This fall, members from the Tri-State Consortium
evaluated the Princeton Public Schools Visual and
Performing Arts department (VPA). The Tri-State
Consortium is made up of 55 public school districts from
Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. It aims to help
public school districts improve by evaluating them based
on a standardized assessment.

“I like the Tri-State model, because it’s a larger group of
people that are experts in their field.
So, they come in and these are all arts
educators and administrators that
understand what we do and why we
do it ... They can probe our thinking
in a different way than somebody
that may not be as familiar with
our program,” said Supervisor of
Visual and Performing Arts Patrick
Lenihan.

In order to prepare for the visit, the
department followed three essential
questions: what opportunities are
we giving all learners to showcase
their engagement in the creative
process; in what ways do the VPA
department work to implement
curricular programs across all grade
levels; to what extent does the arts
department show the importance of
art education to all students? These
questions are mainly focused on the
engagement of the students.

“The Steering committee has been
meeting since we announced that we
were going to do the visit and then
the full department meets monthly
[and] they work on the preparations for the visit as well,”
said Lenihan.

The department itself doesn’t just rely on the staff
and their ideas for the success of the curriculum, but
a philosophy. The Princeton VPA philosophy states
that “participation in an arts program allows students
to make connections across content areas and cultural
boundaries. The arts enable personal, intellectual, social,
economic, and human growth by fostering creativity and
providing opportunities for expression beyond the limits
of language.” This philosophy doesn’t only apply to the
PHS, but to the other Princeton district schools as well.

 “It’s a critical part of their journey,” said Lenihan. “It’s a
way for us to connect with other people, both within our
community and around the world. It really does prepare
students to be global citizens, and really, it speaks to how
important the arts are as a vehicle for communication.”

As a result of PHS’s involvement with the arts, they
strive to incorporate all variations of it to show the colorful
possibilities that students could be capable of. Though
Lenihan has a lot of big decisions to make, the rest of
the VPA department staff share this same responsibility.
After being notified of the Consortium members’ visit,
Visual Arts teacher Jessica Zhang first thought about skills:
could she teach the students to showcase their talent? The
art teachers created resources that educated the Tri-State
visitors on what their department is like.

“There was a lot of individual planning for lessons, but
then there was also collaborative planning amongst the
department to advertise the arts of interest ... There’s a
sense of community,” said Zhang. 

Layla Saint Pierre's Work