Professional Development and Resource Programs (PDR)
Wendy Barden, PhD – Director wendy.barden@pcae.k12.mn.us
PDR Overarching Goal
Through professional development statewide, build teacher and administrator capacity to provide innovative, inclusive, standards-based, measurable, and student centered learning in and through the arts.
In every program, they strive to:
● Address teacher isolation and build communities of belonging
● Shift paradigms and practices in Arts education
● Collaborate for anti-racism/equity/social justice
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Four Arts Education Specialists provide district, school, department, and one-on-one support focused on arts instruction and assessment, curriculum development, district arts programming, and standards implementation. The team includes specialists in Dance Education, Music Education, Theater Education, and Visual/Media Arts Education.
Comprehensive Arts Planning Program (CAPP) is a two-year program by competitive application. Public school districts accepted into CAPP receive financial and technical assistance to design multi-year strategic plans for improving their K-12 arts education programs. Past CAPP sites include Bemidji, Columbia Heights, Pine City, Proctor, St. James, and Yellow Medicine East. Applications for the 2023- 2025 cohort will open in October 2022.
Regional Arts Teacher-Leader Network (RAT-L) is a multi-year program by application. K-12 Arts teachers accepted into the program focus on developing leadership skills in arts education. Many RAT-L teachers open their classrooms to host peer observations and professional development.
Perpich Library is lending library of more than 13,000 items. Special collections for teaching artists and K-12 arts educators include arts integration, cultural competency, diversity, Native American studies, and best practices in arts education. Don’t miss the picture books in the Children’s Arts and Diversity collection! The library is free to all Minnesota residents. Items can be mailed to you, as well as transferred via interlibrary loan service.
PDR “Hot Topics” for 2022-2023 (Survey completed May 2022)
• 2022-2023 is the Year of the Arts Standards! Full implementation of the 2018 MN Academic Standards in the Arts is set for the 2023-2024 school year (by the legislature)
• Curriculum, instruction, and assessment
• Meeting the needs of all students
• Equity, diversity, inclusion, and cultural competency
• Arts integration
• Support of teachers/young teachers; teacher well-being and retention
• Required licensure topics through an arts perspective (reading preparation, positive behavioral intervention strategies, English Learners, key warning signs for early-onset mental illness, cultural competency)
