Education has always required a team effort, but in no subject is that more evident today than in the arts. The state Department of Education has found willing partners to assist.

Just as an example: Friday was the ho‘ike (show) for the students at Kalihi Kai Elementary School, where they could demonstrate what they’ve learned in the Turnaround Arts Program launched in August.

The students danced, performed a topical rap and created a tableau in which they play characters in a scene illustrating various subjects, said Rae Takemoto. Along with Lei Ah Sing, she coordinates the program, with the backing of the Hawaii Arts Alliance.

The alliance sought and won an award for Kalihi Kai, Kamaile Academy and Waianae Elementary School in the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities’ Turnaround Schools initiative. Three celebrity artists or musicians were assigned to Hawaii: Jack Johnson, Jake Shimabukuro and actress Alfre Woodard.

“Our schools are seeing more engagement in the classroom due to the arts integration in the classroom,” Takemoto said.

There’s also a DOE partnership with the Honolulu Museum of Arts on a poster art project. “Read a Work of Art as You Would Read a Book” is the title on materials developed for classrooms. Students are taught about the artist and his or her world.

For example: Juliette May Fraser’s work, “Lei Sellers,” spurs a discussion on the era of boat travel in an earlier period of Hawaii’s history.

Art is creativity, said Betsy Robb, museum education curator: “It’s this creativity that has been taken out of our school system because teachers are teaching to the test.”