Experience
THE DIFFERENCE
IN QUALITY
ABOUT THE JOSHUA TREE ARTS TECH ACADEMY
The mission of the Joshua Tree Arts & Technology Academy is to offer an outstanding academic curriculum with fine arts and technology instruction of the highest caliber to a diverse student population. In a supportive, forward-thinking, financially sustainable learning environment, JTATA produces educated, self-motivated, competent, life-long learners who are compassionate, creative, community-minded, and productive members of society.
Core Values
Arts+Enrichment
Joshua Tree Arts & Technology Academy (JTATA) recognizes the importance of receiving a robust arts and technology education and the far-reaching positive impact of such an education on the overall well-being and academic achievement of our nation’s children.
JTATA is also aware that the youth in the areas it serves is largely underprivileged, and therefore likely would not otherwise receive such an arts and technology education from traditional sources. Our program provides a first-rate arts education to all children, regardless of their socioeconomic background.
At JTATA, we believe an educated person in the 21st century is a creative problem solver, a respectful collaborator, and a motivated life-long learner.
Educational Philosophy
Joshua Tree Arts Tech Academy (JTATA) Academy serves students who seek core academics education expanded and complimented with unsurpassed in-person, hands-on arts and/or vocational training and education. Recognizing that children’s learning modes and paces differ, not just across children but also for the same child across subjects, this academy creates and implements a curriculum that is designed to individually address these differences and maximizing learning for each student. JTATA believes and understands that all students, regardless of their backgrounds and resources, have the ability and capacity to learn and receive an outstanding education—and in the environment best suited for them, they feel motivation, accomplishment, and joy in doing so.
JTATA is ideal and designed for students desiring to focus their education in an art or related vocational field. For other students who seek an academic post-secondary education, the infusion of arts and technology into their core college-prep academics will create more well-rounded and better educated students.
Incorporating Arts Into Education
Joshua Tree Arts Tech Academy (JTATA) believes that exposing children to the arts helps them become more successful students, better connected to their communities, more confident in their personal development, and better prepared for their careers—whatever those may ultimately be. The effectiveness of integrating arts into the curriculum is borne out by research, and a preponderance of evidence suggests that “students who study and participate in the arts do substantially better than those who do not on almost every academic measure.” For example, sustained learning in music and theater is highly correlated with higher reading and mathematics achievement. A 2005 The College Board study found that SAT math scores improved by almost 40 points (from 502 to 540) and by almost 50 points (from 485 to 534) when students received four or more years of arts instruction. In addition to math and reading, involvement in the arts is associated with gains in “cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork.”
By connecting the arts with core subjects such as math, reading, and science, students are able to gain a greater knowledge, comprehension, and appreciation for academic disciplines as well. The arts require creativity, self-discipline, imagination, critical thinking, and confidence. They help students build valuable problem solving and other cognitive development habits that stay with them throughout their educational and professional careers. An arts and technology based curriculum coupled with staff specialists in a community context is the ideal way to help students identify their strengths and capitalize on their intelligences.
How Learning Best Occurs
As emphasized in our Mission Statement, the Joshua Tree Arts Tech Academy (JTATA) emplosy an arts-integrated, project based curriculum based on a constructivist philosophy of learning. Our philosophies stem from a strong belief in a that every child can learn, every child brings strengths to their class/group exercises, and every child has a unique and personal approach to learning. These philosophies stem from a large body of research on how students learn. Furthermore, at JTATA will will consistently use research-based pedagogical strategies to help our students develop the skills and qualities necessary for the 21st century.
At the heart of our school lies a fundamental belief in the importance of the arts in education. Students explore and learn core subjects of language arts, math, science and social studies through direct experience, using a hands-on, experiential curriculum with an arts-integrated focus. They also study the arts as distinct disciplines that become more formalized as students progress through the grades in the middle and high school years.
In accordance with our mission, we believe that exposing children to the arts helps them become more successful students, better connected to their communities, more confident in their personal development, and better prepared for their careers.
