Advantage Arts Academy

Accepting Elementary Enrollment Applications

Advantage Arts Academy (AAA) is a tuition-free public charter school opening August 2020 in Herriman, Utah. Our rigorous curriculum is paired with arts integration to provide an enriched classroom focused on academics and creativity.

Advantage Arts Academy is the only elementary school in Utah that will use the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP) model as a focus and not as a supplemental add-on program. By aligning the BTSALP model components, such as the instructional model, arts integration is incorporated in all core curriculum courses.

Advantage Arts Academy (AAA) utilizes an array of methods to incorporate arts into the curriculum to support elementary student academic success. AAA’s purpose is to continue to improve student learning and increase choice of learning opportunities for students. The school will focus on engaging instruction that is aligned to the Utah Core Standards. Utilizing all of the elements of Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP) model, AAA teachers will help students meet and exceed student achievement goals by engaging them through arts integration in the core curriculum.

“The arts, it has been said, cannot change the world, but they may change the human beings who might change the world.”
- Maxine Green

By integrating arts into daily learning, schools have seen the following student improvements:

• State Assessment Test Scores
• Higher Attendance Rates
• Increased Retention
• Boosted Self Esteem

“Arts Integration” is defined by the Kennedy Center as an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form (2016, Arts in Education Research Study). The Kennedy Center research study found students in arts-integrated classrooms are more creative, engaged, and effective at problem solving than their counterparts who are not in arts-integrated classrooms.

The Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP) models focus is to provide arts-integrated instruction to elementary-age kids. The goal is to increase student performance in all subjects and throughout the curriculum. The infrastructure of the program is divided into four art disciplines:

• Visual Arts
• Dance
• Music
• Theater

“I believe arts education in music, theater, dance, and the visual arts is one of the most creative ways we have to find the gold that is buried just beneath the surface. They (children) have an enthusiasm for life a spark of creativity, and vivid imaginations that need training – training that prepares them to become confident young men and women.”
– Richard W. Riley, Former US Secretary of Education

AAA’s commitment to aligning with the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTSALP) model is reflected in the following goals:

1. Define and refine expectations across BTSALP model program implementation areas;
2. Develop infrastructure to support the implementation of the BTSALP model;
3. Align subject core and arts core to maximize use of the BTSALP model and provide resources for other schools;
4. Generate coherence between BTSALP model and other school organization and structures, teaching and learning expectations, reforms/initiatives, and school improvement efforts;
5. Develop leadership capacity for arts integration across the school and among stakeholders;
6. Ensure and share resources such as time, physical space, materials, curriculum, training and development, and staff; and
7. Cultivate support among multiple stakeholders, including the school community, the district, the universities, and the state.