In 1995, the results of a two year assessment by the Performance Assessment Collaboratives for Education (PACE) at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education were announced to reveal that the Creating Original Opera Program was "among one of the best conceived and well-run arts education projects in the country," that "its thorough curriculum, extremely effective operating strategies and growing number of participants could take an initiating role in shaping a next generation of arts education."

During the 1995-1996 school year, the Creating Original Opera Program was one of five national participants selected for a major research effort sponsored by the GE Foundation, The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. The intent of this research effort, "Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Education", was to clarify the role of learning in and through the arts on students, teachers and artists. The study is also featured in the National Arts Education Partnership’s 2002 research publication Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development (available online at www.aep-arts.org).