All posts by Anna Lewis

Examples of accessibility in classrooms pt.2

Accessibility, Education

This is connected to a thread of posts on the topic of real examples about making education, the Arts, and STEAM more accessible to a variety of students. Check out the first post before reading this one to get an idea of what we’re looking for.

Oregon State University (OSU) is another university that is working towards making education more accessible to students. ‘Access OSU‘ is a program funded by the university that aims to get more underrepresented students to graduate high school in the Portland Metro area and build pathways to higher education. The program helps schools fill out grants and secure funding to ensure the cost of education is not a burden to students and their families. Access OSU also helps provide updated technology to schools to ensure students aren’t left behind their peers in non-underrepresented schools. This program has supported low-income areas and helped move students towards higher education.

The National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) is a historic organization that has helped push the boundaries of accessibility in the classroom for years in the United States. NABE was founded in 1976 and helped pass legislation and bills necessary to improve the accessibility of education to non-English speaking students, like the Bilingual Education Act. Today, their mission is focused on helping teachers become certified bilingual through the Seal of Biliteracy with no cost to the teachers. By having a cultural understanding about the importance of students being taught in a language they understand, NABE has helped children find themselves more supported in classrooms.

Examples of accessibility in classrooms pt.1

Accessibility, Education

In previous posts, we’ve talked about what accessibilty looks like in the classroom, how accessible Art looks in education today, and the overwhelming benefits of accessible art, but what do real world examples look like, and is it realistic to think Art, education, and STEAM can be made accessible to everyone?

Arizona State University (ASU) believes that one barrier of education can easily be removed using today’s technology. ASU has begun implementing meticulously trained AI to help make their classrooms, and classrooms around the US, more accessible to non-English speaking students and their families. In an article reviewing and breaking down research on AI’s potential to improve accessibility in the classroom, ASU found the high schools across the country are struggling to engage with students who are still learning English. ASU’s AI innovation center proposed a solution by creating a new type of chat bot that uses generative AI to study languages and aid both students and teachers in communication. ASU claims this new AI is also helping parents of bilingual students who might not speak English themselves, which helps to offer a more well structured support system to the student.

The Alliance for Excellent Education (ALL4ED) is an advocacy organization that works towards ensuring students in traditionally underserved communities’ graduate high school and are ready to succeed in college, work, and citizenship. ALL4ED makes classrooms more accessible to low-income students in the greater Washington DC area by reforming and paying for better common core standards, improving literacy among students, and connecting students and their families to the internet. Since the 1990s, this group has been improving access to learning through philanthropy and non-profit efforts. By covering the costs that students, families, and their schools cannot, more students are able to access their education.

These are just a few examples of what accessibilty looks like in the real world and how it helping to improve the lives of students. Look forward to more posts exploring other real world examples of how education, Art, and STEAM can be made accessible.

What does Art and STEAM in education look like now?

Education, STEAM

We’ve come a long way from what education used to look like, and these days there is ample research about the amazing benefits of STEAM and the Arts involvement in k-12 education. But what does that look like in the classroom? What are our current standards of education for STEAM and Art related topics?

In the state of Oregon, while the public push for STEAM in schools is pretty large, the actual engagement is pretty low. The Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) reported, in a research paper detailing the Arts education in k-12 Oregon schools, that most examples of good Art education and STEAM happened rarely and only because of non-profits filling in the funding gaps. The OCF found it was difficult for some students to engage in the available Art programs provided because of ‘student body fees’ or other costs to join in the classes that aren’t deemed necessary for their education. This means Oregon’s current standards of Art education aren’t accessible.

But it isn’t just Oregon. All over the United States, students are struggling to take part in offered Art courses for a variety of reasons. The Arts Education Data Project found in their survey of the US’s Art education standards that in big cities, remote towns, and rural areas, students have significantly less access to Art. Their research also shows that schools on indigenous reservations have extremely limited access to the Arts and that 26% of their students never interact with the Arts inside the classroom, in clubs, or on fieldtrips. Their data also tells us that over 5,000 schools in the US don’t have reliable access to the Arts.

So, what’s up with the gaps? If so many researchers and schools claim that STEAM and Art education greatly improve community and academic achievement, why are schools all over the country unable to present their students with the Arts? The answer comes down to funding and accessibility. Public schools already have a difficult securing funding to preform regular duties, like paying for lunches, keeping the school clean, and getting enough supplies for each classroom. So, when researchers tell schools to ‘just introduce more STEAM’ without the schools getting more funding, the projects revolving around the Arts get left behind because they’re deemed ‘less important’ despite all the data proving otherwise. The schools that are able to provide Art and STEAM education typically put a price tag on it that the students and families must pay so the school can financially cover the cost of Art. This price means students unable to find enough money get left behind academically. So, while our schools are headed in the right direction by generally presenting more Art and STEAM in their education, we have a lot of work to do to ensure all students have equal access to these programs.

Why should Art be accessible?

Accessibility, Education

Accessibility, an issue that impacts all people, might not be what you’re thinking about when engaging with the Arts. Stereotypically, Art is seen as a luxury and not a necessity. When told to ‘imagine Art’ you might think of lavish operas filled with fancy guests, large pristine museums with golden frames, or extravagant viewing parties that the typical person doesn’t bother dreaming about attending. Art is more than just a privilege for the wealthy, and throughout the ages the most accessible art has been enjoyed and loved by many.

Leanne Dawson, a professor of gender, sexuality, and class at The University of Edinburgh, believes that as Art is made less and less accessible, we face the risk of a “Culture in Crisis”. Her paper ‘Culture in crisis: A guide to access, equality, diversity, and inclusion in festivals, arts, and culture‘, reports that when Art is made accessible to a larger audience, for example, by creating easy to access online spaces or lowering the price of entry, the producers of said Art generate more engagement which creates more profit and exposure for the Artists. Dawson found that aside from supporting the Artists, accessible Art creates better local environments and can create a “community” around the creative space.

That’s all very nice, but what does it have to do with STEAM, Art education for children, and our definition of accessibility? If Art creates a better sense of community for adults, then imagine the good it could do in schools by bringing students together over a shared love for creativity. This isn’t just speculation either, Cheri Sterman, a principal with the National Association of Elementary School Principals (naesp) claims that “Art infuses joy and student voice into daily instruction” in her article ‘Arts Integration Improves School Culture and Student Success‘. She states that when classrooms use Art, in both Art based lessons and other academic curriculum, students respond better to challenges and engage in more conversation about the topic with their teachers and peers. She also found that students who didn’t usually engage with ‘typical’ teaching methods were more likely to enjoy and recall lessons that included the Arts.

In short, accessible Art isn’t just a good thing for those who don’t or can’t normally access the Arts, it also improves the overall classroom structure and builds better community foundations between students and teachers.

What is Accessibility and what does it look like?

Accessibility, Education, Getting Started

Accessibility has many different definitions and can look very different depending on the way in which it is being applied to situations and environments. Marriam-Webster’s definition is: something ‘being within reach or easy to understand’, which might not be where your mind first goes when thinking about accessibility. It’s more than likely that most of us think about accessibility strictly in the context of disability. Wikipedia’s definition of accessibility is: “…the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities.” While accessibility does include making technology and the environment available to people with disabilities, it can also mean so much more. In rural areas, accessibility can look like the ease of getting from place to place (think about driving from your home to the hospital or a grocery store. If it isn’t very far, then these places are accessible to you) In big cities it can be the availability of sidewalks and public transit to the public. Accessibility can even be the price of goods so more people can afford them or the language written on important road signs.

Accessibility can look like just about anything that affects the availability of a thing or place to people. Everyone, in one way or another, is affected by accessibility. Even children in public schools depend on their education being accessible, meaning they need; extracurricular classes and sports to have an accessible price, for classes to be spoken and written in languages they understand, and for schools to be an accessible distance from home and have accessible bus systems. But that can be a lot to tackle, and it covers so many topics.

So, for the purposes of my research, here is the definition I’ll be using for accessibility in school in the context of STEAM. ‘The ability for non-English speaking, disabled, and impoverished students to engage with and understand materials at the same capacity their English speaking, able-bodied, and non-impoverished peers do‘. In this context, accessibility looks like having a bilingual instructor, having low-cost or no-cost art courses and activities for public schools, or making art tools like paintbrushes and scissors usable for students with low-grip capacity.

What does Art do to our Academics?

Education, STEAM

Briefly touched upon in my previous post, Art, and how students engage with it in the classroom, has an impact on the academic achievements met by said students. The Oregon Community Foundation (OregonCF) reported that those taking more Art classes more frequently than other students had better fluency, originality, and overall better “academic discipline”. OregonCF also found improved grades and SAT scores among students taking more Art focused classes.

The Nation Endowment for the Arts found similar correlations in their research between Art engagement and academic scores. They found improved Social Emotional Learning in younger children who participated in the Arts at an early age, and that High Schoolers who participated in the Arts had higher average grades and greater “post-graduation outcomes” than students who did not.

Marcia Gibson and Meredith Larson found in their report on the visual arts and academic achievement that along with improved social skills, younger children who read with Art integrated as a part of the story have significantly improved reading abilities when compared to their peers without Art integration. Along with this, they found education is more engaging for students of all ages when art in incorporated. Art provides another way for more students to engage with academic material, thus improving a school’s overall test scores and grades. The inclusion of Art in education is integral to making the classroom more accessible and enjoyable for all students.

What can Art in schools look like?

Education, STEAM

Art in education can look very different depending on the way in which it is approached. In a report done by The Oregon Community Foundation (OregonCF), the way art is incorporated into learning can fall into one of three categories. The first is ‘Arts Exposure’, which is described as limited or occasional art experiences. This can look like a field trip or an assembly featuring the Arts. Art Exposure causes students to become more interested in and engaged with the topic being present to them, though the OregonCF report suggests it’s most impactful on students when Art is also being discussed and explored regularly in the classroom.

The second way of bringing art to students is referred to as ‘Sequential Arts Instruction’. Sequential Arts Instruction is the act of teaching Art in Art settings, or basically ‘the art class’. Sequential Arts Instruction includes traditional art classes, like painting, drawing, preforming arts, and also non-traditional Art activities like art clubs and bands. This is the most common type of Art engagement inside of Oregon schools, and it provides kids with observation, reflective, and developmental skills. OregonCF finds that Sequential Arts Instruction also serves as an emotional outlet for students who feel anxious or stressed about traditional education (think math/science/writing/history).

The third and final category of education and Art is ‘Arts Intergration’, and it is the category that OregonCF suggests has the largest impact on students. Arts Intergration is the act of including Art-based activities in non-art classes. This looks like making historical posters for a history class, creating 3D models of atoms for a science class, or being allowed to include creative writing instead of just essays in a writing class. OregonCF and Oregon teachers praise Arts Intergration for six main reasons:

“1. The Arts makes content more accessible.

2. The Arts encourage joyful, active learning.

3. The Arts help students make and express personal connections to content.

4. The Arts build community and help children develop collaborative work skills.

5. The Arts help students understand and express
abstract concepts.

6. The Arts stimulate higher-level thinking.” (OregonCF)

While OregonCF finds this final category to be to most impactful on students when it comes to increasing engagement and grades of students, they propose that the best way for art to be included into education is to implement it wherever and whenever possible. OregonCF claims that when students are able to constantly engage with the three kinds of Art education, they see better Social Emotional Learning (SEL), improvements to the community in the school, improved patience with difficult topics, and many other academic benefits including increased SAT testing scores and grades.

Art looks different for everyone. Some prefer to sculpt, others to dance, and many just enjoy a small doodle on the edge of their notebook. By having more art in school of many different kinds and disciplines, students are able to express themselves in safe regulated ways which results in positive outcomes for the rest of their academics.

What is Sci-Art?

STEAM

Sci-Art (or SciArt/Sci Art), is just as simple as its name: The combination of Science and Art. Sci-Art has been around as long as the concepts of Science and Art themselves. It’s used to create detailed anatomy diagrams, make complex graphs of theoretical sciences, and everything in between. Though the term can be used broadly to describe the creation of anything to accompany scientific ideas and findings, today it’s commonly used to describe Art with heavy themes of Science.

For those of us at OSU, think about the PRAx center and the ‘Data Crystal‘ by Refik Anadol. This piece of Art in the lobby of the PRAx combines 3D visual arts with technology. It utilizes a 3D form with shifting colors to represent the recorded sounds of the forests owned by OSU, along with this, it utilizes AI to abstract these sounds to create new things entirely. This is what Sci-Art is. The unification between Science, data, and ideas with Art, creation, and meaning. If you want to explore the topics yourself on a larger scale, check out the #SciArt on BlueSky and the SciArt Initiative page on Instagram.

Who is my URSA mentor?

Getting Started

Along with being my mentor during the 2025 URSA engage program, Victor is an educator and technologist who has been helping under-served K-12 students learn about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) for 30 years. Upon looking into him, you’ll likely find his profile on the OSU extension service website. This website gives a brief introduction into the work Victor focuses on like; robotics, drones, puppets, and storytelling. It’s not too hard to also find information about Victor on his Linkedin and Instagram. These sites describe Victor’s passion and work with technology, art, and education.

Who is Leaf?

Getting Started

I’m a first year undergraduate student, majoring in Environmental Science at the Corvallis campus of Oregon State University! I want to use the Arts to communicate scientific fact. Writing, painting, and design are passions of mine. I wanted to join this research opportunity through OSU’s Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and the Arts (URSA) with Victor because I believe that how we interact and view art as children impacts our values and beings for the rest of our lives. I hope that throughout this program I am able to gain new perspectives about the influence that creative spaces have on children as they grow into adults. By the end of this first week I’ll hopefully have a clear and narrow research question nailed down!