Resources
Current issues
Events
Organizations
Policy
Research
Reports
State resources and news
Public opinion
Miscellaneous
Current issues
Nine states and the District of Columbia win second round Race to the Top grants.
ASCD and EdTA endorse well rounded education: At a policy briefing on Capitol Hill on July 29, 20 major educational organizations including EdTA, released consensus recommendations for how the federal government can better support core subjects beyond reading and math.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills released the Skills Map for the Arts at a Capitol Hill briefing on July 15. The map, outlining thirteen skills, outcomes, and lesson examples at grades four, eight, and twelve in the four arts areas (theatre, music, dance, and visual arts), was created by the leading arts education professional organizations. The Educational Theatre Association collaborated with the American Alliance for Theatre & Education to create the map’s twelve theatre examples.
Wireless Microphone Use: EdTA’s posted story outlining the Federal Communication Commission’s ruling on wireless microphone users’ June 12, 2010 final exit date from the 700 MHz band; includes a link to the FCC’s wireless microphone information page.
Events
Educational Theatre Association Conference
Organizations
Americans for the Arts is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America—including arts education. They have more than 5,000 organizational members. Their website is a tremendous resource, including an arts and education network that features everything from arts voting records of individual members of Congress to a national arts policy database. They also produce Arts Advocacy Day, the annual grassroots arts lobbying event in Washington, D.C.
The Arts Education Partnership is a coalition of arts, education, business, philanthropic and government organizations promoting and supporting arts education. They are managed jointly by the U.S Department of Education (USDOE), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA),and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Their website includes a state policy database, a research compendium, arts-integration programs, and links to many other useful arts education organizations.
The American Alliance for theatre in Education is a theatre service organization dedicated to the promotion of K-12 school theatre, as well as theatre for youth. Their membership includes both K-12 and higher education professionals.
The Council of Chief State School Officers, part of the USDOE, is the management organization of state superintendants who head state departments of education. They help set policy at the federal, state, and local level, including arts education, fund research and and publish it and other reports on the status of education.
The Dana Foundation is the leading proponent of brain research in arts education, as well as a wide range of neuroeducation subjects.
Edutopia is a print and online magazine created and maintained by the George Lucas Foundation. Their website features lots or resources, advice, and best practices for arts educators, as well as blogs, videos, and arts education news updates.
The Kennedy Center, partly funded by USDOE, works on behalf of arts education efforts in two separate initiatives that are showcased on individual websites: The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network (KCAAEN), which features comprehensive and downloadable arts education advocacy toolkit and companion video, and features a broad range of publications on assessment, leadership, and information on individual state partnership opportunities that are available for districts and schools; and the Artsedge website that includes arts teaching materials, advocacy resources, and other tools for both students and teachers.
Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education is the education component of Lincoln Center. The Center sponsors performances, workshops, and training to students, teachers, administrators, and others in New York City and throughout the country. To view content on this site, users must register.
The Music Educators National Conference (MENC) is the national service organization for music educators.
The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies represents the country’s state arts agencies. They work to empower state arts agencies through leadership, funding, and planning. Part of their job is to ensure that the promotion of arts includes partnership with schools and district leadership.
The National Art Education Association (NAEA) is the national service organization for visual arts teachers.
The National Dance Educators Organization (NDEO) is the national service organization for dance educators.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has links to every state legislature, the primary source of policy affecting public schools.
The National Federation of State High School Association develops interscholastic sports and activities for high schoolers. The NFHS serves 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The National Forensic League promotes high school and middle school speech and debate activities.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a national organization that advocates for 21st century readiness for students in core subject areas. P21 and its members work to fuse the skills of critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity to curriculum and learning. Their website includes “skills frameworks that illustrate how the core subject areas nurture a broad range of workforce skills.
The State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) work closely at a state level, to serve as stewards of public school arts programs, funding, and planning. Nearly every state belongs to SEADAE.
Young Audiences Arts for Learning is a New York City-based network of organizations that offer a variety of arts education programs throughout the country, with an emphasis on bringing together students and professional artists.
Policy
The National Standards for Theatre Education were created and released in 1994 by a coalition of arts education service organizations, including the Educational Theatre Association. They outline what theatre skills student should possess at grades four, eight, and twelve.
National Standards for Theatre Education, grades K-4
National Standards for Theatre Education, grades 5-8
National Standards for Theatre Education, grades 9-12
Freedom of Expression statement
This Freedom of Expression position paper was created by the Coalition for Theatre Education (the Educational Theatre Association, the American Alliance for Theatre in Education, and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education). The paper makes policy recommendations designed to protect freedom of expression in educational theatre from elementary school through graduate-level programs. The document calls on school administrators to recognize that professional theatre educators are the individuals best qualified to make play selection decisions, and to establish policies that discourage prior restraint or censorship.
Race to the Top funding: EdTA’s response to the education funding including in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Arts Opportunities in the Economic Stimulus Package
Secretary Duncan’s letter re-stating arts education position as a core subject under ESEA, issued in August, 2009, in support of the release of the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts.
ESEA reauthorization: The Obama Administration’s ESEA Reauthorization Blueprint, released March 15, 2010; EdTA’s comment at the USDOE’s Arts Stakeholder’s Meeting on January 20, 2010; and the USDOE’s summary of all comments at the Arts Stakeholder’s meeting.
Research
Critical Evidence: How the Arts Benefit Student Achievement discusses why it is so important to keep the arts strong in our schools and how the study of the arts contributes to student achievement and success. These and other important issues are addressed in this publication by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, in collaboration with the Arts Education Partnership.
Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning features the studies of seven researchers examining a variety of arts education programs (including in-school and out-of-school) the common conclusions they found, among them: the arts reach students who are not otherwise being reached; the arts transform the environment for learning; the arts provide learning opportunities for the adults in the lives of young people; and the arts connect learning experiences to the world of real work.
Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development is a compendium of studies addressing the impact of arts education on student academic performance and social development, particularly for at-risk students. It includes theatre education-specific studies.
Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art: A 12-Year National Study of Education in the Visual and Performing Arts by James S. Catterall (available from Los Angeles: I-Group Books, 2009), is a recently published text detailing a twelve-year longitudinal study by the Champions of Change researcher. In this study, he followed 12,000 students from high school age to 26, examining achievement and values development of students deeply involved in the arts during school, versus those with little or no arts engagement, measuring specific levels of achievement in college and pro-social behavior such as volunteerism and political involvement. The above link provides a summary an overview of the study, created by the staff of the Arts Education Partnership.
Inside Out’s School Project, Teaching Theatre journal, 2006 (Volume 17, Number 2) A summary of study findings of a research project focusing on the value of a theatre program for at-risk middle school students in Southern California.
Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a2008 Dana Foundation study, addresses a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter? Learning, Arts and the Brain, conducted over a three-year period by neuroscientists and psychologists at seven universities, helps clarify how training in the arts might contribute to improving general thinking skills of children and adults.
The Ohio Critical Links Project, was a 2007-2009 teacher inquiry project jointly sponsored by EdTA, the Arts Education Partnership, and the Ohio Arts Council. In the project ten theatre educators from throughout Ohio created inquiry question and applied them to their classroom methodology. This report details the first-year reports of each of the teachers' research findings.
The Qualities of Qualities is a 2009 study, sponsored by Harvard University’s Project Zero, that asked three fundamental questions about arts education: How do arts educators conceive of and define high art quality arts learning and teaching?; What markers of excellence do educators and administrators look for in the actual activities of arts learning and teaching that unfold in the classroom: and how do a program’s foundational decisions, as well as its day-to-day decisions, affect the pursuit and achievement of quality?
A Survey of Theatre Education in the United States, published in Teaching Theatre journal in 1991 (Volume 3, Number 1) is the only comprehensive survey of theatre education programs done in the last twenty years. It includes data on teacher training, facilities, funding, classroom materials, and more.
Reports
Access to Arts Education Report, published in 2009 by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, found that arts education instruction in elementary schools remained about the same between the school years 2004-05 and 2006-07. . Overall, 4 percent noted an increase in arts instruction and 7 percent said there was a decrease.
Arts and Economic Prosperity III, is Americans for the Arts annual report documenting the key role played by the nonprofit arts and culture industry in strengthening our nation's economy. It offers facts, figures, and trends, and includes a toolkit in how to use the figures to make the case for arts in your community.
The Artist in the Workforce study was release in 2008 by the National Endowment for the Arts. It showed that individuals involved in the arts account for $70 billion aggregate annual income. The report offers state-by-state figures on the numbers of individuals employed as actors, designers, musicians and others in the performing arts. Overall, the study said that 1.4 percent of the U.S. labor force are employed as artists, only slightly less than the total number of active-duty and reserve personnel in the U.S. military (2.2 million).
From Anecdote to Evidence: Assessing the Status and Condition of Arts Education at the State Level reviews the experience of five states—Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington—as the basis for a discussion of various approaches and methodologies for conducting statewide arts education research.
Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts that Value Arts Education identifies success factors common among school districts that support the arts. The central finding: “The single most critical factor in sustaining arts education in their schools is the active involvement of influential segments of the community in shaping and implementing the policies and programs of the district.”
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is often referred to as the “Nation’s Arts Report Card.” The 2008 Arts NAEP report measured art and music only. The 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts (NAEP) measured the ability of eighth-grade students to create, perform, and respond to works of art in music, theater, and the visual arts.
Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce? was created in partnership with The Conference Board and the American Association of School Administrators. The report details the attitudes of American executives and public school executives towards creativity and innovation. Among the findings: overwhelmingly, both the superintendents who educate future workers and the employers who hire them agree that creativity is increasingly important in U.S. workplaces, and that arts training is crucial to developing creativity.
Third Space: When Learning Matters details how schools with large populations of students in economic poverty can be transformed into vibrant and successful centers of learning and community life when the arts are infused into their culture and curriculum. Third Space: When Learning Matters, published by the Arts Education Partnership, draws on current research in cognitive science, student engagement, and youth development to explore how and why the arts have enabled the schools to succeed where others often fail.
Tough Times, Tough Choices, is a 2006 report from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, a bipartisan assembly of former education secretaries, state officials and business leaders. The report’s summary stated, “The best employers the world over will be looking for the most competent, most creative and most innovative people on the face of the earth and will be willing to pay them top dollar for their services.” The report points to the arts as an essential skill for the future workforce.
State resources and news
Our state resources and news section is a work in progress; if you would like to post other items (new state standards, arts education-related legislation, award news, etc. please send it to Jim Palmarini.
The following list of resources was compiled by the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network
The California Alliance for Arts Education hosts a video on local action and other tips.
The Iowa Alliance for Arts Education collects national research.
The Massachusetts-based Arts Learning produced a video featuring scientists on the benefits of arts education.
Arts Education in Maryland Schools offers an Advocacy Guide and a Parents Tool Kit.
The Ohio Alliance for Arts Education provides help on advocacy, planning, and elections.
Pittsburgh’s Arts Education Collaborative wrote a Parent Handbook on Pennslyvania standards.
ArtsEd Washington has a sample, local action alert online for schools and districts.
The Wisconsin Alliance for Arts Education offers a compilation of resources.
Here’s a list of some recent state initiatives and news that are may be of interest to theatre educators.
The Colorado Theatre Standards
The Arizona Arts Research Institute
The New York City Blueprint for Theatre Education
Envisioning the Future of Theatre Arts Education in California
Public opinion
The Imagination Nation outlines the findings of a 2007 survey conducted by Lake Research Partners that found that 30 percent of American voters are displeased with the current emphasis on “the basics” in the nations’ school systems and want to see more attention paid to subjects that stimulate students’ creativity. Nine in ten of the 1,000 people polled said that healthy imaginations in young people contribute significantly to a nation’s ability to compete in the global economy, with 88 percent of respondents expressing the view that arts education is an essential component toward developing that imagination.
Why the Arts Must be Saved is a 2009 article published in the online journal Edutopia detailingdifferent successful arts programs; it includes links to research and example programs supporting the article’s position.
Media Paints Arts Education in a Fading Light is a 2005 report sponsored by the Education Commission of States on how the national media portrays the status of arts education in America's schools.
Miscellaneous
How Creative Are You? is a July, 2010 Newsweek article that details the recent decline of creativity scores among children, why, and how this trend can be reversed in academic settings.
What the arts teach, by Elliot Eisner, is an eloquent and impassioned case for arts education in the daily education of every child.
The Arts Education Bill of Rights, created by the New York City-based Center for Arts Education, is a straightforward, bulleted list of all the reasons why the arts are fundamental to teh well-rounded education of every child.
What Do I Teach at Sidwell School? by Tim Reagan, is a thoughtful theatre-across-the-curriculum poem, in which a veteran theatre educator details the range of knowledge and skills he teaches as part of his theatre curriculum. Reagan has suggested that other teachers substitute their own school’s name and use the poem to help them make the case for the value of their programs and classes.
“What’s a White Space? An Update on Wireless Microphone Use Under the New FCC Rules,” a Powerpoint presentation by Dana Taylor and Jim Palmarini at the 2009 EdTA Conference in Anaheim, California.
