The Vermont Millennium Arts Partnership Evaluation, 1998-2001

The Vermont Millennium Arts Partnership (VT-MAP) is an Internet-based arts education program, providing an online forum to facilitate student learning through an exchange among students, teachers, artists, musicians, and other professionals. Several initiatives are involved in this project. The Vermont Musical Instrument Digital Interface Project (MIDI) was established in 1995 and Art Responding Through Technology (ARTT) was established in 1997 based on the model of the MIDI Project. The MIDI and ARTT projects were part of the predecessor initiative on which VT-MAP is based, the WEB Project. More recently, the Vermont Young Playwrights Online (VYP Online), a part of the Vermont Stage Company, joined this project in 2000. An offshoot of the MIDI project is the Digital Audio Initiative, which also joined the project in 2000. VT-MAP is a program of the Vermont Arts Council, operating in conjunction with MIDI, ARTT, VYP Online, the Vermont Alliance for Arts Education, and the Vermont Department of Education. Funding is provided through a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Opportunities Program, with other funding coming from the Jesse B. Cox Charitable Trust, Josephine Bay and C. Michael Paul Foundation, the State of Vermont, IBM, and Verizon.

In the last fiscal year of grant funding, from July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001, VT-MAP awarded competitively funded grants to twenty-four schools (39 classroom teachers) in twelve counties throughout Vermont to participate in either the Vermont MIDI Project or ARTT. An additional ten schools participated in VYP Online, receiving funding to purchase software and attend teacher professional development training, and two additional schools received equipment to participate in MIDI's Digital Audio Initiative. Including the past two fiscal years, a total of 54 teachers in 34 schools have received grants and assistance through VT-MAP.

Classroom involvement in VT-MAP exposes students to the art, musical, and written creations of their peers, the language of critique in the Arts, the critique of their work by professional artists, and the creative possibilities to learn and share through the integration of technology into the classroom and class instruction. Students, teachers, administrators, and online mentors subscribe to a common protocol for sharing work online using a password protected website, which is based on the experience of online sharing undertaken by the Vermont MIDI Project in 1995.

The three projects focus their work and student learning on several Vermont and National Standards of Education, specifically the Vital Results of the Vermont Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities. In classroom learning and the online network also address standards that focus on Reflection and Critique and Skill Development of young composers.

The Center for Rural Studies (CRS) at the University of Vermont is the evaluator of VT-MAP for the three-year grant period from July 1, 1998 to June 30, 2001. This evaluation is primarily based upon qualitative data collected through online and paper surveys, with supplemental quantitative data from surveys and website activity. The model of evaluation documents the project‟s implementation or process and resulting outcome of the project. Project process refers to the experience that takes place in the classroom and outcomes refer to the outcomes of teacher and student participation in the online forum and related in-classroom activities, specifically student performance and achievement based on Vermont and National Standards.

For more information about this study or to request additional copies of this report, please contact Michele Cranwell Schmidt, Evaluation Coordinator, at mschmidt@uvm.edu, call (802) 656-0256 or visit www.uvm.edu/crs/.