Expanding Access to Well-Rounded Education

Well-Rounded Access Program (WRAP) Overview

Extending the promise of a well-rounded education is one of the commitments that serve as a pillar of Oregon’s Consolidated State Plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act. In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) a 5-Year, $9.8 Million competitive grant known as the Expanding Access to Well-Rounded Courses (Course Access) grant. Oregon’s proposal for the grant funding focused on expanding access to arts-specific and STEAM-related courses. To carry out the requirements of this grant, ODE formed the Well-Rounded Access Program (WRAP).

Announcements

The Oregon Department of Education is proud to launch the new STEAM Toolkit—a dynamic resource designed to support K–12 educators and administrators in integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math into engaging, equitable learning experiences.

WRAP Courses

The Oregon Department of Education partnered with Arts for Learning Northwest to lead the way in arts-integrated education with the launch of the Arts, Care & Connection (ACC) initiative, a free resource providing K-5 educators with high-quality, artist-led learning modules. This work is done in partnership with ODE’s Care and Connection campaign, integrating ODE's Oregon’s Transformative SEL Framework & Standards.

Free Lessons!

Developed by Arts for Learning Northwest in collaboration with ODE, arts partners, and teaching artists across Oregon, the ACC project includes 98 stand-alone, one-hour learning modules, each including a detailed lesson plan, instructional videos, and a slide deck. Modules are currently available online, on the Oregon Open Learning Hub.

The Oregon Department of Education partnered with the Portland-Metro STEM Partnership (PMSP) and the Greater Oregon STEM Hub (GO STEM) to expand access to Patterns Science through the High School Science for All program. The Patterns Approach to science instruction emphasizes the use of mathematical and phenomenological patterns to predict the future, make data-informed decisions in the present, and understand the past.

Free, openly licensed curriculum is available online at hsscience4all.org for high school Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

The Oregon Department of Education partnered with Portland State University, Oregon State University, and University of Oregon to:

Expand professional development opportunities for Exploring Computer Science, a research-based, well-rounded course in Oregon high schools;
Support administrative and counselor capacity to provide and sustain the offerings; and
Develop data snapshots to work towards continuous and systemic improvement.

The Well-Rounded Computer Science project and CS for Oregon intersects closely with the Computer Science Education Statewide Implementation Plan, and is focused on bringing equitable computer science education K-12 to Oregon students.

The Well-Rounded Access Program partnered with Southern Oregon ESD, the Jim Pepper Native Arts Council, and Oregon’s federally recognized Tribes to expand access to arts learning through culturally responsive lessons about contemporary and regional Native artists. This project supports both Native and non-Native students by providing accurate, Tribal-specific arts content aligned with the Oregon Arts Standards and the Nine Essential Understandings from the Tribal History/Shared History (TH/SH) project.

Lessons on contemporary native artists and professional development sessions are available on the Speak Sing Native website. Tribal Specific arts lessons from the Burns Paiute Tribe, Coquille Tribe, and Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw can be found in the Oregon Arts Group.

Additional Materials

Arts Access Toolkit

This toolkit hosts a collection of resources to assist educators, schools, and districts to offer and sustain high quality, standards-aligned arts programs