John Abodeely
Texas Hangs onto Arts Education
Posted by Jun 05, 2009 1 comment
John Abodeely
San Diego isn't the only place that's celebrating the survival of arts education this week. Texas is happy too.
GoArts.com reports that Texas has retained its one-year fine arts graduation requirement and added a one-year requirement for middle school graduation. The same legislation increases the number of high school electives to six, allowing for more in-depth course of study in fine arts.
As part of the retention, the bill creates the allowance that the fine arts credit be met with arts study during or out of school. This provision is sometimes thought as diluting quality education, since off-campus programs might not adhere to standards or other public education quality control measures. The bill is also creating a fine arts "distinction" for high schools. The distinction is an accolade that the state may confer upon particular high schools for their success in, in this case, fine arts education. Arts teachers and arts administrators have been asked to create the criteria by which high schools will be judged.
Well done, Texas!
Comments
Oh, MyMY! Mucho talent buried there in me homeland. Congrats on giving it a chance to blossom!
Capt. Gynx