way of being

educated that is different from what we know is very hard.

What we are suggesting is more complicated than the traditional

classroom experience available to most students. It requires more planning time among teachers, leading to more opportunities for collaboration across disciplines. Most teachers are comfortable working by themselves in their own classrooms. When asked to think about new approaches

to curriculum, which may mean teaching with colleagues from other

disciplines, we often balk. Turning a school on its head requires major

adjustments, some of which will be painful.

We have found that to achieve success, we must be clear about

goals and abandon the “Christmas tree” notion of educational reform.

We cannot simply keep adding “ornaments” of reform just because we

like them or just because they have money attached to them. The result

will be a wide variety of programs and partnerships, some of which are

diametrically opposed. Somehow, teachers, students, and administrators

are supposed to make sense of the situation, but usually they cannot.

Our school colleagues in the Coalition of Essential Schools are

dedicated to exploring how to move away from this “Christmas tree”

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Transforming Schools
approach. They are trying to figure out what they want students to

know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school.

Whether they are working at the elementary, middle school, or high school

level, the teachers are all committed to articulating these goals first, before they think about program, curriculum, or assessment. Then they

move on to other questions: How will we assess what students know

and are able to do? How will we teach them? What specific content

areas will we address, and why?

Every step in the effort must be aligned carefully to lead toward

these clear goals. Our experience with the Coalition of Essential Schools

has shown that when there is alignment, there is a greater chance for

success. By taking purposeful action, schools have the potential to provide structures and experiences that support authentic teaching and learning. That is the essence of a transformative educational program.

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Transforming Schools
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This reading list has been compiled

as a useful tool for members of the museum and school communities

who want to verify or enhance their understanding of museum-school

partnerships. The sources address the theory and practice of collaboration; object-based and informal learning; interdisciplinary curriculums;

and case studies of partnerships. International publications and materials published before 1984 are not included, with the exception of three

highly recommended sources.

IMS would like to extend its gratitude to the following museum

professionals, whose expert consultation helped to shape the final product: Maria Marable, education specialist, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Mary Ellen

Munley, special assistant to the deputy commissioner for education, New

York State Education Department, Albany, New York; A. T. Stephens,

manager of outreach and educational support, Fairfax County Park Authority, Fairfax, Virginia; Annie Storr, assistant director, continuing education, American Association of Museums, Washington, DC; and Bonnie Van Dorn, executive director, Association of Science-Technology Centers,

Washington, DC.

Selected Readings
Books

American Association of Museums. Excellence and Equity: Education and

the Public Dimension of Museums. Washington, DC: American Association

of Museums, 1992.

American Association of Museums. Museums for a New Century. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1984.

Bitgood, Stephen. A Comparison of Formal and Informal Learning. Jacksonville, AL: Center for Social Design, 1988.

Butler, Kathleen A. Learning and Teaching Style in Theory and Practice. 2nd

ed. Columbia, CT: The Learner’s Dimension, 1987.

Candy, Philip C. Self-Direction for Lifelong Learning: A Comprehensive Guide

to Theory and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Caston, Ellie Bourdon. “A Model for Teaching in a Museum Setting.” In

Museum Education: History, Theory, and Practice, edited by Nancy Berry

and Susan Mayer, pp. 90–121. Reston, VA: National Art Education Association, 1989.

Chobot, Mary C., and Robert B. Chobot. “Museums as Educational Institutions.” In Education through Community Organizations, edited by Michael

W. Galbraith. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990.

Dreeszen, Craig. Intersections: Community Arts and Education Collaborations.

Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, 1992.

Gartenhaus, Alan. Minds in Motion: Using Museums to Expand Creative

Thinking. Davis, CA: Caddo Gap Press, 1991.

Heltne, Paul G., and Linda A. Marquardt, eds. Science Learning in the Informal Setting. Chicago: Chicago Academy of Sciences, 1988.

Heritage Education: A Community School Partnership. Information Series No.

73. Washington, DC: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1993.

Hicks, Ellen Cochran. Museums and Schools as Partners. Washington, DC:

Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1986.

Lehman, Susan Nichols, and Kathryn Igoe, eds. Museum-School Partnerships: Plans and Programs. Washington, DC: Center for Museum Education, George Washington University, 1981.

Metcalf, Fay. Using Local History in the Classroom. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1982.

More than Pumpkins in October: Visual Literacy in the 21st Century. Alexandria, VA: National School Boards Association, 1992.

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Selected Readings
Munley, Mary Ellen. Catalysts for Change: The Kellogg Projects in Museums.

Washington, Chicago, San Francisco: Kellogg Projects in Museum Education, 1986.

Newsom, Barbara Y., and Adele Z. Silver, eds. “Introduction,” pp. 11–19;

“The Art Museum and the Young: Their Teachers and Their Students,”

pp. 259–64; “Teacher Training and Classroom Materials,” pp. 462–71. In

The Art Museum as Educator. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press,

1978.

Nichols, Susan K., Mary Alexander, and Ken Yellis, eds. Museum Education Anthology: Perspectives on Informal Learning, A Decade of Roundtable Reports, 1973–1983. Washington, DC: Museum Education Roundtable, 1984.

Patterns in Practice: Selections from the Journal of Museum Education. Washington, DC: Museum Education Roundtable, 1992.

Sheppard, Beverly, ed. Building Museum and School Partnerships. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Organizations, 1993.

Smith, Nancy Jean. Evaluation in Eighteen Art Museum-School Collaborations Funded through the Arts in Education Initiative of the New York State Council

on the Arts. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University, 1989.

Smith, Rebecca. Strengthening Science Outreach Programs for Rural Elementary Schools: A Manual for Museum Staffs. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 1990.

St. John, Mark. An Invisible Infrastructure: Institutions of Informal Science

Education. Washington, DC: Association of Science-Technology Centers,

1995.

Tushnet, Naida C. A Guide to Developing Educational Partnerships. Washington, DC: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1993.

Welsh, Nancy. Schools, Communities and the Arts: A Research Compendium.

Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University Press, 1995.

Zien, Jim. “Strategies for Long-Term Community Partnerships.” In Museums in the Life of a City: Strategies for Community Partnerships, pp. 33–41.

Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1995.

Articles

Ambach, Gordon. “Museums as Place of Learning.” Museum News 65,

no. 2 (December 1986): 35–41.

Connerton, Paul. “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative.”

Journal of American History 78, no. 4 (1992): 1347–76.

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Selected Readings
David, Carol, and Bradley Matthews. “The Teacher Internship Program

for Science: A Successful Museum-School Partnership.” Journal of Elementary Science Education 7, no. 1 (Winter 1995): 16–28.

Davis, D. Jack, and R. Williams McCarter. “An Experiment in School/

Museum/University Collaboration.” Metropolitan Universities: An International Forum 4, no. 4 (Spring 1994): 25–34.

Davis, Jessica, and Howard Gardner. “Open Windows, Open Doors.”

Museum News 72, no. 3 (January/February 1993): 34–37+.

Gardner, Howard. “Making Schools More Like Museums.” Education Week,

6, no. 6 (October 9, 1991).

Harrison, Michael, and Barbara Naef. “Toward a Partnership: Developing the Museum-School Partnership.” Journal of Museum Education 10, no.

4 (Fall 1985): 9–12.

Hodgson, Judith. “Teaching Teachers: Museums Team Up with Schools

and Universities.” Museum News 64, no. 5 (June 1986): 28–35.

Jabbawy, Carole. “Art Museum/School Collaborations.” Ph.D. diss., Boston

University, 1989.

Linder, Bertram L. “Museum-School Partnerships—A Resource for Principals.” NASSP Bulletin 71, no. 503 (December 1987): 122–24.

Munley, Mary Ellen. “Museum-School Partnership: A Reflective Analysis Based on Current Practice.” Courier (Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums) 15, no. 1 (January/February 1995): 7–14.

Nangeroni, Sarah, Ronald Vukelich, and Carol Vukelich. “The Use of Learning Style Theory to Design a Cooperative School-Museum Program for

Gifted Students.” Museum Studies Journal 2, no. 3 (1986): 46–55.

Wellington, Jerry. “Formal and Informal Learning in Science: The Role

of Interactive Science Centres.” Physics Education 25, no. 5 (September

1990): 247–52.

Video

Day, Michael D. Art Education in Action: Five School-Museum Collaborations.

Santa Monica, CA: J. Paul Getty Trust, 1995.

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Selected Readings
Page 75

1994

Autry Museum of Western Heritage, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los

Angeles, CA 90027-1462

Cynthia Harnisch, Director of Education and Programs, 213/667-2000

Byron Public Schools #531, 501 10th Ave., NE, Byron, MN 55920

Catherine Egenberger, Project Coordinator, 509 Fourth Ave., NE, Byron,

MN 55920, 507/775-7123

Kate Johnson, Chair, Education Department, Minneapolis Institute of

Arts, 612/870-3188

Abigail Housen, Project Consultant, 213 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA

02138, 617/492-5488

Carnegie Museum of Art / Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes

Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Marilyn Russell, Curator of Education (Art), 412/622-3374

Judith Bobenage, Chair, Division of Education (Natural History),

412/622-3375

Chester County Historical Society, 225 N. High St., West Chester, PA 19380

Beverly Sheppard, Associate Director, 610/692-4800

Chicago Academy of Sciences, 2001 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60614

Carol Fialkowski, Vice President of Education and Exhibits,

312/549-0606, ext. 2028

Chicago Children’s Museum, 700 E. Grand Ave., Suite 127, Chicago, IL 60611

Darchelle Garner, Vice President, Community Services and Strategic

Initiatives, 312/464-7677

Museum Leadership

Initiatives Awards
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Museum Leadership Initiatives Awards

Connecticut Historical Society, One Elizabeth St., Hartford, CT 06105

Kate Sawyer O’Mara, Education Associate, 860/236-5621, ext. 233

Christine Ermenc, Director of Education, 860/236-5621, ext. 224

Kentucky Historical Society, P.O. Box 1792, Frankfort, KY 40602-1792

Vicky Middleswarth, Museum Education Branch Manager, 502/564-3016

Maryland Historical Society, 201 W. Monument St., Baltimore, MD 21201

Michelle L. Carr, Education Outreach Specialist, 410/685-3750

Mint Museum of Art, 2730 Randolph Rd., Charlotte, NC 28207

Jill Shuford, School Programs Coordinator, 704/337-2033

Museum of Science and Industry, 4801 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, FL 33617-2099

Antoinette Carregal, School and Demonstration Program Manager,

813/987-6333

New England Aquarium, Central Wharf, Boston, MA 02110

Lisa Frederickson, Supervisor of Outreach Education, 617/973-6596

Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94607

Janet Hatano, Education Coordinator, 510/657-5432

Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, 141 Cambridge St.,

Boston, MA 02114

Jocelyn Young, Manager of School Programs, 617/227-3956

Utah Museum of Natural History, President’s Circle, University of Utah,

Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Beth Kaplan Steele, Curator of Education, 801/585-6310

1995

Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St., Brooklyn, NY 11201

Laura Miller, Curator of Education, 718/624-0890

Byron Public Schools #531, Byron, MN (see 1994 awards)

Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, PA (see 1994 awards)

Chicago Academy of Sciences, Chicago, IL (see 1994 awards)

Chicago Children’s Museum, Chicago, IL (see 1994 awards)

Children’s Museum, 300 Congress St., Boston, MA 02110-1034

Leslie Swartz, Director of Education, 617/426-6500, ext. 233
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Museum Leadership Initiatives Awards

Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort, KY (see 1994 awards)

Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD (see 1994 awards)

Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC (see 1994 awards)

Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115

Margaret K. Burchenal, Head of School Programs, 617/369-3309

Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St., New York, NY 10019

Cynthia Nachmani, School Programs Coordinator, 212/708-9796

New England Aquarium, Boston, MA (see 1994 awards)

New York City Museum School, 333 W. 17th St., Rm. 322, New York,

NY 10011

Sonnet Takahisa, Co-Director, 212/675-6206 or 718/638-5000, ext. 350

New York State Museum Institute, Cultural Education Center, 2nd Fl.,

Albany, NY 12230

Cliff Siegfried, Deputy Director, 518/474-5812

Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA (see 1994 awards)

Old Sturbridge Village, One Old Sturbridge Village Rd., Sturbridge, MA

01566

Peter O’Connell, Director of Museum Education, 508/347-3362

Peace Museum, 350 W. Ontario, Chicago, IL 60610

Robin Walls, Project Director, 312/440-1860

Homer Society of Natural History/Pratt Museum, 3779 Bartlett St.,

Homer, AK 99603

Rebecca May, Facilitator, 907/235-8635

Queens Museum of Art, Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, Queens, NY

11368

Sharon Vatsky, Curator of Education, 718/592-9700

Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Boston, MA (see 1994

awards)

Washington State Historical Society, 211 W. 21st Ave., Olympia, WA 98501

Susan J. Warner, Curator of Education, State Capitol Museum,

360/586-0216

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True Needs, True Partners:

Museums and Schools Transforming Education fittingly reflects the contributions of many people. Project coordinators from the museums that

received Museum Leadership Initiatives awards in 1994, along with their

school and community partners, summarized the benefits and challenges of their projects and offered guidance to others who undertake museum-school partnerships. From the IMS staff, Elsa Mezvinsky, executive

assistant to the director, provided project coordination; intern Hillary

Hoopes compiled the reading list; and program director Rebecca Danvers and director of public and legislative affairs Mamie Bittner reviewed

the draft and made important contributions. Marianna Adams coordinated interviews with museum and school partners conducted by graduate students in the Museum Education Program, George Washington

University, and museum professionals from the Washington, DC, area.

Private-sector partnerships have supported the work leading up

to this publication. Activities undertaken by the Institute of Museum

Services through the Museum Leadership Initiatives program were supported in part by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. The conference “Museums and Schools: Partners for Education” was supported in

part by a grant from the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Page 79

Acknowledgments