ABSTRACT
In December 2006, we and other A+ researchers and evaluators were declared “rock stars.” Aside from what we have said about our attraction to the music of our youth, this is not something we would have predicted would result from being researchers of arts-based school reform. This declaration came from Eric Booth who was serving as the conference facilitator for what was dubbed informally at least as the national research conference on A+. The conference was funded by the NEA, which had become fascinated by the research and evaluation studies that led to this book. The A+ Schools Program held this national conference to examine what was know from the research and evaluation studies of A+ in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. We were there, as were many of our original research team and the researchers for Oklahoma and Arkansas. It was a heady few days where we presented what we had learned and interacted with interested educators, A+ school personnel we had not seen for a couple of years, national and international experts, and policy makers and others. Rock stars or not, we learned that there were some amazing similarities across the states, even given the adaptability built into A+.
