International Journal of Education & the Arts

Citation: Ingraham, N., & Nuttall, S. (2016). The story of an arts integration school on English-language-learner development: A qualitative study of collaboration, integrity, and confidence. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 17(28). Retrieved from http://www.ijea.org/v17n28/.

This qualitative case study of a southwest regional elementary school used interviews, focus groups, and document collection to better understand how this arts-integrated school is meeting the needs of English-language learner (ELL) students, discerning increased test performance on state standardized tests. Data were analyzed using open coding. Key findings indicated the culture of the school includes pervasive collaboration, integrity, and confidence, allowing for expedited academic-knowledge acquisition. Little research addresses arts-integration schools with emphasis on ELL-student performance. This article explores a bounded case study of an arts-integration elementary school in the southwest United States. Researchers aimed to determine how this newly reconceptualized school building had such a dramatic increase in student performance while maintaining a high number of ELL students. To better understand the potential influences of the school, a brief review of the literature revealed information about arts-integration schools, ELL learning, and leadership in schools.