Elizabeth Richards-Hegnauer is the head of school for Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts in Providence. The arts school, which serves students grades 7-12, recently was selected to the XQ Community of Practice, a diverse group of XQ educators and leaders that comes together throughout the year to learn from and with one another. Trinity Academy received a $500,000 grant to implement new strategic planning at the school.
PBN: What is your reaction to receiving this XQ grant?
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RICHARDS-HEGNAUER: After 10 years of work to build a thriving urban school that balances high rigor with high love, winning the XQ grant feels like the spotlight is finally where it belongs: on our students.
Being designated as an XQ Superschool recognizes TAPA as an exemplar of a “vibrant high school, where students grow to the fullest as civic participants, critical readers, proactive problem-solvers, original thinkers, generous collaborators and learners for life.”
Before being recognized by XQ, I would say that TAPA was one of the best-kept secrets in Providence. Our students were getting to and through college, and creating artwork that was recognized and celebrated nationwide, but many Rhode Islanders still didn’t know who we were!
Applying for the XQ grant provided the opportunity for the whole TAPA community – parents, students, teachers, artists and allies – to come together to reimagine what TAPA can be and transform those innovative ideas into action. Winning the XQ grant provides the funds for us to bring our innovative and successful approach to a wider audience.
PBN: What areas at TAPA did you immediately identify that needed to be improved upon to increase education opportunities?
RICHARDS-HEGNAUER: TAPA entered the XQ+RI process well aware of our reputation statewide. Our arts programming is fantastic. We graduate students and get them into college. We are a safe space for LGBTQ+ [youths]. However, we were also known for not taking academic rigor as seriously as we should have. XQ provided us the chance, on a very public stage, to shed our reputation of valuing the arts over academics.
As part of the granting process, TAPA conducted an Educational Opportunity Audit, which starkly showed our greatest weakness: consistently low math scores. Fixing that is essential. Over 90% of our student body plan to attend college, and to do that, those students must be prepared to tackle college math.
We set out to authentically build math skills within TAPA’s existing successful framework and redefine ourselves as a school which teaches our students how to master rigorous content with the mindset of an artist. Rather than valuing one over the other, at TAPA we now use the arts as a tool to access academic rigor and success.
PBN: How much of the grant will finance those plans?
RICHARDS-HEGNAUER: The XQ grant is $500,000 over two years. The first $250,000 has both enriched what we know works well at TAPA and increased mathematical rigor across the school. This includes strengthening our trauma-informed approach to students’ socioemotional needs, ensuring standards-aligned arts integration and increasing college access through dual enrollment.
Most importantly, the grant has financed our transformational approach to math teaching and learning. The heart of our transformation is the people leading and doing the work: we recruited master educators, overhauled the math department and promoted math teacher-leader Aréema Sweeney-Ashby to a full-time director of STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] position. We [also] hired an interventionist who is responsible for helping struggling student mathematicians close academic gaps and added a Math as Social Justice component to contextualize math in students’ lives.
Additionally, we leveraged our partnership with Brown University to provide work-study students to serve as small-group math tutors. With exceptional educators, a rigorous curriculum and small-group support, we believe that TAPA’s math scores will come to exceed those of our sending district.
PBN: How has TAPA managed to be sustainable through the pandemic?
RICHARDS-HEGNAUER: Schooling during the pandemic was especially difficult for low-income communities of color. Barriers to success in a virtual learning environment are high: stable internet, a computer, a safe space to learn uninterrupted. For many, those barriers were insurmountable: 60% of Providence public school students were chronically absent, not attending distance learning at all.
At TAPA, though, our chronic absenteeism was only 4%. We achieved this by prioritizing relationships with families. We leveraged established trust to ensure they felt safe making requests for support, which we then met. We purchased hot spots and Chromebooks; helped pay rent; provided food pickups; did book drops; and made phone calls to every student who was absent, every single time.
By maximizing our resources, we provided basic needs to families, which made school attendance and learning even possible. This crisis highlighted one of TAPA’s greatest strengths: a culture of caring for our students and families. They trust us enough not only to educate their children, but to provide a haven and hope to sustain their family unit when times are tough.
PBN: What is the school’s outlook through 2022?
RICHARDS-HEGNAUER: Now that XQ has shone the spotlight on TAPA, the next two years will be the best in TAPA’s history. XQ helped us build brand awareness, highlight students’ accomplishments and make a name for ourselves as disruptors of the status quo in urban education. We’re disseminating our best practices nationwide and attracting the attention of policymakers.
Additionally, with the help of former Mayor Joe Paolino, TAPA recently purchased and rehabbed a building in downtown Providence. After a decade of renting, TAPA has a permanent home, which allows for fiscal sustainability and long-term partnerships with individuals and businesses that support our mission.
Most importantly, we are focusing on getting TAPA students to and through college. Almost all TAPA graduates are the first in their family to attend college; we work with them to get significant grants and take on minimal debt. Going into 2022, we must ensure that they graduate from college within six years. Nationally, 89% of low-income first-generation college students leave without a degree. TAPA alumni will beat this statistic.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
