Janet (Jann) Knighten is a 44-year veteran educator with experience in teaching students of all abilities in elementary, middle, high school, and adult music education. Currently, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education at the University of Arkansas, emphasizing inclusion and strategies of instruction for diverse learners. She is the creator and coordinator of the graduate certificate "Music Education for Special Needs Students," with participants from across the U.S., Canada, creator and coordinator of the graduate certificate "Music Education for Special Needs Students," with participants from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She is in her final year of the PhD program in Special Education at the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions. She has presented at conferences across the United States and Japan and has authored articles on the use of Music Mediated Intervention as a best practice, trauma-informed teaching in the elementary music classroom, and creating a truly inclusive classroom. The focus of her research is how arts teachers can take research based practices for teaching students with disabilities and embedding them into arts instruction.

Interest in the position

My interest in leading the Division of Performing and Visual Arts of CEC stems from my work with students with disabilities throughout my career as well as training pre-service and in-service music educators. The landscape of student demographics in schools are changing quickly, and the training of educational practices in the arts are not keeping up with these evolving populations. As arts educators in this organization we know, through research data and personal experience, the ways the arts can provide an avenue to life-long success and happiness.  I think it is important for this group to provide publicized outreach with links to constantly changing practices for teaching students with differences and disabilities at all levels of development. DARTS can become an integral element in integrating best practices for teaching students with disabilities and the “telling our story” of how the arts are a key to that success. I would like to contribute my personal experience and research knowledge in making this happen.

Michael Dunn, a member of CEC since 2002, is in his 19th year at Washington State University Vancouver as a professor. He is currently Treasurer of DARTS and WA CEC. He previously taught for 11 years in Toronto-area elementary/middle schools—six as a special education teacher. Now as a researcher, he specializes in: 1) multi-tiered intervention programming for struggling writers/readers; and 2) how general education teachers form their decisions about referral. Michael has published in a variety of journals including the International Journal for Research in Learning Disabilities and the Journal of Reading Education. In spring 2012, the College of Education awarded Michael the Judy Nichols Mitchell Fellowship and once again in 2022 in recognition of his ongoing research to help people who struggle with writing. The Organization of Teacher Educators in Literacy (OTEL), an International Literacy Association special interest group, awarded him article of the year in 2012. Michael has served on CEC Division for Learning Disability Committees (e.g., Public Policy, Research) and as Representative Assembly rep for DARTS, 2017-2018. He has been accepted and presented at CEC conference sessions every year since 2004. Find out more about Michael at his homepage: https://education.wsu.edu/dunnmi

Interest in the Treasurer Position

As DARTS Treasurer, Michael will manage the Division’s bank account, prepare treasurer’s reports for each DARTS board meeting, and complete/submit regular (e.g., annual or bi-annual) filings to the IRS and District of Columbia (to continue DARTS’s charter with its originating location). As a university teacher and researcher, Michael reviews students’ writing and develops strategies, which include the arts, to help people improve their composition skills. As Treasurer, Michael will collaborate with other DARTS board members to develop ways to help and support DARTS members and teachers promote students with disabilities’ engagement with the visual and performing arts as a means to improve their skills.