So...what will it take for every child to experience arts learning?

Response to Bob Morrison's comment: "The formula is simple: Data informs advocacy, advocacy informs public policy, public policy creates change. The execution of the formula is a key to increased access to and participation in the arts in our schools. "
While I agree that access and equity are powerful ideas, I find your statement ingenuous; it is teacher and principal and educator proof and thus bound to failure. Most of the above addresses forces outside and beyond schools. And what makes you all think that public policy about or for the arts has made an iota of difference over the last 50 years? The challenge, I believe is to accept, respect and engage the school community in this kind of discussion and thinking; data analysis and policy wonking will not create lasting change that the people in the schools will recognize, acknowledge or implement. That is the very reason that every old and recent attempt at school reform has failed. It ignores the very actors on whom sucess depends.

I think that Bob is on to something: "Most people understand the issue of basic fairness. Articulating it in a way that connects to their specific schools provides a pathway for parents to engage."

We've been spending a great deal of time in building parent and advocacy coalitions. We are finding that this way of articulating the arts education issue has tremendous traction, particuly with parents of children in underserved schools. When you inform them of the minimum state requirements, seat time requirements, that their children are not getting, there is a powerful and palpable response. Much greater than we get when making the case based on what the arts do for a child. The parents seem to get that already.

Good Question!

As my friend Scott Shuler likes to say "what are the killer data points" needed to move policy makers? I think there are some key ones.

First... the most basic is to look at who has access, to what, where and who does not. Student enrollment in arts courses (both as a raw number and as a percentage of the schools population) and by each discipline are important indicators. This clearly identifies the haves from the have nots. The type of course offerings are also important to see the breadth of offerings within a discipline. High levels of participation with broad offerings provide an indicator that can easily be compared.

Just by addressing the basic issues of access and equity (or the demography issue as Richard has pointed out) reported at the explicit school level will do more than anything to move parents, policy makers and administrators to address the issue.

Most people understand the issue of basic fairness. Articulating it in a way that connects to their specific schools provides a pathway for parents to engage.

If we can report schools test scores in the newspaper we can certainly report an arts education index. When we did it here in New Jersey it was amazing to see how engaged in the process people became... from the State Board of Education down to parents at the local schools ... because they were able to see information about their school and compare it to others. It was now their children being impacted by the data... not some abstract extrapolated finding from another part of the country.

The policy ramifications continue to this day and I am convinced, after completing similar work in Wisconsin (with significant policy announcements coming in January), that the access and equity issue is an important key (not the only one) to increased access to and participation in the arts as a part of a basic education for every child.

A little more than you asked for... but this is too important a point (which I know you understand) that I wanted to provide a deeper explanation for all the readers.

Agreed, Bob. I think that there is generally strong agreement about the importance of accurate and pertinent data to support student learning, teaching and addressing the achievement gap. However, given the need for gather all sorts of education data at the national and state levels, what do you think would be the most critical data to gather, track and analyze which could give us (policymakers, grantmakers, community leaders, educators, etc.) a excellent picture of arts education in the public school system? Or, put another way, what critical questions do we need to answer with such an information system?

All great work.

The question is how to we get the notion of data and research to be embedded in arts education? Information on courses, student participation, teachers, time, and funding should be readily available for all schools in every state. Right now it is only available in a few states where enlightened funders and the arts community have come together.

The data we need is really the responsibility of the states to collect. It is getting them to understand the value/impact of this information and then to embrace their responsibility that is a key.

I guess those of us engaged in this work will have to keep pushing until we reach this goal.

I wholeheartedly agree about the need for better data. Bob, as you're aware, we've commissioned from Stanford Research Institute (SRI) a total of six reports. The first, An Unfinished Canvas, provided the first ever statewide survey on what arts education was or wasn't being delivered in the California public schools. The remaining five studies focus on obstacles such as funding, instructional time and professional development to the delivery of arts education in CA public schools.

And of course, you may know of our efforts to support better data on the performance of students and teachers, intervention programs and education spending, in particular our funding of Oakland-based Education Trust-West which has championed for more robust state data systems for California's K-12 schools and community colleges.

I totally agree Moy.

We have taken a similar approach in New Jersey. The one element I would add to this discussion is... better data!

We really do not know in this country who has access to (let alone participates in) the arts in our schools. Yet, in the few states that have looked at this question for every school and school district, positive changes to policy and/or funding have occurred (see California, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Arkansas).

If we want to live in a nation where every child has access to an education that includes the arts then we must build a system that allows us to know who has access now (and who does not) so we can work toward universal access in the future.

The formula is simple: Data informs advocacy, advocacy informs public policy, public policy creates change.

The execution of the formula is a key to increased access to and participation in the arts in our schools.