The New Jersey Alliance for Arts Education has chosen Woodrow Wilson School, an arts magnet school in the Union City school district, as the Creative Ticket School of Excellence award winner on Oct. 16 for Arts Excellence. The AAE/NJ is the only statewide nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to promote excellence in arts education.
Woodrow Wilson, which is physically located in Weehawken even though it’s for Union City children, is used as a target school within the Union City school district. Students are nominated to attend the school after they interview for it. As an arts-integrated school, students use the arts to enhance other subject areas.
"We are not looking at just one aspect of a student," said school Principal Ronald Trainor. "We build our curriculum around the individuality of each student."
According to Executive Director of the AAE/NJ Mareta Wester, the school will go on to compete for the Kennedy Center Alliance for the Arts Education Network’s (KCAAEN) National School of Distinction Award as the New Jersey nominee for the 2002 competition.
The Creative Ticket National School of Distinction program is an initiative of the KCAAEN. The KCAAEN is a coalition of 46 statewide, nonprofit organizations that work with the Kennedy Center to ensure that the arts are an integral part of American education.
Woodrow Wilson was chosen based on its history as one of the pilot schools participating in the Arts Create Excellent Schools (ACES) initiative. ACES is a partnership of the AAE/NJ, the New Jersey State Department of Education, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
The criteria for the Creative Ticket School of Excellence award, both on a national and state level, looks at the ways in which arts education is implemented into the school curriculum, how the arts program provides opportunities for parental involvement, and how the program links arts education to community and cultural resources.
"Woodrow Wilson school was chosen for its teaching in all the artistic disciplines: Music, visual arts, dance and theater," said Wester. "It also using the arts to enhance learning in other subject areas."