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“Good Schools Have the Arts” — What We Want For All of Our Kids
…we seek leadership that understands fully that subjects like the arts are overwhelmed by an accountability system build on test scores in reading and math, and that in order to buoy the arts, tools such as categorical funding are a necessity. Here’s a guest editorial that I did for Education Update, a really terrific local…
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Read All About It: President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities Releases Arts Ed Report
That’s right, just released this Friday afternoon May 6th, is Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools. I love that title, and can only wish their words to Arne Duncan, all the chief state school officers, all the school superintendents, and all the school principal’s ears… I am a big fan of…
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Outgoing NY State Education Commissioner: What’s Really Wrong with Education
Directly from the New York State United Teachers Conference, is a somewhat startling video, for its honesty, caring, and content devoid of caustic political rhetoric. “…committed to deepening and broadening the educational options for children, and stopping this class system of subjects, which is only ours, and no where else I know of.” And of…
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Federal USDOE Arts Education Funding Cut, but Not Eliminated
There are many people across the country who have been waiting on tenterhooks to find out whether or not arts education funding at the United States Department of Education would be zeroed out. It includes funding for the Kennedy Center, VSA Arts, and the competitive grant programs: Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination and Professional…
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Worth The Time: A 1999 Conversation with Maxine Greene
From the December edition of NewMusicBox.org, comes “An Arts Education Symposium,” with the great Maxine Greene, Hollis Headrick, Polly Kahn, Frank Oteri, and me. For those who don’t know Polly, she’s the former education director at The New York Philharmonic, the 92nd Street Y, and other organizations. Today, she is the vice president for learning…
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A Interesting Conference Session on Arts Education and Equity
For anyone attending WNET’s The Celebration of Teaching and Learning, tomorrow through Saturday, at The New York Hilton, I hope you will consider stopping by. I mean, how often do you get a rising star principal, a teachers union leader, and a member of the governing board for state education policy in one room together…
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A Voice of Reason Around Federal Funding
There is a great deal of concern in the arts and education field, focusing for the moment the devastating cuts to arts education programs at the United States Department of Education. In the recent continuing resolution, arts education programs, as well as a host of other eduction programs were zeroed out. There’s still a chance…
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Education Secretary Duncan Urges School Leaders to Go Easy on Arts Ed Cuts
Last week Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter and three policy letters to the Governors: Key Policy Letters to The Governors, March 3, 2011 What you will find most interesting comes from the document Smart Ideas to Increase Educational Productivity and Student Achievement: First, Do No Harm Changes or cuts to education budgets,…
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More Scorched Earth Education Policy: San Diego To Cut All Elementary Arts Teachers
It’s pretty amazing, that a relatively strong district like San Diego Unified School District would make such plans: If trustees sign off on the budget proposal, it will mean the end of all elementary music education except for the program at Crown Pointe Junior Music Academy, which does not rely on visual and performing arts…
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Rabkin and Hedberg Report on 25 Year Decline in Access to K-12 Arts Education
Last week the National Endowment for the Arts released three new commissioned reports, including Arts Education in America: What The Declines Mean for Arts Participation, by Nick Rabkin and E.C. Hedberg. There’s a very good write-up on the report in Education Week, click here to read Arts Education Sees Declines, Especially for Minorities, Report Suggests,…