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News Releases 
From 18 Twin Cities' Classrooms to Around the Country: The Children's Theatre Company Hosts Conference to Share Neighborhood Bridges as a National Model 
For Immediate Release: July 9, 2007
The Children's Theatre Company hosts its first national conference on Neighborhood Bridges, its innovative, critical literacy program. The conference and program expansion were made possible by a grant received in 2005 from the federal Department of Education, one of only 14 of its kind awarded across the country through the Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grants Program. Currently, there are plans to expand Neighborhood Bridges to 12 national sites. The conference focuses on the principals and practices of the Bridges program.
Now in its ninth year, Neighborhood Bridges is a year-long theatre arts curriculum for inner-city students in third, fourth, fifth and sixth grades. Neighborhood Bridges is a comprehensive program that combines storytelling and creative drama to help children develop their critical literacy skills and to transform them into storytellers of their own lives. Students who have participated in Neighborhood Bridges have demonstrated significant gains in writing test scores. CTC Artistic Director Peter Brosius and Professor Jack Zipes, one of the world's leading authorities on fairy tales, founded the program in 1997.
In addition to expanding the program, CTC will evaluate Neighborhood Bridges and utilize the results to further improve curriculum design; provide intensive training to teachers and teaching artists; and disseminate the curriculum to a wide audience using effective communication tools.
The project will also create a much-needed new assessment for theatre arts. While theatre arts has been deemed a core academic subject, and state and national standards in the arts include theatre arts, the absence of an in-depth assessment is a missing link in the cycle of teaching and learning in this area. The assessment, which will be developed in partnership with some of the nation's leading arts professionals, including experts at the University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, is a much-needed tool for increasing knowledge about and enhancing the effectiveness of teaching and learning in theatre arts.
The Children's Theatre Company will host the Neighborhood Bridges Conference from July 13 – July 15, 2007. The conference will be attended by local and national theatre artists, administrators, and educators who are working on implementing the Neighborhood Bridges Program in communities across the country.
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