Arts in Schools from Councilman Nick Licata
From Nick Licata's Office:
I recently came across this interesting article (http://www.studio360.org/2012/may/04/can-obamas-turnaround-arts-initiative-save-schools/) published by Studio 360 describing the Obama Administration's $14.7 million Turnaround Arts Initiative (http://turnaroundarts.pcah.gov/). The initiative seeks to utilize arts education to improve eight of the nation's worst performing schools over the next three years. One can argue whether that is nearly enough to address our educational system's needs, but underlying it is a belief that I share: we need to go beyond testing students in reading, writing and arithmetic.
That is a concern I had upon learning that none of the arts organization applicants for Families and Education Levy (F&E) 2012-2013 funding were deemed qualified to receive funding. Although other types of organizations were also not chosen because they couldn't guarantee measureable results, there was uncertainty over how to measure the influence of arts education in helping students think creatively.
In response, the City's Office for Education (OFE: http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/education/edlevy.htm) will conduct four workshops for prospective applicants to 2013-2014 F&E funding. The workshops will take place for a full day on Monday, June 25; a half day on Tuesday, June 26; a full day on Wednesday, August 1; and a half day on Thursday, August 2. For the June 26 & August 2 workshops, OFE staff will meet with any arts education group requesting a one-on-one consultation. The workshops will present the Seattle School District's general educational data and describe how FEL uses that data. School District staff will also be on hand to answer questions and to provide one-on-one instruction. Details on the workshops have yet to be published, so keep an eye on OFE's web site (http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/education/edlevy.htm) for information on locations and times.
While the arts are designated as a core subject area in Washington State schools, funding for arts instruction lags far behind that of other core subjects. Addressing that issue in 2008, I wrote about an arts education bill (UP #264: http://licata.seattle.gov/2008/01/23/funding-art-in-public-schools/) I was pursuing in our state legislature. The bill would have redirected lottery proceeds dedicated to paying baseball stadium bonds to a state-wide School Arts Program once the bonds were retired. The Washington State Arts Commission would have created a School Arts Program Committee and a competitive grant process to support arts-infused curriculum, programs, and projects in public schools. Unfortunately, over the three years it came up for a vote, it failed to pass both houses.
Our state's schools may have made arts a core subject in part due to research such as a 1998 finding by Shirley Brice Heath of Stanford University, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Americans for the Arts. It found among other things that young people who regularly participate in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement.
But test scores alone cannot determine a student's success in life. "Stringent standardized testing requirements have forced schools and teachers to obsess over test scores at the cost of teaching critical thinking and creativity. The very nature of standardized testing is that new ideas are punished," says Diane Ravitch in the Studio 360 article.
She's the author of The Life and Death of the Great American School System and served in the Department of Education in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.
She adds "If we have a generation of kids who can't think for themselves, our whole country is in trouble. Nations that have the highest test scores have the lowest creativity scores. The more we raise our test scores, the more we sacrifice creativity."
The solution, Ravitch believes, is not more federal dollars. Support needs to come from local and state government, which must consider music and visual arts as valuable as reading and math. We are fortunate that in Seattle schools, the arts are a basic subject. I appreciate that OFE has pledged to reach out to those who didn't qualify for 2012-2013 F&E funding. With the help of the workshops mentioned above, arts education applicants should be able to qualify for 2013-2014 funding. When they do, it will greatly benefit Seattle students.
COUNCIL MEMBERS & MAYOR'S EMAIL ADDRESSES
Sally.Bagshaw@seattle.gov
Tim.Burgess@seattle.gov
Sally.Clark@seattle.gov
Richard.Conlin@seattle.gov
Jean.Godden@seattle.gov
Bruce.Harrell@seattle.gov
Nick.Licata@seattle.gov
Mike.OBrien@seattle.gov
Tom.Rasmussen@seattle.gov
Citizens are directed to the following website to complete a form to send an email to the Mayor's Office. http://www.cityofseattle.net/mayor/citizen_response.htm
Keep in touch...
I recently came across this interesting article (http://www.studio360.org/2012/may/04/can-obamas-turnaround-arts-initiative-save-schools/) published by Studio 360 describing the Obama Administration's $14.7 million Turnaround Arts Initiative (http://turnaroundarts.pcah.gov/). The initiative seeks to utilize arts education to improve eight of the nation's worst performing schools over the next three years. One can argue whether that is nearly enough to address our educational system's needs, but underlying it is a belief that I share: we need to go beyond testing students in reading, writing and arithmetic.
That is a concern I had upon learning that none of the arts organization applicants for Families and Education Levy (F&E) 2012-2013 funding were deemed qualified to receive funding. Although other types of organizations were also not chosen because they couldn't guarantee measureable results, there was uncertainty over how to measure the influence of arts education in helping students think creatively.
In response, the City's Office for Education (OFE: http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/education/edlevy.htm) will conduct four workshops for prospective applicants to 2013-2014 F&E funding. The workshops will take place for a full day on Monday, June 25; a half day on Tuesday, June 26; a full day on Wednesday, August 1; and a half day on Thursday, August 2. For the June 26 & August 2 workshops, OFE staff will meet with any arts education group requesting a one-on-one consultation. The workshops will present the Seattle School District's general educational data and describe how FEL uses that data. School District staff will also be on hand to answer questions and to provide one-on-one instruction. Details on the workshops have yet to be published, so keep an eye on OFE's web site (http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/education/edlevy.htm) for information on locations and times.
While the arts are designated as a core subject area in Washington State schools, funding for arts instruction lags far behind that of other core subjects. Addressing that issue in 2008, I wrote about an arts education bill (UP #264: http://licata.seattle.gov/2008/01/23/funding-art-in-public-schools/) I was pursuing in our state legislature. The bill would have redirected lottery proceeds dedicated to paying baseball stadium bonds to a state-wide School Arts Program once the bonds were retired. The Washington State Arts Commission would have created a School Arts Program Committee and a competitive grant process to support arts-infused curriculum, programs, and projects in public schools. Unfortunately, over the three years it came up for a vote, it failed to pass both houses.
Our state's schools may have made arts a core subject in part due to research such as a 1998 finding by Shirley Brice Heath of Stanford University, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Americans for the Arts. It found among other things that young people who regularly participate in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement.
But test scores alone cannot determine a student's success in life. "Stringent standardized testing requirements have forced schools and teachers to obsess over test scores at the cost of teaching critical thinking and creativity. The very nature of standardized testing is that new ideas are punished," says Diane Ravitch in the Studio 360 article.
She's the author of The Life and Death of the Great American School System and served in the Department of Education in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.
She adds "If we have a generation of kids who can't think for themselves, our whole country is in trouble. Nations that have the highest test scores have the lowest creativity scores. The more we raise our test scores, the more we sacrifice creativity."
The solution, Ravitch believes, is not more federal dollars. Support needs to come from local and state government, which must consider music and visual arts as valuable as reading and math. We are fortunate that in Seattle schools, the arts are a basic subject. I appreciate that OFE has pledged to reach out to those who didn't qualify for 2012-2013 F&E funding. With the help of the workshops mentioned above, arts education applicants should be able to qualify for 2013-2014 funding. When they do, it will greatly benefit Seattle students.
COUNCIL MEMBERS & MAYOR'S EMAIL ADDRESSES
Sally.Bagshaw@seattle.gov
Comments
http://www.arts.gov/research/Arts-At-Risk-Youth.pdf
Excellent advocacy tools and research summaries can be found at ArtsEd Washington
http://artsedwashington.org/research/nea-research-report-shows-benefits-of-arts-education-for-at-risk-youth
- Ramona H
A note of irony is that the schools to which the President's Council on Arts and Humanities is giving the Turnaround Arts Initiative funding have to be eligible for School Improvement Grants. One of the schools in Seattle that has a School Improvement Grant is West Seattle Elementary (much lauded by the Seattle Times) and they have been allowed by the district to cut their instrumental music program, because they did not want students pulled away from their "academic" classes. Maybe this new PCAH initiative will prove what has already been proven, that arts helps academics.
ABC
I was watching the vening news and the rise in obesity rates - even among children - continues to grow. They are now speaking of it as less of a willpower issue and more of community health crisis. (I would say two big issues are portion sizes when you go out to eat and manufacturers adding more salt, sugar and fat to everything they make.)
But one suggestion was that kids get 60 minutes a day of recess or PE. We are talking about children's health here and yet I thought, "Where to put that in the day of every single child and how to make sure each one of them is moving?"
Same with arts. How to put it in the day? Maybe there needs to be some high-level thinking about how to integrate more PE/arts into other subjects.
Some arts classes could meet occupational Ed requirements as well. Photography, journalism, and while I don't think it is true anymore, if you were in the jazz band or orchestra at Garfield, that used to count for your occ Ed.
One of the advantages of having a K-12 school like Summit, was that it was small enough for everyone to be able to participate in performance based classes like dance, theatre, vocal or steel drum if they wanted. ( & some was required)
Confidence gained from performing translates well to skills needed for the workforce.
One thing I am curious about is if 6 courses per week are taken by most students in high school. My daughter had the problem senior year, of not having enough classes that she was interested in/could get into, because she had all the graduation requirements covered and the priority of class registration was to give seats to those who hadn't yet fulfilled those requirements.
-Juliette