Free Trade for the Mind

Proof That Ideas about Education Can Cross International Borders [caption id="attachment_9149" align="alignright" width="135" caption="View the Photo Showcase of the Boston Arts Academy"]

[/caption] Founded by Spaniards and settled by a host of other immigrants, Argentina, like the United States, is a country woven from outside influences. Little surprise, then, that a small group of Argentinean experts looked beyond their borders for fresh ideas when they decided it was time to invest in the nation's education reform efforts. Why not import educational ideas like any other essential commodity? Three winters ago—amid the long, slow buildup to Argentina's current financial and political crisis—an international bank and several private foundations sent the education experts on an exploratory visit to the Boston Arts Academy (BAA), a pilot school 20 years in the making. Argentina's public schools share with BAA a deep, fundamental respect for the visual and performing arts. They also share a similar student body: largely low-income, minority students, sliding off the bottom end of achievement charts. "We're exporting the belief that every child needs positive learning experiences and high expectations, especially those growing up in poverty," says Linda Nathan, Ed.D.'95, the BAA's dynamic headmaster. "If we can set a new precedent by jump-starting just a few Argentinean schools, this will be among the most important projects I've contributed to." [caption id="attachment_9147" align="alignleft" width="170" caption="Argentinean educational expert Sylvia Maris Pallini (right) watches Boston Arts Academy theatre students during dress rehearsal"] [/caption] A photo showcase illustrates how the Boston Arts Academy opened its classrooms, performance spaces, and administrative meetings to reveal the collaborative effort behind one school's emerging success. Enthusiasm from the Argentinean contingency led to three more visits over the past two years, and a conversation that continues to this day across 5,400 miles. Nathan has also accepted two invitations to Buenos Aires, where she has shared strategies for enhanced classroom participation with more than 100 teachers, school administrators, and cultural leaders. Raising Voices: Raising Achievement On a business-as-usual day in May, a magical energy radiates from Boston's first high school for the visual and performing arts. In the homeroom of Artistic Dean Fernadina Chan, Ed.M.'93, students set their mind upon the mathematical puzzle of creating an artistic budget for a traveling dance performance. In a theater class, students slide into character as they describe their complex eighteenth-century identities in Tom Stoppard's intellectual extravaganza, Arcadia. Priya Natarajan's, Ed.M.'98, math students independently review their progress with great concentration before consulting with her about the final lessons each must master for a complete academic portfolio. At lunchtime, a young Latina student with the talent and passion of any pop star stands at the back of the cafeteria belting out a Top 40 tune about a genie in a bottle. Classmates join her on the synthesizer, bass, snare. The rest of the student body and their teachers rock out. Feet stomp. Bodies sway. Hunger makes an easy leap from body to spirit.

Following Argentina's recent financial collapse, the sturdiest building blocks for erecting a new future will not be found in local banks or the government but in people's minds.

For decades, arts educators and researchers have praised the arts for fostering student participation and raising attendance rates. This morning, it's easy to see why. According to Nathan, engagement like this often translates into achievement. Students sometimes grasp the concept of fractions while reading a music score in 3:4 time or while enlarging a small-scale drawing into a mural. Modernizing a Greek tragedy can lead to deep exploration of history, geography, and reading comprehension. Last year, 88 percent of the school's first graduating class went on to one-, two-, and four-year colleges. That is nearly three times the number of new college students reported in 1999 by the Boston Public School system. In just three years, the school's failure rate on the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) exam, the state's mandated student-assessment test, has dropped from 64 to 17 percent on the English language arts exam, and from 84 to 29 percent on the mathematics exam. Argentinean educators aim to cultivate precisely this kind of improvement in their schools. In 1994, the Ministry of Education launched a nationwide reform movement to upgrade curriculum and introduce important new skills to both teachers and students. But much more work lies ahead. A complex history and political structure cracked the foundation of Argentina's educational system long ago. To begin, most teachers in Argentina lack college degrees, so subject matter knowledge and pedagogy rest on rickety beams. Federal hiring procedures further weaken the structure of schools; teachers are hired for a series of single classes taught across a wide geographic region rather than for full-time jobs. Even after piecing together 35-40 hours of work each week, teacher salaries total around $200 a month. Many work another 10-15 hours, off the books, at night schools, just to make ends meet. Even so, the aspirations of teachers run high. "They're hungry for new information," says Florencia Mezzadra, Ed.M.'00, one of the educational experts working on the project. "They say to me, 'Please teach me, because I don't know what to do with these students!'" The teachers involved in importing some piece of the Boston Arts Academy's approach to Argentina hope to take their students further, faster. Mining the Mind's Resources With seed money to develop self-sustaining arts programs in a handful of rural, suburban, and urban schools, Argentinean community artists are engaging students who never considered school interesting or important to their futures. The Temperley School in Buenos Aires ventured to offer evening music lessons. Because many of the students travel more than an hour to and from the school, instructors anticipated a low turnout at the six o'clock introductory meeting. Three hundred students flooded the auditorium. Just one year into this new foray, signs of progress come into view in participating schools. Master artists, writers, and university professors provide training to teachers. Teachers, in turn, are forging a new connection with their students. Community involvement has soared. Murals replace graffiti. Recitals in nursing homes and other neighborhood locales extend the schools' presence and also the students' sense of importance. By importing educational strategies, Argentina—a longtime exporter of music, dance, and literary talent—defines a new kind of creative brilliance. And what better time and place for it? In the information age, no national resource could be more precious than the intellectual agility developed in schools. Following Argentina's recent financial collapse, the sturdiest building blocks for erecting a new future will not be found in local banks or the government but in people's minds. About the Article A version of this article originally appeared in the Winter 2002 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.