Ensuring a Place for the Arts: 10 Tips

Category: Document / Issue(s) Addressed: Qualified teachers
Standards-based curricula
Testing in music
Professional development needs

Attribution

Anne C. Grey (2010), "No Child Left Behind in Art Education Policy: A Review of Key Recommendations for Arts Language Revisions," Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 8-15

Originally in L. Meyer (2004), "The complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America's Schools," Arts Education Policy Review 106(3): 35-39.

Item Text

The Study Group on the Lost Curriculum formulated ten recommendations for state policymakers to ensure that the arts and foreign languages were not lost and, more important, to position both as integral parts of the core curriculum:

1. Adopt high-quality licensure requirements for staff in the arts that are aligned with student standards in these subject areas.

Links

http://www.heldref.org/pubs/aepr/about.html

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

10 Recommendations to Ensure a Place for the Arts: #9

Category: Document / Issue(s) Addressed: Inherent value/intelligence
Music and overall budget
Testing in music

Attribution

Anne C. Grey (2010), "No Child Left Behind in Art Education Policy: A Review of Key Recommendations for Arts Language Revisions," Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 8-15

Originally in L. Meyer (2004), "The complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America's Schools," Arts Education Policy Review 106(3): 35-39.

Item Text

9. Urge the National Assessment Governing Board to increase the frequency in the administration of NAEP assessments for both the arts.

Links

http://www.heldref.org/pubs/aepr/about.html

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

10 Recommendations to Ensure a Place for the Arts: #6

Category: Document / Issue(s) Addressed: Inherent value/intelligence
Long-term success of students
Developing the "whole child"
Sequential programs
Standards-based curricula
Testing in music
Graduation requirements in music/arts

Attribution

Anne C. Grey (2010), "No Child Left Behind in Art Education Policy: A Review of Key Recommendations for Arts Language Revisions," Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 8-15

Originally in L. Meyer (2004), "The complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America's Schools," Arts Education Policy Review 106(3): 35-39.

Item Text

6. Incorporate arts learning in the early years into standards, curriculum frameworks, and course requirements. Also, encourage local school districts to incorporate the arts into instruction in the early years, whenever possible.

Links

http://www.heldref.org/pubs/aepr/about.html

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

10 Recommendations to Ensure a Place for the Arts: #8

Category: Document / Issue(s) Addressed: Inherent value/intelligence
Developing the "whole child"
Testing in music

Attribution

Anne C. Grey (2010), "No Child Left Behind in Art Education Policy: A Review of Key Recommendations for Arts Language Revisions," Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 8-15

Originally in L. Meyer (2004), "The complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America's Schools," Arts Education Policy Review 106(3): 35-39.

Item Text

8. Incorporate all core subject areas, including the arts, into the improvement strategies promoted by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Links

http://www.heldref.org/pubs/aepr/about.html

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

10 Recommendations to Ensure a Place for the Arts: #4

Category: Document / Issue(s) Addressed: Sequential programs
Standards-based curricula
Testing in music
Graduation requirements in music/arts

Attribution

Anne C. Grey (2010), "No Child Left Behind in Art Education Policy: A Review of Key Recommendations for Arts Language Revisions," Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 8-15

Originally in L. Meyer (2004), "The complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America's Schools," Arts Education Policy Review 106(3): 35-39.

Item Text

4. Incorporate the arts into core graduation requirements, while simultaneously increasing the number of credits required for graduation.

Links

http://www.heldref.org/pubs/aepr/about.html

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

Unintended Outcomes

Category: Research Report / Issue(s) Addressed: Developing 21st-century skills
Standardized testing in math/reading/etc
Testing in music

Attribution

“Reauthorizing No Child Left Behind: Facts and Recommendations,” Brian M. Stecher, Georges Vernez, with Paul Steinberg. A study by RAND Education, 2010.

Item Text

“… the narrow focus of the law on two academic areas and the states’ reliance on similarly narrow student tests have resulted in unintended outcomes, such as the narrowing of schools’ curricula, encouraging teachers to focus on some students at the expense of others, and discouraging the development of higher-thinking and problem-solving skills.”

Links

www.rand.org

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

Tested v. Nontested Subject Areas

Category: Document / Issue(s) Addressed: Standardized testing in math/reading/etc
Testing in music

Attribution

Anne C. Grey (2010), "No Child Left Behind in Art Education Policy: A Review of Key Recommendations for Arts Language Revisions," Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 8-15.

Originally in P. Pederson (2007), "What Is Measured Is Treasured: The Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on Nonassessed Subjects," The Clearing House, 80(6): 287-91

Item Text

There is less attention given to the non-tested subject areas. Those non-tested subject areas remain invisible. There is less interest in developing those areas. People are so busy with the big [tested subjects] there is no pressure to focus on fine arts, PE, or health.

Links

http://www.heldref.org/pubs/aepr/about.html

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

· 10 Recommendations to Ensure a Place for the Arts: #5

Category: Document / Issue(s) Addressed: Long-term success of students
Testing in music
Graduation requirements in music/arts

· Attribution

· Anne C. Grey (2010), "No Child Left Behind in Art Education Policy: A Review of Key Recommendations for Arts Language Revisions," Arts Education Policy Review, 111(1): 8-15

· Originally in L. Meyer (2004), "The complete Curriculum: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America's Schools," Arts Education Policy Review 106(3): 35-39.

· Item Text

· The Study Group on the Lost Curriculum formulated ten recommendations for state policymakers to ensure that the arts and foreign languages were not lost and, more important, to position both as integral parts of the core curriculum:

· 5. Encourage higher education institutions to increase standards for admission and include arts courses when calculating high school grade point averages.

Principals Strategize to Provide Arts Education

Category: Research Report / Issue(s) Addressed: Facilities/equipment
Music and overall budget
Music as efficient use of school budget
Special budgetary needs of music
Standardized testing in math/reading/etc
Testing in music
In school/after school
Pull-outs
Block scheduling/student ability to participate
Time demands of performances/competitions

Attribution

“Access to Arts Education: Inclusion of Additional Questions in Education's Planned Research Would Help Explain Why Instruction Time Has Decreased for Some Students,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-09-286, February 27, 2009

Item Text

School principals have used several strategies to provide arts education; however, some struggled with decreased budgets and competing demands on instruction time, according to those GAO interviewed. Strategies for maintaining arts education include seeking funding and collaborative arrangements in the arts community. Competing demands on instruction time were due to state education agency or school district actions taken to meet NCLBA proficiency standards.

Links

www.gao.gov

Submitter Information

· Name: MENC Staff

· Email:

· Music Advocacy’s Top Ten for Administrators

·
1. Surveys show that a majority of parents believes the arts are as important as reading, writing, math, science, history, or geography. Most parents want their children to have more experience with the arts than they had when they were young.
- Louis Harris, Americans and the Arts VI, 1992.

·
2. Students in two Rhode Island elementary schools who were given an enriched, sequential, skill-building music program showed marked improvement in reading and math skills. Students in the music program who had started out behind the control group achieved statistical equality in reading and pulled ahead in math.
Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey, and Knowles, Nature, May 23, 1996.

·
3. Over nine in ten adults (93%) surveyed agree that music is part of a well-rounded education.
- Americans’ Attitudes Toward Music, The Gallup Organization, 1997.

·
4. The Kettle Moraine school district in Wales, Wisconsin is requiring piano lessons for all K-5 pupils after seeing encouraging results from a district pilot program. District officials based their pilot program on research findings that show music training - specifically piano instruction - is far superior to computer instruction in enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills.
- Karen Abercrombie, Education Week, October 14, 1998.

·
5. The arts are recognized as a core subject in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act approved by both houses of Congress in 1994.
- National Education Goals Panel.

·
6. A two-year Swiss study involving 1,200 children in 50 schools showed that students involved in the music program were better at languages, learned to read more easily, showed an improved social climate, demonstrated more enjoyment in school, and had a lower stress level than non-music students.
- E.W. Weber, M. Spychiger, and J.L. Patry, 1993.

·
7. Research shows when the arts are included in a student’s curriculum, reading, writing, and math scores improve.
- J. Buchen Milley, A. Oderlund, and J. Mortarotti, “The Arts: An Essential Ingredient in Education,” The California Council of the Fine Arts Deans.

·
8. The College Board identifies the arts as one of the six basic academic subject areas students should study in order to succeed in college.
- Academic Preparation for College: What Students Should Know and Be Able to Do, The College Board.

·
9. When researchers analyzed the NELS:88 database of the U.S. Department of Education, which tracked 25,000 students over a ten-year period, they discovered that students who were involved in music scored higher on standardized tests and reading tests than students not taking music courses. This finding was consistent for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997.

·
10. School districts with strong arts education programs report that superintendents and school principals who collectively support and regularly articulate a vision for arts education are critically important to the successful implementation and stability of district arts education policies.
Gaining the Arts Advantage, The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, 1999.

· 1. In a 1995 study in Hamilton, Ohio, string students who participated in pullout lessons
averaged higher scores than the non-pullout students in all areas of the Ohio Proficiency Test.
Sixty-eight (68) percent of the string students achieved satisfactory ratings on all sections of the
test, compared to fifty-eight (58) percent of the non-pullout students.
- Michael D. Wallick, “A Comparison Study of the Ohio Proficiency Test Results Between Fourth-Grade String Pullout Students and Those of Matched Ability,” Journal of Research in Music Education, 1998.

·
2. According to a 2000 survey, eighty-one (81) percent of people responding believe that
participating in school music corresponds with better grades and test scores. This is an
increase of fourteen (14) percent over the 1997 results for the same question.
- Attitudes, NAMM (International Music Products Association), 2000.

·
3. More music teachers are role models for minority students than teachers of any other
subject. Thirty-six (36) percent of surveyed minority students identified music teachers as their
role models, compared to twenty-eight (28) percent for English teachers, eleven (11) percent
for elementary teachers, and seven (7) percent for physical education teachers.
- “Music teachers as role models for African-American students,” Journal of Research in Music Education,
1993.

·
4. Only thirty-one (31) percent of teenagers and adults in a 2000 survey who do not play an
instrument feel they are too old to start learning.
- Americans Love Making Music – And Value Music Education More Highly Than Ever, American Music
Conference, 2000.

·
5. Researchers at the University of California and the Niigata Brain Research Institute in Japan
have found an area of the brain that is activated only when reading musical scores.
- “Musical Brain – Special Brain Area Found for Reading Music Scores,” NeuroReport, 1998.

·
6. In the 1998 federal study Gaining the Arts Advantage, music teachers in many of the
strongest arts programs nationwide are encouraged by their schools to perform in their
communities and to improve their own performing skills.
- Gaining the Arts Advantage, The President’s Council on the Arts and Humanities, 1998.

·
7. Ninety-two (92) percent of people who play an instrument say they were glad they learned
to do so, according to a 2000 Gallup Poll.
- Gallup Poll Shows Strong Support for Putting Music in Every School’s Curriculum, Giles Communications,2000.

·
8. In academic situations, students in music programs are less likely to draw unfounded
conclusions.
- Champions of Change, Federal study, 1999.

·
9. The scores of elementary instrumental music students on standardized math tests increased
with each year they participated in the instrumental program.
- “Music Training Helps Underachievers,” Nature, May 26, 1996.

·
10. Nine out of ten adults and teenagers who play instruments agree that music making brings
the family closer together.
- Music Making and Our Schools, American Music Conference, 2000.

· Twelve Benefits of Music Education