Every month or so, I am going to highlight an organization and/or person doing terrific work in arts education. It may be in K-12, or adult education, youth development, or even branch out beyond arts education per se, to another area of education. If you don’t already know Mosaic Youth Theater of Detroit, I am…

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States and supreme allied commander, introduced the term “Military Industrial Complex,” in his 1961 farewell speech before leaving office. He had wanted to call it the “Military Industrial Congressional Complex,” but decided it was too confrontational. Ike worried that “this conjunction of an immense military establishment and…

For the past year or so I was a member of an Arts Education Task Force established by the New York City Department of Education. The Task Force looked at two particular areas: quality and data. Quality was about defining and ensuring “high quality” arts education; data was about providing feedback and advice to the…

If you care about K-12 arts education, not to mention public education, not to mention children, well then it’s impossible to get out from under NCLB. It may just be the greatest cause for education handwringing since Brown versus Board of Education in 1954. There is a terrific online discussion hosted by Newtalk, with some…

In case you missed it, The Wallace Foundation commissioned Susan J. Bodilly, et al.,  from RAND to write a report entitled “Revitalzing Arts Education Through Community-Wide Coordination.” This report was released in June. There’s lots here to chew on here and I am guessing that this won’t be my last post on this report. While…

 What a terrific piece in New York Magazine by Justin Davidson. A must read, with lots to consider around the issue of “bequeathing musical taste.” Justin sees this as a parent’s job, which is true, of course. However, for the many parents who work two jobs or who are simply not up to that particular…

I am a little bit behind in my posts, as I am on vacation this week. Actually, it’s a “stay-cation,” as I am just hanging around home, going to local beaches, etc. Testing, testing, testing. It’s practically all you hear about thanks to the school reform zeitgeist. We are hearing a lot about how effective…

There’s an article in today’s Washington Post that is a must read for a number of reasons. First, you’ve got a mayor and schools superintendent who have made a public commitment backed by dollars (really!), to place music, art, and physical education teachers in every DC public school. A study comes out saying that this…

The New York City school district is unlike any in the nation in two distinct ways: there is no real school board here (I often tell people we have a “fake school board–they laugh…), as the mayor has complete control of the schools; and the sheer number and frequency of reforms instituted by the city…