Theatre education advocacy ads now available for download

The Educational Theatre Association has a created a new series of downloadable PDF ads that address the value of theatre and other arts in students’ overall education. The five half-page and two full-page ads "Theatre and the Arts—did you know…?" are posted on the EdTA advocacy page. Members can use them in production and conferences programs, on websites to promote the benefits of a curricular and co-curricular theatre education, and as a leave-behind in meetings with administrators, legislators, and other school decision-makers. Each half-page ad includes a different collection of facts and figures (and their sources) from national studies that confirm a college, career, or life benefit of theatre or other arts study for students. The full-page ads divide the facts and figures into two sets of six facts each. The ads include quantitative data that supports the belief that theatre and the arts improves academic performance, fosters creativity, improves literacy, and encourages at-risk students to stay in school. 

“Our members have asked for more resources that can help them prove that theatre belongs in their school’s curriculum,” said EdTA Executive Director Julie Woffington. “These ads are the first element of a package of tools we’re going to create during the next year that teachers and students can use to advocate on behalf of theatre education in their schools and communities. In these current times, with budgets being cut and priorities being reconsidered, we know that theatre programs and jobs are at risk. As a leading professional education association it’s our responsibility to step up and articulate our value to the overall education of our students.”  

James Palmarini, EdTA’s Director of Educational Policy who created the ads, said, “These ads include well-researched facts and figures from credible studies conducted by organizations with national stature. We need to do a better job explaining the benefits of a theatre experience to a student’s curricular education. I think these ads are a step in the right direction, but we need to do more and we will. By next summer we’ll have the finished data from our landscape survey of secondary theatre education in the United States that’s currently being conducted. It’s going to provide some new and valuable information. Right now, there really aren’t that many studies that validate the discipline’s worth, particularly at the middle and secondary level. Education policy experts, legislators, and school boards make data-driven decisions when they budget money, staffing, and time in schools. We need more data to ‘make the case’ for theatre education and we’re going to get it.”