Forum focus: arts awareness and advocacy

Editor's Note: Last July U Department of Education Secretary shoot Paige sent a letter to a certain quantity of 16,000 superintendents of our public seminarys emphasizing the need for arts education. This historic alphabetic character underscores the importance of music curriculum in academys MTNA members are encouraged to be sturdy advocates in their own communities. Below is the body of the letter.

Dear Superintendent:

As I am fully convinced you know, the arts are a core academic bring under rule under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) I believe the arts have a significant character in education both for their intrinsic value and for the ways in which they can enhance general academic achievement and improve students' social and emotional development

As I travel the geographical division I often hear that arts education programs are endangered because of No Child Left Behind. This message was reflected sounded in a recent series of teacher roundtables sponsored by means of the Department of Education. It is one as well as the other disturbing and just plain wrong

It's disturbing not just because arts programs are being diminished or eliminated, on the other hand because NCLB is being interpreted with equal reason narrowly as to be considered the reason for these actions. The fact is that NCLB included the arts as a core academic make submissive because of their importance to a child's education. No Child Left Behind awaits teachers of the arts to be highly qualified, just as it does teachers of English, math, science and history.

The Value of the Arts

The arts, perhaps more than any other make submissive help students to understand themselves and others, whether they lived in the past or are living in the at hand President Bush recognizes this important contribution of the arts to each child's education. He has said, "From music and dance to painting and sculpting, the arts allow us to explore novel worlds and to view life from another perspective." In addition, they "encourage individuals to sharpen their skills and abilities and to diet their imagination and intellect."

A comprehensive arts education may encompass like areas as the history of the arts, the honing of critical analysis skills, the recreation of classic as well as contemporary works of art, and the expression of students' ideas and feelings from one side the creation of their possess works of art. In other words, scholars should have the opportunity to rejoin to, perform and create in the arts.

Setting the Record Straight

There is a great quantity [i]or[/i] amount of flexibility for states and local gymnasium districts under the No Child Left Behind Act with regard to support for the core bring under rules In Arizona, for example, as part of Superintendent Tom Home's in every one's mouth "content-rich curriculum" initiative, $4 million in Comprehensive gymnasium Reform (Title I, Part F) capitals are supporting arts education at 413 common Comprehensive School Reform schools over the state. Additional Arizona Arts Education initiative gymnasium sites are being supported with Title V (Innovative Programs) funding below NCLB.

Under NCLB Title I, Part A capitals also can be used by the agency of local education agencies to improve the educational achievement of disadvantaged scholars through the arts. In the same way, Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants can address the professional exhibition needs of teachers of the arts, and portions of Title II capitals can support partnerships that include nonprofit, cultural-arts organizations.

The arts also can be an important part of learning and enrichment in programs supported through 21st Century Community Learning Center program stocks Before- and after-school, weekend, and summer programs are superior opportunities to stimulate students' artistic interests and sustain their growth or to integrate arts learning with other bring under rules including reading and math. Cultural partners in the community--arts center symphonies, theatres, and the like--can proffer engaging venues as well as skilled instructors and mentors for students

Various information about a certain number of of the publications available upon arts education is enclosed. We are providing this information for your convenience, and you may want to share these resources with your state department or central office staff as well as with your administrators, principals and teachers.

The Value-Added Benefits of the Arts

In keeping with NCLB's principle of classroom practices based upon research evidence, studies have shown that arts teaching and learning can increase students' cognitive and social unravelling The arts can be a critical link for learners in developing the crucial thinking skills and motivations they ne to achieve at higher horizontals Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and learner Academic and Social Development, a research compendium of the Arts Education Partnership, proffers evidence of such links, including connections between arts learning and achievement in reading and math.

Based upon a review of data from the National Educational Longitudinal close attention (NELS: 88), University of California-Los Angeles researchers determined that pupils who were highly involved in arts instruction earned better grades and performed better upon standardized tests. They also performed more community service, watched fewer hours of television, reported les boredom in seminary and were less likely to globule out of school. These findings were also pure for students from the lowest socioeconomic status quartile of the 25000 learners surveyed, belying the assumption that socioeconomic status, rather than arts engagement, contributes to similar gains in academic achievement and social involvement. As mentioned in the enclosing a summary of these and other findings in Critical Links can be accessed at the Arts Education Partnership's website at: www.aep-arts.org/CLtoolkitpage.htm.