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The American Teacher Magazine Cover Story on Arts Education
The American Teacher is the bi-monthly magazine published by the American Federation of Teachers. The February edition has a cover story on arts education in the United States. And it’s quite a swell cover! Click here to read it. For some reason, there is this underlying element in the arts that makes you feel you…
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The True Nature of Mayoral Control Strikes Hard for 19 School Communities
Sometimes people lose track of what mayoral control means, particularly the pure form that we have in New York City. In New York City, it means that the mayor controls the schools and can do whatever he wants, for he appoints the majority of the the local school board (the Panel for Educational Policy) and…
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This Moment for the Arts Sector: Will the Economy Force Significant Change?
I first started wondering about the viability and rationality of the non-profit field when I ran the American Music Center. (Actually, I started thinking about it when I was at Juilliard, and began to realize just how many trombonists were being graduated from music schools across the United States, into a distinctly smaller job market…
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The USDOE Consults with the Arts Education Field on NCLB
Okay, we’re not using the name NCLB anymore, and you might think this is a bait and switch, but if I used its formal name, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), you might not know what this blog is all about. A couple of weeks ago I blogged about an invitation that was extended…
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Reflections on the Possible Closing of My High School: Beach Channel High School
It makes for a really great chest-beating sound-bite: “we just closed another low performing school!” It’s all the rage in New York City, at the USDOE, and at many other urban school districts: School Turnaround. And, although the term denotes a number of possible strategies, it almost always connotes the closing of a school. And,…
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The Sweet Spot for Schools and Cultural Organzations
I once had a colleague complain to me about the disparities in quality among those organizations providing services to schools. Some programs were great; others were terrible. Some artists where thoughtfully developed and supported to work in schools; others were simply booked into the gig. Some organizations spent a great deal of time on reflective…
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Oh NCLB, Where Art Thou?
On January 20th, the USDOE is hosting an information session for arts education constituents concerning the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), otherwise known during the Bush administration as No Child Left Behind. In regards to the arts, I know no one who holds the view that NCLB was anything but bad…
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The Integration of the Arts: Composer/Performers Reach Back to the Silent Film Era
There are a few composer performers who are have associated themselves with silent film greats and other great iconic comedians. The first grouping I want to point out is Bill Frisell and Buster Keaton. Then there’s Don Byron and Ernie Kovacs. And, there’s Dave Douglas and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. There are others, most notably composers…
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Fight On: Proposed Elimination of LAUSD’s Elementary Arts Education Program
The Los Angeles Unified School District is proposing to eliminate funding for its elementary grades arts education program by the end of 2011. Here’s the budget document from LAUSD. Here’s the online petition against the cuts. Here’s the action center of Arts for LA. According to the online petition, LAUSD is the only large urban…
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The Times They Are A-Changin’: National Funding for Arts Education
Those who have been around the block a few times will probably see this as just another instance of the vicissitudes of funding. We’ve seen any number of large scale funding initiatives come and go; any number of major funders for arts education come and go. Once upon a time there was the JDR 3rd…