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The Nation’s Report Card for Reading and Math: Will Dismal Results Bring More of the Same (higher stakes testing)?
As Igor Stravinsky once said, good composers borrow; great composers steal. So, instead of writing my own setting of the stage, let me steal from my fine colleague and friend at Common Core, Lynne Munson: I challenge anyone to think of a nation that works as hard as we do to find silver linings in…
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Arts Education: Too Much and Not Enough
One of the things I have been thinking quite a lot about lately, besides having no power at home for the third time since July (four straight days this time), currently resulting from Saturday’s somewhat bizarre snow storm, is the quite odd dichotomy between my work in K-12 and my work today in higher education.…
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People You Should Know: Laurie Lock–Music and Arts Education Advocate
A tribute is in order, I strongly believe, because I know few people who have been such fierce, honest, and strategic advocates for music and arts education as is Laurie Lock. You see, Laurie, after 11 years of directing programs and policy at VH1 Save The Music Foundation, is stepping down to care for her…
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Looking For A Few Good Standards Authors: The New Arts Education National Standards
Help Wanted: Coalition Seeks Writers for New Arts Standards By Erik Robelen<http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/> Ever looked at a set of standards and thought to yourself: Why on Earth did they include that? Or, I can’t believe they left out XYZ! Well, enough of the Monday morning quarterbacking. A national coalition is looking for a few good men and…
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Guest Blog, Jane Remer: A Paradox, A Paradox, A Most Ingenious Paradox –The Common Core of State Standards and The Untamable Core of the American Class System
Jane Remer’s CliffNotes: September 29, 2011 “A Paradox, A Paradox, a Most Ingenious Paradox” (Pirates of Penzance/Gilbert and Sullivan), The Common Core of (Voluntary) State Standards and the Untamable Core of the American Class System. The 21st Century is young, but it’s clearly becoming a paradox. The now developing Common Core meticulously charts the paths and…
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Batuta — Columbia’s El Sistema. An Essay by Eric Booth and Tricia Tunstall
As I write, I am staring out the window on the 7:00 Acela heading to DC from New York Penn Station. I have a board meeting of Common Core, for which I am board treasurer. What was a sunny day in New York, has turned into a deep fog. The train moves through the fog…
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Breaking Through the Roadblock: An Example from Science Education Advocacy
As a follow-up to yesterday’s entry, The First Roadblock to Arts Education Policy Improvement, I offer a very interesting item, an example if you will, as to what it looks like when such roadblocks are broken through. Perhaps bypassed would be a better way to treat the metaphor, as you never know what’s on the…
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The Joe McCarthy of Art Education
Apologies first, to all those who love Joe McCarthy. He still has a big following in certain political circles. First it was an attack earlier this year on Maxine Greene and now it’s an editorial that appeared in the Wall Street Journal: The Political Assault on Art Education, both by Michelle Marder Kamhi. A brief…
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Connecticut Bolsters Graduation Requirements for the Arts
Dewey21C was pretty quiet last week. It happens, what can I say? With all the end of the fiscal year work to be put to bed, this will be my first post in over a week. But hey, it’s a good one! As part of a comprehensive education “reform” bill signed into law by Connecticut…
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Parents Are Key: Will We Ever Make Good on the Notion?
For this past year’s Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, a few people were asked to write short think pieces to accompany GIA’s arts education pre-conference. The following is the piece that I wrote about parent engagement: I’ve been hearing about the power of parents in education since I started as a teaching artist in 1985,…