Neighborhood Bridges Program Evaluation Report 5

Abstract

This report is the fifth in a series of reports from a three-year evaluation study of the Neighborhood Bridges (Bridges) program of the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) in Minnesota. CTC contracted with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement to evaluate Bridges as part of a grant CTC received from the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Program of the U.S. Department of Education. The evaluation was designed to measure the extent to which Bridges accomplishes the outcomes specified in the grant proposal, and provide information that CTC and Bridges staff can use to strengthen the program. The intended program outcomes are as follows: Increase student achievement in reading, Increase student achievement in writing, Increase student achievement in theatre, and Broaden classroom teachers’ instructional strategies to include elements of storytelling and theatre as arts and as a support to learning in other core content areas.