ABSTRACT
As school reform researchers, we of course first looked at sustainability in terms of sets of beliefs, practices, and processes as we discussed in the last chapter. Yet it was apparent to us that the arts themselves were key to sustainability as well. In this chapter we explore more closely what the arts have contributed to the sustainability of the A+ schools. As the preceding chapters have shown, the A+ Schools Program was successful in creating a network of schools, which emphasized the arts and arts integration but let schools adapt these emphases to the local context. Moreover, the A+ Schools Program was able to sustain these efforts over 12 years (as we write this chapter) and expanded the number of schools within North Carolina and expanded efforts to other states, including Oklahoma and Arkansas.
