The Legal Basis of Teaching Arts

The Washington State Arts Commission, ArtsWA, promotes and supports the role of the arts in the lives of all Washingtonians. As Arts in Education (AIE) Program Manager at ArtsWA, Tamar Krames. Despite the government`s proposed budget cuts, the arts education support program within ESSA has received consistent bipartisan support from Congress year after year, with the program receiving an increase of $500,000 to fund to $31 million in fiscal year 2021. For fiscal year 2022, Americans for the Arts is asking Congress to allocate $40 million to the program to pursue multi-year, midterm projects and implement new projects to help arts educators adapt to the post-pandemic educational landscape. The Arts Education Assistance Program (AAE), approved under ESSA Title IV, has awarded arts education grants to more than 230 congressional districts in 33 states. These grants can be used to support standards-based arts education, the integration of arts education into other disciplines, arts education projects for low-income families and students with disabilities, and the professional development of arts educators. In partnership with Vans Custom Culture, Americans for the Arts has developed the Arts Education Navigator, a series of e-books covering a variety of topics to help educators, students, and advocates navigate the complex field of arts education. Americans for the Arts recently joined with 12 arts and educational groups to publish A Shared Endeavor: Arts Education for America`s Students. The toolkit provides organizations with detailed information on how to plan, manage, train and evaluate arts programs for at-risk youth.

Interest in overall U.S. quality Education increased in the 1980s, particularly after the publication of A Nation at Risk by the National Commission on Excellence in Education in 1983. The commission`s report spoke of a “rising tide of mediocrity” in K-12 schools and launched ongoing school reform efforts at all levels. National attention peaked in 1994 with the passage of the Federal Goal 2000: Educate America Act. This law led to the formation of advocacy groups, including the National Coalition for Arts Education, which has made it its mission to ensure that the arts, written in capital letters, take their rightful place in the core curriculum. This coalition included the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, the National Art Education Association, the Music Educators National Conference, and the National Dance Association. He broadly defined arts education as “the process of teaching and learning, how visual and performing arts are created and produced, and how to understand and evaluate art forms created by others” (Arts Education Partnership Working Group, p. 5). The ability to successfully deliver, evaluate and promote equitable arts education programs nationally depends on accurate and timely data. Of particular importance are the Arts Education Rapid Response Survey System, which measures access to arts education in communities across the country, and the National Assessment of Education Progress (NASP), which measures students` abilities in dance, theatre, music and visual arts. The most recent FRSS study on arts education was published in 2012, meaning much of the data may no longer be applicable. While the latest ASEP data on the arts is more recent (published in 2016), the arts were recently removed from the 10-year evaluation calendar by the National Evaluation Governing Council.

The continuation of the SRSF and ASEP is an invaluable source of data for understanding the state of the art at the national level. Recently, the President`s Committee for the Arts and Humanities launched Turnaround Arts, a public-private initiative designed to help transform some of the nation`s underperforming schools through comprehensive and integrated arts education. Preliminary results from the pilot are promising, with schools displaying higher levels of student engagement, focus and collaboration. improved self-esteem; and better behaviour and fewer disciplinary recommendations. In today`s globally competitive job market, a comprehensive and balanced education is essential to ensure students are well prepared for college and the job market. Decades of research combine arts education with higher levels of student engagement, attendance, confidence, perseverance, civic engagement, creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking. In addition, the benefits of teaching art in schools with particularly low family incomes and achievement levels are more dramatic. Many education professionals and policy makers consider arts education to be an essential component of a comprehensive education. Challenges in providing quality arts education include funding, competing priorities, time spent in the school day, and finding qualified teachers. The model is based on the convergence of skills and expertise of several members of the arts education ecosystem: arts educators, community arts organizations and non-arts educators.

Despite the impressive benefits of art classes, not all students have access to these high-quality learning experiences. Here are some talking points about both the importance of arts education and the decline of arts education in our country. Inspiring stories about the importance of art in education. A donation to our cause helps us ensure that other patrons like you have all the tools and resources they need to effectively communicate the importance of arts education to all. The California Coalition for Arts Education, Create CA, is a new collective impact organization focused on advancing the arts and education through multiple initiatives, partnerships, and projects. This statement sets out the purpose and value of arts education in the balanced curriculum of all students, affirms its place as a core academic field, and describes how sequential arts learning can be supported by rigorous national standards and assessments. In addition to the specified funding for arts education under the EAA, there are several other ways to promote the arts within ESSA. Title I, which focuses on the provision of staffing, teaching and interventions to close achievement gaps, can be used to address significant and persistent inequalities in access to arts education in public schools. Title II, which deals with the preparation, training and recruitment of highly qualified teachers, principals and other school educators, can be used to secure funding for the professional development of arts educators.

Finally, Title IV, Part A, which contains scholarships for student support and academic enrichment, can be used to support the arts as part of a comprehensive education. Browse our tools and resources to start supporting arts education in your community: The National Art Education Association has played a central role in setting the expectations for arts education enshrined in the National Standards: students must understand and apply media and artistic processes; use visual art structures and functions; Selection and evaluation of a range of topics, symbols and ideas; understand art in relation to history and cultures; reflect and evaluate the merits of their own work and that of others; and linking art with other disciplines. In December 2015, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Primary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA) in overwhelming votes. ESSA, the current iteration of the Primary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), includes art and music in the definition of “well-rounded education”. Within the ASHS, there are several ways the federal government can fund and support equal access to arts education for K-12 students across the country. Ideally, the collaboration and integration that characterize arts education at the elementary level will result in programs for young youth. Many U.S. colleges use a team-based teaching approach to organize classes and schedules, which facilitates an arts and humanities framework and encourages the inclusion of art in the core curriculum. In colleges, which function more like high schools, art classes are usually organized around media and art forms and are treated as electives. But the 1970s also marked the beginning of a period of intense work by arts educators to revive interest in arts education. At the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, for example, work has been done on the implementation of a theory of transformation: discipline-based arts education (DBAE). This theory suggested that artistic creation (or “studio art”) – the impetus for creative expression – needed to be broadened and informed by paying attention to the complementary disciplines of art history, aesthetics and art criticism, even when teaching younger students.