Tim Mikulski

The Salon is Closed; But Our Work is Never Done

Posted by Tim Mikulski, Sep 17, 2010


Tim Mikulski

Tim Mikulski

On behalf of Americans for the Arts, I would like to thank all of our readers for stopping by to celebrate Arts in Education Week by reading all the posts of our fantastic bloggers throughout the week. Having organized two of these events now, I can say that the content is just getting better and better.

Here is just a sample of all of the topics covered by our intrepid bloggers this time around: national standards; research; technology & pedagogy; collaboration; assessment; innovation; advocacy; school districts/leadership; and reform.

But to put things into the complete perspective, I copied and pasted all of the blog posts into a word cloud website and came up with the words that were used the most in all of the posts (and unlike Wordle, Tagxedo even lets you pick the shape of your cloud).

The results showed that the words most often used in the posts were arts, education, school, programs, learning, students, teachers, and assessment.

To view the entire cloud, visit http://bit.ly/blogcloud.

However, our job isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

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Mr. James Palmarini

Pondering the Arts Education Lunchbox III: It's time to party!

Posted by Mr. James Palmarini, Sep 17, 2010


Mr. James Palmarini

Enough pondering. On with our Arts Education Week party. To wit, let’s celebrate:

  • Students first, last, and always as learners, advocates, and our guides to the future.
  • Student learning in the arts that gives ownership and choice and therefore empowerment.
  • Training programs for arts educators that embrace changing modes of learning, new technology, and other tools that teachers and students need to succeed in the twenty-first century.
  • Seminars, workshops, and breakout sessions that always remember to add students to the butcher block paper checklist of stakeholders.
  • Arts space architects and builders that understand the need for facilities to be safe, and simultaneously messy and orderly enough for creativity to thrive.
  • Initiatives like the P21 Arts Framework that suggest the learning of skills beyond the arts discipline while supporting the core content of the domain itself.
  • Thoughtful advocates who recognize there is no single strategy to “make the case” for an arts program before school boards, legislators, administrators, or parents.
  • Collaborating arts educators who work to integrate the arts with other core subject areas in order to deepen their own and students’ understanding of the world we live in.

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Kim Dabbs

Collaboration as the Rule, Not the Exception

Posted by Kim Dabbs, Sep 17, 2010


Kim Dabbs

Kim Dabbs

I joined our organization, Michigan Youth Arts four years ago.  When I stepped through the door, our organization was known best for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival, a comprehensive arts spectacular, culminating a nine-month search for the finest artistic talent in Michigan high schools. More than 250,000 students across the state are involved in the adjudication process that results in nearly 1,000 being invited to participate in the annual three-day event, held in May. It is here that these exceptional students in the arts gather together to explore, celebrate, and showcase their talent in multiple disciplines.  

This organization was built on collaboration. 

The 15 statewide arts education organizations consistently work together to provide this opportunity for students in Michigan for nearly 50 years now. When I would be asked if our organization collaborated, I could confidently answer, “YES!”

But was that enough? Was having collaboration be the rule in our organization enough for us to be highly effective and efficient and serve our constituents throughout the state?

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Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders

A Day in the Life of an Arts Advocate

Posted by Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders, Sep 17, 2010


Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders

Victoria Plettner-Saunders

I recently wrote a post for the California Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE) blog about What I Did on My Summer Vacation. My thesis there and here is that arts education advocacy doesn’t take a holiday just because the students do.

On a warm summer afternoon in July, I received an email from CAAE Policy Director Joe Landon about State Assembly Bill 2446 going from the Education Committee to the Senate Appropriations Committee. In a nutshell, if enacted, AB2446 would undermine access to arts education courses by allowing students to substitute Career Technical Education (CTEC) courses for current requirements in visual and performing arts or foreign language.

Up to this point, the CAAE had worked diligently to help policymakers understand that although trying to boost graduation rates by making it easier for students to meet the requirements with CTEC credits makes sense, using it as a replacement for arts education is not the answer. All the letter writing and testimony couldn’t make them change their minds and it was headed Appropriations.

Back to the early afternoon email from Joe.

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Mark Slavkin

Cultivating School District Leadership

Posted by Mark Slavkin, Sep 16, 2010


Mark Slavkin

Mark Slavkin

Arts for All: the Los Angeles County Regional Blueprint for Arts Education is working to strengthen arts education in the 81 school districts in our county. These districts enroll 1.7 million K-12 students - more than many states. The effort is "housed" at the County Arts Commission, with essential leadership from the County Office of Education and other key stakeholders.  None of this would be possible without the remarkable support of our Board of Supervisors.

As part of this effort, I was pleased to work with a retired superintendent, Ira Toibin, to produce a "Leadership Fellows" program for the superintendent, assistant superintendent for instruction, and arts coordinator from five of the participating school districts. We met over the course of a school year as a whole group, in job-alike sessions, and in site visits to each district. This work was made possible in part through a generous grant from the Wallace Foundation.

I want to share some of the lessons learned to help inform future advocacy at the school district level, as opposed to the school site or classroom.

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R. Barry Shauck

Advocating for the Fundamental Right of Arts Education

Posted by R. Barry Shauck, Sep 16, 2010


R. Barry Shauck

Barry Shauck

Having a rigorous, stable, strong, sequential education in the arts just might be nationally valued as a fundamental right of all students in our democratic society if we move our advocacy efforts from addressing the broad value of programs, to telling stories about the developmental benefits for students who are engaged in learning languages of expression that are grounded in aural notation, movement, re-presentation, and the visual arts.

One of the factors that impacts our public dialogue about the role of the arts in American public schooling is deciding what is to be provided as a given public right and what is to be set aside as a private option. We enjoy the freedom of local jurisdiction, and we suffer the inconsistencies of arts programs delivery across the country, in part, as a result.

One method for linking the arts in America to public purposes for improvement of our democracy might be to ground studio teaching approaches for aesthetic and arts education to the development and life of the student. The visual arts contribute to the public democratic purpose of prosperity (Wyszomirski, 2000) far beyond the perceived contributions of work cast as the contributions of non-profit industries. Everyday, in America's schools, the best arts teachers practice a child-centered philosophy of self-discovery that educates for a vision of tomorrow and seeks to develop a consciousness of aesthetic form. Theirs is a philosophy that uses self-knowledge as the basis for building human relationships through art.

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Ms. Heather Noonan

Taking Credit for Measuring Up

Posted by Ms. Heather Noonan, Sep 16, 2010


Ms. Heather Noonan

Heather Noonan

CD-ROMs are hardly considered cutting edge technology today, but back in 1998 they were still something of a novelty.  So it was considered pretty big news when the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts (NAEP) was released that year by the U.S. Department of Education in hard-bound format, online, and on disc.  This breakthrough was necessitated by the advanced nature of the assessment itself, which went beyond fill-in-the-bubble measurements to include performance-based assessment of student knowledge and skills in the arts.  In addition to thumbing through pages of data analysis for the 1998 arts NAEP, readers could also view sample student work. 

As arts education advocates, we should reach back to this moment in time more than a decade ago and remind ourselves and policy leaders how much the arts have to offer in the current education reform discussions regarding assessment of student learning.  The 1997 NAEP was not just the most comprehensive assessment in the arts (far more robust that the 2008 assessment that followed) - the performance-based measures and reporting set a new standard for national assessments of other core academic subjects to follow.

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Sarah Collins

Not Your Average Lit Review, Part 2

Posted by Sarah Collins, Sep 16, 2010


Sarah Collins

Sarah Collins

In my previous post, I cited the dog-eared pages of my composition notebooks as the source of inspiration for my list of essential readings for 2010.

Each comp book is a creative space to pose tough questions and big dreams for my development as an arts education action agent.

And so I just came across a page from a late night brainstorm in February: ideas for the blog I never got around to writing. The ideas were actually just titles for prospective posts such as “The Art of Multivariate Regression Analysis,” “The Rebel Teacher as an American Folk Hero,” and my personal favorite “Jane Remer is Trying to Break My Heart.” While I don’t quite remember what Jane Remer had done to cause such heartache, the post-that-never-was provides a convenient (if not humorous) transition to my first entry in the second installment of my essential arts education reading list for 2010. 

From Lessons Learned to Local Action: Building Your Own Policies for Effective Arts Education, by Jane Remer. In the January 2010 issue of Arts Education Policy Review, Jane Remer unwraps over 40 years of experience to take a fresh look at the possible futures for arts education policy. While acknowledging the increasing federal and state role in our education system, Remer’s focus is on invention and implementation that are spurred by grassroots leadership. Based on lessons learned about effective arts education programs, we find an intellectual framework and action agenda for developing local policy at the classroom, school, or district level. While the article generated a number of questions for me, my reflections aren’t half as provocative as the questions Remer poses to her audience. Definitely an essential read.

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Tim Mikulski

The Power of the Music (from Arts Watch)

Posted by Tim Mikulski, Sep 15, 2010


Tim Mikulski

Tim Mikulski

As I began writing this blog post, which is serving as both the regular weekly “Arts Canvas” piece for Arts Watch and as one of 29 blog entries that will make up our Arts in Education Week Blog Salon on ARTSBlog, I have my office door closed and my portable iPod speaker is quietly playing the music of an independent singer/songwriter who happens to be from my hometown in Southern New Jersey. It’s one of those days when I need help focusing and Matt Duke’s music is helping.

And that got me thinking about the influence that music has had on my life over the past 30 years. It just so happens that I just moved out of my twenties over the past weekend and I’m in a reflective mood.

If you don’t mind the indulgence, I’d like to leave the serious arts education policy discussions up to the very capable (and excellent) other arts education bloggers for the week and explore those thoughts.

Now… back to my original point.

All I have to do is hear the first few notes or words of a song on my iPod, on the radio, or even as part of the soundtrack of a movie, and I can be instantly transported back to a certain day or short period of time in my life. I’m sure it is the same for most of you.

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R. Barry Shauck

Assessing a Teacher's Value?

Posted by R. Barry Shauck, Sep 15, 2010


R. Barry Shauck

Barry Shauck

On September 6, 2010, The New York Times published an article by the same name as this posting.  It discussed the ‘value-added’ approach to assessing teacher performance that is gaining a foothold in American education. This approach is based upon what students have learned in a certain period measured by what they were expected to learn in light of the speed of their past progress. Teacher evaluation at its best does more than ascribe to following a plan whether that plan is yearly, unit, or lesson. Teacher evaluation at its best recognizes and rewards surprises, deviations from plans in teaching and learning; rather than regarding surprise as a performance advantage. Such measurement and regard reduces students to commodities calculated in economic metrics on a quarterly basis.

Quality in education depends on what teachers can personalize - not on standardized performance. Leadership itself depends upon establishing fundamental relationships so that the best that teachers have to teach can be handed along to their students. If connoisseurship is used to draw a larger picture of a teacher’s qualities, the stories that a teacher has to tell to students, and the value that is added to the experience students take away from learning can be described in an artful and lasting way. There are no metrics or modular responses that are appropriate when connoisseurship is used to appraise teacher quality. Descriptive substitutes, plug-ins, or narratives describing the particular qualities of teaching cannot be interchanged from one modular phrase to another. The narrative of connoisseurship depends upon one’s abilities to discern particulars to school environments, situations, students, and teachers.

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Sarah Collins

Not Your Average Lit Review, Part 1

Posted by Sarah Collins, Sep 15, 2010


Sarah Collins

Sarah Collins

When I was first asked to participate in the Arts Education Blog Salon, I did what any good graduate student would do. I did a little background research. From the cinderblock depths of my basement office at the University of Oregon, I poured over posts from previous salons to get a better idea of what I was getting myself into. I was humbled before the collection of knowledge and experience shared here by some of the leading voices in the field of arts education. I was left wondering what I - knee deep in lit reviews and composition notebooks - could possibly contribute to the conversation.

Yet flipping through my comp books, I find reactions to journal articles, notes from conference sessions, URLs, call numbers, quotes, big ideas, and bigger questions. So that is where I begin, with an earnest curiosity, a student of arts and education policy. Reflecting on the dog-eared pages of the past year, recalling what has had the greatest impact on my understanding of this field, I present my essential arts education reading list for 2010: Part 1.

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Laura Reeder

Once More, From the Top

Posted by Laura Reeder, Sep 16, 2010


Laura Reeder

Laura Reeder

I have been reading and re-reading So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools by Chicago-based education reformer Charles Payne. In this book, he describes with kindness and clarity the cycle of good intentions that come into schools through professional development, curriculum design, and school improvement measures. Arts education advocates cannot possibly read this book without seeing our own efforts as part of what he describes as the “predictable failures of implementation” (p.153).

The heartfelt desire that we all have to improve education through the arts may shift when we pay closer attention to the struggles of literacy education, science education, technology education, etc. These topic groups have also formed advocacy and grassroots measures and campaigns to change the way we do school. Perhaps we should remember the words of Maxine Greene (2001) who said, “We are interested in education here, not in schooling.”

Are we advocating for school reform with our arts education campaigns or for education change?

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Ms. Rachel Evans

True Confessions Lead to New Resolutions: Technology & Pedagogy in Arts Education

Posted by Ms. Rachel Evans, Sep 16, 2010


Ms. Rachel Evans

Rachel Evans

When the pre-service theater teachers I advise do their final semester of student teaching, Kean University’s College of Education requires them to be observed leading one lesson that uses technology.  In the past, I have been known to say something like, “You don’t need to use real technology to fulfill this requirement. I’ll accept the stuff of theater as our technology.  That’s more important.”  I found myself encouraging the use of technical theater tools and theater design materials as acceptable substitutes for what the requirement was intended to encourage.

My philosophy, however, has forever shifted.  After participating in a self-designed summer of technology-based professional development, I’ve come to see how very wrong I was for justifying my own bias and shortcomings.  I see that this requirement is not only one of the most relevant student teaching mandates, but that blending technology and pedagogy should be guiding instructional design for more than one out of 75 days in the pre-service teacher’s classroom.

In my mind, the fact that my students were teaching theater was a legitimate “out”—that somehow the arts were exempt, immune to the craze of incorporating technology into lesson plans.  I realize how short sighted my justification was.

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Zack Hayhurst

Looking through the Glimmerglass - An Oasis for Young Artist Education

Posted by Zack Hayhurst, Sep 15, 2010


Zack Hayhurst

Zack Hayhurst

I recently returned from an extended stay in Cooperstown, New York. No, I wasn't there for the Baseball Hall of Fame, or the charming Amish handicrafts. Rather, I was there from mid-May through the end of August on an arts administration internship with the Glimmerglass Festival. Specifically, I worked with the Young American Artists Program (YAAP), and its phenomenal director, Michael Heaston.

When one thinks of upstate New York, first class opera typically isn't the first thing that comes to mind. Rolling hills, yes. Charming valleys and cool springs, sure. To some, it is the ideal reprieve from city life and a chance to reconnect with Mother Nature. For burgeoning young opera singers, interestingly enough, it is also an ideal opportunity for them to get away to a place where they can focus and refine their craft, and take their careers to the "next level. Glimmerglass Festival provides this environment.

I learned of the creation of National Arts in Education Week in the midst of working on the details of a master class to be facilitated by composers John Corigliano and Mark Adamo.  It immediately occurred to me that arts education typically has a certain connotation - that of art taught in K-12 classrooms and/or through the educational outreach programs of arts organizations. Seldom do we think of arts education in terms of furthering an artists' artistic and professional growth. Glimmerglass Opera's young artist program does exactly that.

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John Abodeely

Defining a Good Arts Education

Posted by John Abodeely, Sep 15, 2010


John Abodeely

John Abodeely

The KC’s got a couple great opportunities coming up to bring some national attention to your local community. We host two national competitions: One for schools and one for districts.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schools of Distinction in Arts Education awards highlight five schools annually that have developed exemplary arts education programs. Though we recognize the importance of federal, state, and local policy makers in providing arts education, this award recognizes of the role individual school leaders, educators, and communities play in providing a creative learning environment for outstanding student achievement. The award garners media attention for the winning school and for the nominating member of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network, and it comes with a $2,000 unrestricted cash award.

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Laura Reeder

Academic Advocacy

Posted by Laura Reeder, Sep 15, 2010


Laura Reeder

Laura Reeder

I have recently stepped from arts education advocacy into arts education academia after twenty years as a teaching artist and arts administrator. The advocacy work continues, but, I have been able to view it with a new perspective. The thing that has remained unchanged in this short step is my understanding about the role of the teaching artist in contemporary education.

In arts education advocacy, the compelling stories that we bring to policy makers almost always include an artist-educator (as one human being) or an artist-educator partnership. The teaching artist appears in our tales as a full-time educator in a school, as a visitor who sparks a new energy in the classroom, or as a community mentor who engages learners outside of the school setting. The teaching artist also appears in the halls of the legislature each year when we are lobbying for policy change.

In arts education academia, with the focus on individual students who will go out and become the great teachers and artists of the future, we recruit newcomers and increase endowments with glossy images and passionate speakers who each embody the seriousness of education with the rebel promise of creativity. The teaching artist also joins the campaigns for new programs and new funding when it is time to make institutional changes.

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Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders

Cultural Participation is NOT Arts Education

Posted by Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders, Sep 14, 2010


Victoria J. Plettner-Saunders

Victoria Saunders

I sat in an Americans for the Arts conference session in Baltimore this year and listened to a panelist state, “we don’t need to save arts education when eight-year-olds are making their own videos.” To that I say “cultural participation is NOT arts education.”

Just because a student is able to use computer software doesn’t mean he or she knows how to create a storyline, understand lighting and visual effects, include music that helps convey their story, etc. It’s like saying that I didn’t need arts education at that age because I could create cool pictures with my Lite-Brite!

I know this might sound smart-alecky, but it really is a concern of mine.

Young people these days have access to so many modes of creative production via computers as well as traditional tools. Parents are so proud of “Junior” because he can use the software.

But do they understand what an education in the arts really means?

Here in California our Visual and Performing Arts Content Standards include things like Artistic Perception; Historical and Cultural Context; and Aesthetic Valuing among others. If “Junior” was able to have standards-based arts education as part of his core learning, these things would be included in his lessons. By applying what he learns in class to the creation of his videos, his work would “pop” as they say.

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Donna Collins

A "High Quality" Reality Check

Posted by Donna Collins, Sep 14, 2010


Donna Collins

Donna Collins

I am the Executive Director of the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education (OAAE), a statewide arts education service provider that was founded in 1974.  We’re a part of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network – a cadre of statewide organizations supporting arts education.

During the 2009-2010 school year OAAE delivered a program titled Arts Education: HQPD (High Quality Professional Development) to hundreds of arts educators, administrators, teaching artists, and cultural organization education managers. I must add that the program was supported with funding from The John F. Kennedy Center and Ohio Arts Council.

The program’s day-long sessions, or multi-sessions over a few days, included professional learning opportunities on the topics of academic content standards, assessment, and curriculum integration.

We had overwhelming support by school administrators who urged their staffers to attend these opportunities for High Quality Professional Development. We were thrilled and there will be a repeat performance during the 2010-2011 school year with the aim of serving as many educators as possible.

Today, I was surprised by a phone call from an elementary school principal who called to ask if the Curriculum Integration workshop we are providing for her district’s in-service day in October would be like the other workshops we provide as part of HQPD.

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Kim Dabbs

Lessons from Tinkertown

Posted by Kim Dabbs, Sep 13, 2010


Kim Dabbs

Kim Dabbs

This past summer, my husband and I packed up our car and started a cross country road trip that spanned two months and over seven thousand miles. With two toddlers and a teenager in tow, our “Dabbs Trek” as we coined it in our blog, was a journey that travelled from our home in Metro Detroit to Chicago, where we picked up Route 66 and drove clear across the country until we stepped foot on the Santa Monica beaches. We traversed up the Pacific Coast Highway to Seattle and then turned east over the mountains, through the Great Plains, and back home again.  What an adventure it was!

Many people ask us what the highlight of our trip was, where was our favorite city, and questions of that nature and I always come back to this stop we made just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, called the Tinkertown Museum. This roadside attraction was full of wonder and enough to delight my husband and I, our 14-year-old son, AND our 3-year-old and 2-year-old (as we went farther in our journey, we realized that doesn’t happen very often).

Tinkertown was built by Ross Ward, who over the span of 40 years collected, built, and created this space in and around his home. The maze of animated miniature vignettes and glass bottle walls overwhelm the senses while collections of oddities from wedding cake couples to a 35-foot boat that sailed around the world made all of us laugh out loud.
Then, we hit the sign on the wall, hidden between memorabilia that said, “I did all this while you were watching TV.

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Mark Slavkin

Imperatives for Arts Education

Posted by Mark Slavkin, Sep 13, 2010


Mark Slavkin

Mark Slavkin

If you care about arts education, you must be in the advocacy business.

Until such time as the arts are fully embedded in every American school system, we have to be energetic in making the case.  We cannot leave this work to a handful of "advocacy organizations."

In recent years I have been pleased to see our field become more sophisticated in this regard.  More arts education supporters understand we need both "top-down" and "bottom-up" support. Through federal, state, and school district policy and funding commitments we can influence change at a large-scale or systemic basis.

At the same time, we realize the need to provide hands-on support and resources and the classroom and school site level. As we toggle back and forth between broad policy support and technical assistance in schools, we need to be careful that we frame the right arguments for the right settings.

In thinking about our advocacy strategies, it struck me that our underlying goal is to create an imperative for policymakers and educators to expand their commitment to arts education. How can we create forces that are so compelling that change will happen on a consistent basis, and not be left to individual personal preferences? I see three primary imperatives: the "values" imperative, the "political" imperative, and the "instructional" imperative.  I am concerned we have put too many eggs in the first two baskets, and too few in the third.

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Mr. Allen D. Bell

Arts Education Research – Some Recent Reports

Posted by Mr. Allen D. Bell, Sep 13, 2010


Mr. Allen D. Bell

Allen Bell

In the 2006 Arts Education Partnership Research and Policy Brief, “From Anecdote to Evidence,” authors Sandra Ruppert and Andrew Nelson called for “better and more comprehensive state level information if the arts are to remain an integral component of what constitutes a well-rounded education for all students.”

At the time, the policy brief referenced studies in Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington.

There are a couple of more recent examples of arts education research that continue to point the way in which we might fill the knowledge gap on the state level.

One recent study is the 2009-2010 Statewide Arts Education Assessment conducted by the Western States Arts Federation. Released in May 2010, the report provides an inventory and assessment of arts education available in the public schools for Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. Some of their major findings include:

-          the arts are not treated as a core subject in more than half the districts in three of the four states surveyed
-          student-to-teacher ratios are very high in the arts
-          of the four participating states, only Utah had significant offerings in dance
-          obtaining a visual arts specialist would be a valuable addition to most schools
-          a greater percentage of art teachers attended district workshops for professional development
-          money, priorities, and time are the major obstacles to the advancement of the arts

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Joan Weber

Testify for Arts Education

Posted by Joan Weber, Sep 14, 2010


Joan Weber

Joan Weber

The answer given to most people who want to help increase arts education in our community’s public schools is, “Write to your elected representatives.”

Yes, it’s a good idea. It increases the buzz that the official’s constituents think arts education is an important thing, but I don’t think it accomplishes much. I don’t mean to be cynical, but realistically, think of the path that letter takes. The elected official probably never sees the letter. A staffer reads it and the subject matter is noted in a database with the topics of all the other letters that the elected official receives.

The second popular answer is, “Donate to organizations that advocate for arts education.” In other words, hire your own lobbyist through donations. A lobbyist knows the internal processes of the lobbied officials.

Nonprofits have a political calculation to make. When an organization wants to partner with a school system, they need to work as partners. In this case, “partnership” is a euphemism for a vendor relationship. Nonprofits receive funding from the school system to implement arts programming. It is difficult, as a partner organization, to criticize the system that’s paying your salaries.

That said, donating to arts education organizations is a fantastic investment. Their access to policy makers and schools makes big things happen.

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Lynn Tuttle

National Arts Standards 2.0

Posted by Lynn Tuttle, Sep 13, 2010


Lynn Tuttle

Lynn Tuttle

*Editor’s Note: Updated information can be found in this post.

In response to the interest around the Common Core State Standards initiative, and to the technological changes the arts and arts education have undergone in the last 15 years (I wasn’t blogging 15 years ago, were you?), the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) convened a meeting of national arts education stakeholders on May 11-12 to determine if the time is right to develop a new set of national arts education standards. The resounding answer was “YES!”

One of the first steps in the process is to find out how you – arts educator, teaching artist, cultural organization, school administrator – use the current version of national arts standards in your teaching, curriculum, and programs.

SEADAE, in collaboration with the National Dance Education Organization, the Educational Theatre Association, the National Association for Art Education and MENC: the National Association for Music Education, is creating an online survey to obtain your input, ideas and suggestions.

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Zack Hayhurst

Choral Arts Society of Washington – A Commitment to Arts Education

Posted by Zack Hayhurst, Sep 14, 2010


Zack Hayhurst

Zack Hayhurst

To commemorate the inaugural National Arts in Education week, I am dedicating this first post to Norman Scribner and Choral Arts Society of Washington. My experience interning with his organization exhibits why institutional and community support of arts education is so vital, no matter where one is in their academic journey.

I was saddened to learn the other day that Norman Scribner will be stepping down in 2012 as Artistic Director of Choral Arts Society. After founding the organization 45 years ago, Norman has led it through many a financial crisis and cultural change, present circumstances included. After sitting at the helm for so long, he has no doubt affected countless individuals in a positive way. I am thankful to be one of those lucky people.

After beginning my Master's degree in Arts Management at American University this past fall, Choral Arts Society was my first internship where I worked as a development apprentice. As far as I'm concerned, it was not only my first internship in D.C., but also my introduction to arts management.

Both Norman and Executive Director Debra Kraft realize the importance of arts education, both professionally and elementally. Supporting arts education in words is one thing, putting money behind it is another.  

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John Abodeely

Where do you fall in the education debate?

Posted by John Abodeely, Sep 14, 2010


John Abodeely

John Abodeely

For arts education programs and advocates to be successful, we must design our strategy and programs to fit within the larger context of public education. If our provision tactics—such as teaching artist residencies—do not fit within the limiting elements of our schools—such as budgets and schedules—then our work must change. If student requirements levied by the federal, state, or local policy narrow the curriculum too harshly to allow our kids to learn in and through the arts, then our work must change.

For example, arts integration has been used as more than as an instructional strategy. It has been an advocacy strategy. Providers have used arts integration to fit within scheduling limitations of schools. This is a response to the existing context of education.

Other programs now work with decision-makers that have more influence over the policy and funding conditions that may narrow the curriculum. Outreach to decision-making adults such as school boards and legislators seems to have become a part of many local programs, though years ago only national and state-level organizations did it. This is an effort to change the context of education.

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Tim Mikulski

New School Year, New Blog Salon

Posted by Tim Mikulski, Sep 13, 2010


Tim Mikulski

Tim Mikulski

The teachers and kids are back in school. Starbucks is selling Pumpkin Spice Lattes. The air in D.C. has cooled off for the first time since March.

Of course it’s time for another Arts Education Blog Salon.
Now in its third round, Americans for the Arts is proud to host yet another week of blogs dedicated to the topic of arts education.

This time, we have a wide range of participants – from newbies who haven’t blogged before to veterans who have been with us since the first one. Altogether, we have 17 brilliant minds ready to share information and spark debate.

Our Scheduled Blog Roster:

John Abodeely, National  Partnerships Program Manager, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Allen Bell, Arts Education Research & Information Program Director, South Arts
Donna Collins, Executive Director, Ohio Alliance for Arts Education
Sarah Collins, Master’s Degree Candidate, University of Oregon
Kim Dabbs, Executive Director, Michigan Youth Arts
Rachel Evans, Assistant Professor, Kean University
Mimi Flaherty Willis, Senior Director of Education, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
Zack Hayhurst, Master’s Degree Candidate, American University
Tim Mikulski, Arts Education Program Manager, Americans for the Arts
Heather Noonan, Vice President for Advocacy, League of American Orchestras
Jim Palmarini, Director of Educational Policy, Educational Theatre Association
Laura Reeder, Arts Education Instructor/Graduate Assistant, Syracuse University
Victoria Saunders, Arts Education Consultant, Victoria J. Saunders Consulting
Barry Shauck, President, National Art Education Association
Mark Slavkin, Vice President for Education, Music Center (Los Angeles County)
Lynn Tuttle, Director of Arts Education & Comprehensive Curriculum, Arizona Dept. of Education
Joan Weber, Educator/Arts Education Consultant, Creativity & Associates

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