Defending Your Program: An Action Toolkit

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This toolkit draws on several sources for some of its material and we’d like to acknowledge them here:

  • Michael Daehn’s article Defending Your Program, from the Fall, 2009 issue (Volume 21, Number 1) of Teaching Theatre.
  • The document, “Making Your Theatre Program Visible and Valued,” created by Nancy Carr, Gai Jones, and Jim Palmarini for the California Educational Theatre Organizations (CETO).
  • The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network’s Arts Education Advocacy Toolkit

Every advocacy action toolkit begins with a strategy and this one is no different. First things first: we don’t have all the answers; everyone’s school, district, and state has different needs and expectations. What were providing here are some resources and advice from which you can custom build your own toolkit. From time to time, we’ll provide links to resources on our advocacy that can aid you. A lot of those links will be to national organizations, research studies, and other documents that can help you make the case for the value of your theatre program. There’s an ongoing and healthy debate on whether or not arts educators and their supporters should promote their disciplines based on the arts’ intrinsic values or on other attributes that the arts inherently nurture, such as workplace skills.

What we’re offering here are options that will allow you do both—articulate the innate value of theatre and suggest a wide range of skills and knowledge that any well-rounded program teaches as well.

We’ve divided our toolkit into two parts: Nurture and Promote, and Defend and Save. Here’s why: The point of building a toolkit is not just to have it at the ready when your program is facing a challenge that might cut your funding, classes, and resources, or threaten your job and the program itself. This is intended to be a proactive document, one you can use daily to construct an ongoing strategy that tracks your program’s daily and long-term accomplishments in such a way that suggests not just its value, but its absolute necessity to your district’s students. In other words, a toolkit is as much about growing your program as sustaining it. So we’ll begin with what you can do to Nurture and Promote. If you do get into a crisis situation, this foundational work should help you. However, sometimes you need to do more; that’s where the Defend and Save portion of our toolkit comes into play.

So let’s get started.

Part One: Nurture and Promote

We’re calling this portion of our toolkit “nurture and promote” because the act of advocacy in itself is, one, a nurturing activity that creates opportunities for what you do best: teaching students of theatre a rich and varied sequential curriculum that includes both production and classroom environments where knowledge and skill is learned and applied. And two, advocacy is a promoting activity because, in order for you to nurture, you must articulate and showcase what it is students are learning to the widest possible audience, in as many ways as possible, and as frequently as possible.

Click on the links below for details on the six advocacy steps of nurturing and promoting your program.

  1. Learn what you need to know
  2. Master what you need to do
  3. Create your advocacy action plan
  4. Market your program
  5. Remember a few don’ts
  6. Ask yourself a few tough questions

1. Learn what you need to know

There are three things that you should know a lot about as you begin to plan an advocacy strategy: your field, your program, and your beliefs.

Know your field

In order for you to begin to form a convincing case on behalf of your program, you must be the most knowledgeable person in the room at all times. This is homework that’s always worth doing and reviewing. Start by visiting the EdTA Advocacy Resource page and reviewing it for useful data and facts.

Know:

  • Where to look to find persuasive arguments and supporting evidence that describes the lifelong value of student engagement in theatre and the other arts.
  • Who the organizations are that can offer the most information on theatre education trends, policies, and research.
  • What national and state issues could directly affect your program and others in your school and district.
  • When arts-related legislative and public hearings will be held and their political and/or practical purpose.
  • Why budgeting, curriculum and staffing decisions have been made in your own department or someone else’s, and how those decisions might impact your curriculum, classes, and students.

Know your program

Answer the following to determine your program’s strengths, challenges, assets, and opportunities:

  • What do you do well?
  • What do you do that no one else in the school does?
  • What are your “sexys”? (great performance space, well-acted shows, college admission success of theatre-involved students, etc.)
  • Who are your allies?
  • What or who stands in the way of the continued growth or success of your program?
  • How can you impress students, parents, and decision-makers, particularly those identified in the above questions?

Know your beliefs about arts education

Effective arts education advocates know their beliefs or principles. Knowing your beliefs will help you differentiate between what is sacred and what can be compromised. Your beliefs should always guide your actions in how you advocate for your program.

To measure your beliefs do a self inventory about how you feel about the following arts education principles and the work that you do as a theatre educator:

  • Arts for their own sake.
  • Arts for learning.
  • Life skills.
  • 21st Century skills.
  • Multi-cultural understanding.
  • The arts and cognitive growth.
  • School and classroom culture.
  • Personal and interpersonal connections.
  • Sustaining democracy.

2. Master what you need to do

We all know that theatre is about doing. The same get-it-done philosophy you ask of your students and yourself when mounting a production should be applied to your advocacy efforts.

To that end:

  • Learn how to articulate data and/or evidence that clearly shows your students’ learning outcomes and core academic gains provided in your instruction by:
  • Using electronic portfolios, ongoing performance, and promotional opportunities (see promotion).
  • Compiling multiple landmark arts research studies, such as Critical Links, Champions for Change, and Learning, Arts and the Brain to illustrate the cognitive learning that occurs as a result of your arts instruction.
  • Learning to speak knowledgably about the scope and sequence of your program’s courses, and be able to explain their connection to sequential standards-based learning instruction.
  • Becoming familiar all forms of assessment—formative, summative, performance, and student self-assessment—and be able to comfortably talk about how you use each to demonstrate your students’ learning.
  • Understanding how to articulate 21st century skills learned through theatre.
  • Become a member of your district arts team

District arts teams are typically comprised of a district administrator, a school site administrator, an arts teacher, a generalist teacher, a parent, a community member, a chamber of commerce member, a higher education member, and a school board member. Making yourself that arts teacher will help maintain an ongoing dialogue about arts education district wide, and keep you in communication with administrative staff, the school board, city council, and local legislators.

  • Work collaboratively with all the arts disciplines in your school.

You don’t and shouldn’t function in isolation. Collaboration with your arts colleagues will make each of your programs stronger and better.

  • Communicate regularly with school and district decision makers.

Your department chair, principal, district curriculum specialist, superintendent, marketing spokesperson, PTA, and DAT team are all key players that are critical to the success of your program. Always make your discussions with these individuals and groups positive and factual and, whenever possible, back up your points with examples of student learning. That can be anything from a video presentation of a classroom or studio acting exercise to an invitation to a tech rehearsal. The point is, always show that there is genuine learning taking place in your theatre classroom and on your stage.

  • Use your state’s theatre standards as a benchmark for judging excellence.

Whether or not you believe the theatre standards are a true measure of student knowledge and skill, they are likely to be the yardstick that your state and perhaps your district will use to judge the effectiveness of your program. So, when asked what standards are being taught in your advanced acting or introductory musical theatre class, be prepared to answer.

3. Create an advocacy action plan that includes all of the previously detailed Nurture and Promote strategies, plus the following:

  • Make lots of friends and absolutely no enemies, if possible.
  • Provide your students with different kinds of learning opportunities.
  • Involve parents in your program.
  • Direct interesting and rewarding productions for everyone involved.
  • Think “green” in your use of materials.
  • Engage in vigorous community outreach.
  • Compile personal testimonials.
  • Do what you say you’re doing.

4. Market your program

Your community starts with your classroom, stage, and school, but you need to let everyone in the district know about the good work that you do: school board, city council, parents, and the community at large. Almost every theatre educator engages in marketing, but too often it only extends to promoting shows and perhaps a fundraiser or two. Those are always useful and productive strategies, but it’s not enough. Your marketing needs to let everyone know what happens before, during, and after the production. Showcasing your teaching and student learning will gain you partners and supporters. The following ten tips are just a starting point; Work to customize your marketing to highlight its strengths and bring the most positive attention to your program.

  • Showcase theatre student learning throughout the school.
  • Include an “open house” prior to or after selected performances that showcase the sequential class-studio work that led to the production and invite school and community decision makers, as well as parents
  • Create community service opportunities for your theatre students (elementary school performances, school board meetings, business gatherings, etc.), or have your students “present” at the chamber of commerce, business meetings, PTA gatherings, and school board meetings, making sure presentations contain evidence that the students are learning from standards-based theatre instruction. Teach your students the standards language and how to talk about their theatre classes as part of the core curriculum.
  • Create, maintain, and communicate a calendar of your school and district’s upcoming productions, classes, and other department-related events.
  • Offer local businesses DVD videos that illustrate student learning in theatre, with an emphasis on valuable work place skills.
  • Maintain an article or column in the local newspaper and the school newsletter or a blog on the school website.
  • Collaborate with your arts colleagues and create a quarterly newspaper which includes all of the district’s visual and performing programs; feature one discipline per issue.
  • Create press releases for your local print and online media and PSA spots for television and public radio that showcase both your program in general and specific scheduled events.
  • Prepare touring performances which address the elementary level standards for K-4 schools, and make a pitch after each performance to work with the generalist teachers to create theatre-based cross-curricular lessons.
  • Reach out to other subject-area teachers in your school and offer to collaborate with them in integrated units of learning.

5. Remember a few don’ts

Don’t:

  • Make decisions that will be at the expense of others in your school.
  • Burn bridges with anyone.
  • Burn yourself out.
  • Put too much emphasis on how theatre helps students learn in other core subjects like math and reading.

6. Ask yourself a few tough questions

  • What haven’t I done that would increase my program’s approval rating, financial well-being, and ultimately the learning opportunities for my students?
  • What would happen if I re-invented some part of my program?
  • What would happen if the people who support or don’t support my program left their positions of leadership within my school?

Part two: Defend and Save

You’ve done all that you can do—your curriculum meets all the standards, you’ve identified your supporters, everyone in town knows about your program, you know the data and have a long list of personal stories on how theatre has made a difference in the academic accomplishments or personal lives of various students. But you’ve gotten word that district budget cuts and increased emphasis on other (tested) subject areas are going to radically scale back your theatre program, or perhaps even eliminate it as a curricular subject.

So, now it’s time to Defend and Save your program. To begin with, don’t forget the groundwork you’ve done through the suggestions made through the Nurture and Promote section of our toolbox. You should have lots of things ready and organized when the time comes to meet with the individuals empowered to fund and support the continuation of your program. Usually that’s the school board.

What we’re going to do here is outline the four steps you need to follow in preparation for a meeting with your school board.

Click on the links below for details on the following:

  1. Plan your strategy
  2. Create your message
  3. Gather your supporters
  4. Make your case

1. Plan your strategy

To begin with, review the EdTA Advocacy Resources page. It’s a comprehensive list of current arts education issues, organizations, research, reports, and more, all of which can help you shape your presentation strategy.

  • Take a careful and in-depth look at the issues in your district. Read board minutes, review media coverage of past meetings, and find out, as best you can, what the full range of cuts are across the district or school budget. In other words, are other subject areas and co-curricular subjects (including sports) sharing equally in the proposed budget cuts?
  • Learn who the key players are on the board. Try to find out which board members are patrons of local arts events, are personally active in an arts activity, or have voted in favor of (or against) arts education funding and curriculum in the past.
  • Create an e-mail group or social network page and alert your team—if you’ve been cultivating them all along this shouldn’t be that hard. This group should include parents, students, administrators, teacher colleagues, and community business leaders. Let them know you’ll need to meet with them to get their help in planning the presentation.
  • Find out when board meetings are taking place and what the procedure is for reserving time to make a presentation. You’ll want to know, for example, how to get on the agenda and how many individuals will be permitted to speak.

Now you’re ready to create your message.

TIP: The Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network (KCAAEN) website includes a terrific arts education advocacy toolkit that features advice on making presentations, building coalitions, creating effective action plans, and how to work legislators as well as school boards.

2. Create your message

While we’re crafting a presentation before a school board, no matter who you’re trying to convince about the value of your program, your messaging should be consistent—whether it’s before the PTA, the Rotary Club, or even a letter to the editor. Every presentation should include:

  • Concise and repeatable message talking points and fact sheet that will communicate what you want your audience to know about your program.
  • Personal stories about the impact of a theatre education experience.
  • Specific data that includes statistical information that supports the need and value of your program and illustrates positive educational outcomes.
  • Short, compelling phrases and sentences that can be fashioned into an “elevator speech” or be used as quotable statements for media.

TIPS: Working with at risk students in your theatre class? Check out James Catterall’s Inside Out School Project Study focusing on the value of a theatre program for at-risk middle school students. For an overview of research that supports the academic value of arts education go to Critical Evidence: How the Arts Benefit Student Achievement.

3. Gather your supporters

At this juncture, you should already have contacted your supporters; now it’s time to get them organized and on the same “ask” page.

  • Hold a meeting and identify individuals who are key influencers and are willing to speak before the school board on behalf of your program.
  • Hand out your talking points and fact sheets to everyone and post them online as well.
  • Conduct a training session where each of your supporters can practice elevator speeches, and break into small groups and improvise scenarios in which challenging questions are asked and answered.
  • Remember you can’t have too many advocates—school boards make decisions based on community input

4. Make your case

Okay, you’re ready to go. You’ve gathered your facts and figures, organized your program supporters, and memorized your message. You’re ready to hit the stage and speak up.

Here are a few more things you can do to put you over the top:

  • Show up on time; school board meetings are often run on a very specific schedule.
  • Make sure you state your name before speaking and remind your supporting speakers to do the same.
  • Add a talking point to your presentation that notes the connection of theatre to other subject areas such as math, language arts, science, and social studies.
  • Remind the board that the arts are a federally mandated core subject area under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
  • Point out that theatre, along with the other arts, helps develops key 21st century workforce skills, such as creativity, innovation, leadership, and critical thinking.
  • Appoint one or two students to speak about how their experience in your theatre program has influenced their future college and career plans.
  • If there’s time (and you’ve asked in advance) add a little style to your presentation with a short student song, improvisation, or scene from a current or past show.
  • Remember to listen as carefully as you speak. Like it or not, there’s a rationale behind the proposed cuts to your program. Be prepared to both ask and answer questions.
  • Ask for follow-up by the board president on any actions taken by the board that relates to your program.
  • Thank the board for their time.

TIPS: A word or two of support from the Secretary of Education might help: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s letter re-stating the arts as a core subject and the value of the arts in the overall education of children. If you want a bit of inspiration, consider printing and handing out the poem “What Do I Teach at Sidwell School?,” a thoughtful bit of theatre-across-the-curriculum writing, written by Tim Reagan, a theatre teacher at Sidwell School in Washington, D.C. Reagan has suggested that other teachers substitute their own school’s name.

If your program still gets cut...

  • Bear in mind that, in some instances, no matter how well-reasoned your arguments are, cuts are sometimes made. Districts strapped for funds are often forced to make cuts, no matter how well-regarded a program is. If that’s the case, ask that other programs, particularly co-curricular ones, share equally in the cuts. In other words, it’s not unreasonable to ask that the other arts areas and the athletic department to take a funding cut of a proportionately equal amount.
  • If your classes or program are eliminated, begin strategizing how to reinstate the lost courses. Make sure you maintain a careful record of your annual enrollment numbers for your classes and of those students who re-enroll in your theatre program. Those past numbers will be part of your presentation when it’s time to make a pitch for restoring cut classes.