School Theatre Advocacy

“To help students realize their full learning potential through theatre and speech & debate, it is essential that educators, schools, and school boards create an environment and context in which complicated and challenging issues can be explored, discussed, and enacted, giving voice to the complexity of our world and the stories and subjects our students already encounter every day, as they build skills and talents that will serve them throughout their lives.”
View Freedom of Expression Statement

“It is imperative that all students have access to an equitable delivery of arts education that includes dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts that supports their educational, social, and emotional well-being, taught by certified professional arts educators in partnership with community arts providers.”
View Arts Education is Essential Statement

“An education without the arts is inadequate. Therefore, we call on our public policy leaders to provide a systemic and rigorous arts education for all students in all public schools by leveraging the expertise and experience of the partners involved in arts education.”
View Arts Education for American Students — A Shared Endeavor

“As a well-rounded subject area under federal education law, the Every Students Succeeds Act, the arts support the social and emotional well-being of students, foster a welcoming and safe school environment, and encourage inclusivity through multiple pathways for every child’s creative voice.”
View Arts ARE Education

As “the nation’s report card,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures student achievement in various subject areas.  In 2019, it was announced that NAEP would no longer assess the arts. EdTA is part of the Arts Education Working Group, a coalition actively protesting this decision. From our statement:

“We request that the U.S Department of Education:

• urge the National Assessment Governing Board to reinstate the previously scheduled arts, foreign (world) language, geography, and economics assessments to the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) calendar.
• support the use of existing and additional funds appropriated to the National Center for Education Statistics for rigorous assessments in the arts, foreign (world) language, geography, and economics.”

As the national theatre education service organizations, the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE) have a responsibility to speak up on behalf of all students engaged in school-based theatre making and the educators who are guiding them. Part of that obligation is to advocate for physical spaces where students, teachers, and their audiences can come together without fear of harm, whether it is the classroom, stage, studio, or outdoors. School should be welcoming, open environments where youth have a sense of belonging and can discover, reflect, and learn safely.

Read the full statement on school safety.

“It is essential that the FCC protect wireless microphones and other devices used by performing arts entities that provide valuable public service. Congress should urge the FCC to expand eligibility for Part 74 licenses and allow for geo-location database protection to nonprofit performing arts and education entities that regularly use 15 or more wireless devices and to institute a waiver for eligibility for a license to performing arts entities that use fewer than 15 devices but can demonstrate need and ability to responsibly manage a license and thereby protect operations and financial investments in technical equipment.”
View Statement of Concern — Protecting Wireless Technology