For the past seven years, Brent Wilson, professor of art education and head of the art education program for the School of Visual Arts at Pennsylvania State University, has evaluated discipline-based arts education professional development programs sponsored by the Getty Education Institute for the Arts. Effective professional development and curriculum planning happen when they are pursued simultaneously. Change occurs when there is sufficient time for evaluation to inform instructional development and implementation. Improvements in education are found when there is ongoing communication and collaboration within the community.
Successful programs emerge from collaborations between teachers and subject-matter experts.
The teaching of subject areas is enriched when museums and other community institutions provide laboratories for immersion in their respective worlds as well as content for instruction. The arts place the relationship between the acquisition of understanding and the acquisition of skills in proper perspective. The inquiry processes associated with a discipline-based approach to arts education provide timely models for the study and assessment of other school subjects. Success in education occurs when there is continuous technical assistance in the form of workshops, lessons modeling instruction, reviewing and commenting on district plans, etc.