5 questions for ... Susan Rotkovitz

Photo by Kanji Takeno

Fine arts are disciplines for teaching, not add-ons

Susan Rotkovitz, director of TU’s Arts Integration Institute (AII), says AII’s new post-baccalaureate certificate—the first of its kind in the nation—educates teachers on how the arts play an essential, not secondary, role in K-12 education.

What is the Arts Integration Institute?

We’re a facilitator of K-12 student growth and development through the arts. AII works in close cooperation with individual school districts and the Maryland State Department of Education to provide timely and progressive educational courses and workshops targeted to K-12 classroom teachers, fine arts specialists and teaching artists.

How did the institute come about?

At a college deans’ roundtable in spring 1999, Nancy Grasmick, state superintendent of schools, announced all Maryland K-12 students would receive the arts in their curriculum on a daily basis. Teachers were encouraged to integrate the arts into their teaching. COFAC’s dean at the time envisioned TU leading the way in training Maryland’s teachers how to implement this mandate. I led a task force of TU arts educators in creating professional development courses for in-service teachers that evolved into AII.

Why is it important to integrate the arts into grade school education?

The arts are disciplines of learning unto themselves, not merely tools to teach other subjects. For example, classical music not only can support math education—math can support the understanding of classical music. Therefore we promote integrating the arts into learning, not treating the arts as learning supplements. The arts enrich and energize learning by providing context for understanding and expressing knowledge.

What is the Arts Integration Institute Post-Baccalaureate Certificate?

We offer an 18-unit program in partnership with the University of Maryland, UMBC and Johns Hopkins University, with TU’s AII offering the majority of courses. We go to the sites where teachers work, rather than asking them to come to us. Our courses provide applied as well as theoretical learning. The program culminates with a capstone project, where teachers implement an action plan, repeat it, provide documentation and produce a final paper and presentation based on their research experience. We’ve worked primarily with teachers from five Montgomery County schools during the past three years, and we’re trying to build a cohort in Baltimore City for the spring term. However, we’ve worked with teachers all across the state.

Where can people find more information about the post-baccalaureate certificate?

A program description and curriculum information can be found at the graduate school Web site. Our long-term aspiration is to build the certificate into a full-fledged master’s program.

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