Elementary turned arts magnet in high demand

• Since becoming an arts magnet, Lincoln Elementary's test scores have risen.
• The application process has no auditions but requires strong student interest, family support
• "Now, we're turning away a lot of families," said principal Susan French.

More than a dozen children twirled under the watch of dance teacher Harlina Churn-Diallo during a dance class at Lincoln Elementary School. At times, the boys stooped to one leg while girls stood with their arms arched high above their heads in ballet's fifth position.

"I want you to think about the lightness of your feet, girls, as you are running," Churn-Diallo boomed. "We're not like elephants."

Just seven years ago, the Jefferson County Board of Education voted to create new magnet programs at more than 20 elementary schools. For Lincoln Elementary, the plan was to become Kentucky's only public elementary arts magnet. That move set Lincoln on a path that is now a far cry from when it was under threat of closure in 2003.

Then-Superintendent Stephen Daeschner had proposed closing the school, which faced declining enrollment and where nearly 90 percent of the 265 students qualified for free or reduced lunches. Half of its 265 students lived in the Clarksdale housing complex that was razed in 2004 to make way for mixed-income homes.

Today, Lincoln Elementary has 546 students, with about 58 percent receiving free or reduced lunches. It is home to a diverse mix of students — 39 percent white, 43 percent African American and 12 percent Hispanic, with 6 percent identified as other ethnicities.

'Well-rounded education'

Arts classes at Lincoln Elementary make up part of the everyday curriculum, alongside reading, writing, mathematics, science and social studies. And even in those classes, teachers often weave ideas from the arts into their lessons.

"Do we think that the next student who walks through our doors is going to be the next Jennifer Lawrence?" Lincoln Elementary principal Susan French said. "Absolutely not."

But, she described what Lincoln offers as "a well-rounded education" delivered by a 45-member teaching staff that includes six arts educators.

Churn-Diallo's dance class is one of many she teaches at Lincoln, along with a staff of other performing arts teachers who conduct classes in band, drama, orchestra, percussion, piano and vocal music.

The teachers meet regularly to work out ways to integrate the arts into regular classes.

Earlier this year, fourth-grade teacher Katrina Johnson told Churn-Diallo her students were having difficulty memorizing their multiplication tables. Churn-Diallo's plan was to teach them a flag dance with a chant. Johnson said the dance teacher came to her class for 20 minutes everyday over a four-week period.

"It gave the kids a time to move and then she assessed them every Friday and a lot of them made gains," she said. "Then on the test, you could see them trying to whisper the words to the song and mimicking the movement."

Lincoln's teachers have received support from many of Louisville's arts organizations, starting with training in the summer of 2009 from the Kentucky Center — including sessions from Churn-Diallo, who then had a long working relationship with the center as a dance educator — from StageOne Family Theatre's Andrew Harris.

Over the years, other members of the city's arts community, including the Louisville Ballet and the Fund for the Arts, have supported the school.

Following that 2009 training, many of the arts teachers joined Lincoln and the school began to grapple with how to work the arts into the curriculum. Faculty and staff visited other arts elementary schools in cities within driving distance, including Indianapolis.

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'The right match'

In 2011, French — the daughter of Louisville Orchestra timpanist and Julliard graduate James Rago — was appointed principal. She knew much of the school's history because she had served as its principal from 2001 through 2004 before moving to Field Elementary for eight years.

The next year, the school completed its physical transformation with an $8 million expansion that helped cover a new two-story arts wing. It includes a 200-seat black box theater, piano lab and dance and drama studios.

How the school continues to develop will depend in part on the application process. In 2011, there were 415 students at Lincoln. That included students from kindergarten through second grade who went through the first application process for the school and comprised nearly half of the student population that year.

"We took anyone who wanted to apply," French said. "Word wasn't out as to what we were about yet."

This past year, the school had just under 300 students apply for only 75 seats in kindergarten and about a dozen places in the upper grades. There were far more students than places.

"Now, we're turning away a lot of families," French said.

The application process does not involve auditions but requires families to submit a survey of their child's interests and recommendations from teachers, arts instructors or community members.

"They have to have an interest in the arts," French said. "They don't have to sing on key. It's about the right match."

Magnet Challenges

As Lincoln achieves milestones in remaking itself, it faces a challenge common to magnet schools: maintaining ethnic and socioeconomic diversity among its students.

Throughout the country, magnet schools frequently attract largely middle-class students who displace poorer and at-risk students, a development of concern for University of Southern California education professor Gary Orfield, a school integration expert who has studied student selection for magnet schools and education in Kentucky and Jefferson County.

Kristy Callaway, executive director of Arts Schools Network, echoed Orfield's findings. Callaway's organization boosts 200 member schools, administrators, teachers and community partners, and executives from arts organizations that seek to promote excellence in arts education.

"Some education leaders know that they can take the school, infuse it with the arts and flip the performance and test scores in a matter of years," said Callaway, citing an onslaught of applications from students of affluent families.

But that "flip" and the displacement of poorer and at-risk students doesn't always have to be the end of the story.

In her native Beaufort, S.C., low scores and morale led to the creation of an arts school out of an elementary school on an island with a population that is predominately Gullah, black Americans that have preserved more of their African cultural heritage because of their geographic isolation.

Callaway said after the school became popular with more affluent families who lived far from the island, the school district looked at where those families lived to help create similar programs or mirror schools in their locations.

Kathy McGinnis, Jefferson County Public Schools' magnet programs coordinator, said the district has no plans to open a mirror school to Lincoln in part because the magnet is in its early stages of development. JCPS is also still in the process of developing plans in response to Magnet Schools of America's March 2014 review of all the districts' magnet schools. That report has some recommendations for arts-oriented schools, but did not specify any for Lincoln.

Lincoln has seen its scores rise since it became a magnet. In the 2012 school year, the Kentucky Department of Education classified Lincoln as needing improvement and the school ranked in only the third percentile in the state. But last school year, Lincoln jumped to the 33rd percentile and, while still deemed as needing improvement, also was classified as progressing.

The state's K-PREP tests from the 2012 school year show only 24.4 percent of Lincoln students scored as proficient or distinguished on reading whereas 47.8 percent did last year. Math scores exhibited a similar increase, with a score of 19.2 percent proficient or distinguished in 2012 improving to 36.3 percent last year.

Angela Baker, an instructional assistant at Lincoln, has worked at the school for 15 years. She was raised in Clarksdale but moved to Shively to raise a family. Her son went to Lincoln and now his son is in first grade there.

"I was there when they talked about closing the school," she said. "Now, I think it's kept some of its past identity, but it's different and positive."

Reporter Elizabeth Kramer can be reached at (502) 582-4682. Follow her on Twitter at @arts_bureau.

By the numbers

Math scores (2012): 19.2%

Math scores (2013): 36.3%

Reading scores (2012): 24.4%

Reading scores (2013): 47.8%