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Six Practical Reasons Why Arts Education is Not a Mere Luxury, from Dan Willingham, Cognitive Scientist
There’s a terrific interview in The Washington Post with Dan Willingham, the cognitive scientist and author, where he offers his take on the importance of arts education. This is good one, one you can trust, coming from a guy who has been a vocal critic of the 21st Century Skills movement (P21), has questioned Howard…
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A Thousand Little Cuts: “The civil right is to an excellent education,” she said. “It’s not about having an art room.”
People say to me, what’s the problem? Is anyone really against the arts in schools? My typical response is that it’s not often one single event, it’s more about the waves that wash it off the beach. Those waves have been the back-to-basics movement, NCLB, budget cuts, accountability, principal empowerment, site-based management, and so much…
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A Successful DC Arts-Centered Middle School to Get “Reformed”
The precise term is “turned,” a diminutive of “turnaround,” I presume. Turnaround being the latest and greatest craze in school reform. I believe the term is used in the espionage business as well. As in she “turned rogue.” So, in short order: A middle school in the well-to-do Georgetown section of DC fails to attract…
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Final USDOE Race to the Top Guidelines Released: Arts Education an Outlier
I will try hard to be positive and productive with this blog. I promise. Okay, the long awaited Race to the Top final guidelines have been released. At the bottom of this entry I will provide a set of the links to the Executive Summary, full guidelines, press release, etc. First, let’s address the question:…
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A Vital Partner: The United Federation of Teachers
It’s not the smoothest time for teacher unions these days. They’re a a pretty easy target when people wring their hands about the state of K-12 public education. But, hey, what would their critics do without them. Who would they have to criticize and blame? (The answer is: teacher colleges and school boards, in case…
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You Cannot Make this Stuff Up: NYC Department of Ed And Its Hypnotherapist
Presumably, this blog will be subject to some criticism by the Association of Hypnotherapists. In today’s New York Daily News, there is an article about the New York City Department of Education dropping almost $375,000 on the services of a “new age hypnotherapist.” Apparently, this consultant was brought on board to “boost productivity and morale…
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The Things I Hear About Arts Education
Here are a few tidbits I have come across recently and not so recently; most in person and a few in writing: You arts people think that all principals have to do all day is think about arts education.School District Official Do you really, in your heart of hearts, believe that any other subject other…
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Ted Wiprud, NY Philharmonic Arts Education Advanceman Blog #6: Abu Dhabi and Reflections from Home
To read the previous installments of Ted’s arts education travelogue click here for the first entry; here for the second; here for the third; here for the fourth; and here for the fifth. I want to thank my friend Ted for these thoughtful, rich, and fascinating posts. I am grateful that he chose Dewey21C as…
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Arts Education and the Race for Mayor of New York City
Where do the key candidates for Mayor of New York City stand on arts education??? Just as we did for the Public Advocate race, The Center for Arts Education is circulating the arts education questionnaires completed by the Republican candidate for Mayor, Michael Bloomberg and the Democratic candidate for Mayor, William Thompson. Mayoral Candidates Debate…
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A New Twist on Arts Education and Test Scores
The organization I work for is fortunate, very fortunate indeed to have a grant from the USDOE as part of its Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) program. It is near impossible to be awarded one of these highly competitive grants unless you have a quasi-experimental research design as part of the overall project…