The Beverley Taylor Sorenton Sorenson Arts Learning Program (BTS Arts) serves as a teaching partnership between highly qualified arts educators and K-6 classroom teachers in Utah elementary schools.
Collaborative Teaching Model
Arts educators work collaboratively with regular classroom teachers to provide quality, sequential, and developmental arts instruction that aligns with the state Fine Arts Core Curriculum.
Integrating Arts and Core Subjects
The program brings music, visual arts, dance, and drama back into the classroom setting. By integrating these art forms with subjects such as math, science, social studies, and language arts, the program helps reinforce classroom core content.
This integration is designed to provide students with a deeper level of understanding regarding grade-level core content while enriching the learning experience for both teachers and students.
Program Impact and Expansion
Since starting in 2008, BTS Arts has expanded from 50 schools to over 450 schools. The program now reaches nearly 250,000 elementary public and charter school students across all LEAs statewide, representing close to 80% of elementary schools in Utah.
Recent Growth and Increasing Demand
Growth has been significant recently, with over 100 schools added between SYR 2022-23 and SYR 2023-24. Demand for the program continues to increase across multiple LEAs.
