The Results Are In!

Just before the new year, CIAMO published it's first annual report. It's exciting to look at everything we've done and how far we've come in just one year! The most excited part of the report were the results. In just one year, we've already begun to show the impact of art and music education on children in Ouidah! Here is "Looking at the Results" from our yearly report.

CIAMO’s students showed significant progress during the 2010-11 school year, not only in arts, but also in their other courses. Teachers noticed better scores on exams, increased concentration, and high-levels of contentment and motivation among students.

These comments were confirmed by a series of very successful test results. In the Beninese educational system, the passing rate is sometimes as low as 50-60%. CIAMO’s students at Ganvè Primary School had an average passing rate of almost 80%.

A rare 100% of students passed from the 6th year into secondary school. The CIAMO team is proud to have played a role in the success of these children and congratulates Ganvè Primary School teachers for working so diligently to educate their students.

As a means to measure students’ creative progress, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was given to second year students at the beginning and the end of the 2010-11 school year. Dr. Gayle T. Dow, the director of the Creativity Research Lab at Christopher Newport University, writes that the Torrance test “is reported to be fair in terms of both race and gender and for persons who have various language and cultural backgrounds.”

Dr. Dow found that “CIAMO appears to have an impact on children’s ability to generate novel and detailed figures as measured by the TTCT-figural test. Considering the economic difficulties experienced and limited educational exposure in the areas of music and art by many of these children, this program has demonstrated to be a positive influence in fostering higher order thinking skills such as creativity.”

Our yearly report can be downloaded here.