10/30/2009 - New Report Links High School Graduation Rates to Arts Education
The Center for Arts Education (CAE) recently released a new study of New York City public schools entitled “Staying in School: Arts Education and New York City High School Graduation Rates” which found high school graduation rates and access to arts education to be closely linked. Based on data from more than 200 high schools over a two-year span, the study found the schools with the highest graduation rates offer the most access and resources to support arts education.
Search “High School Graduation Rates” in the SupportMusic “Make Your Case” database to access the report and view highlights of the research.
10/19/2009 - MENC Hosts Webinar Featuring Colleagues from CCSSO and AEP
On Tuesday, October 13, MENC hosted a webinar for state leaders featuring officers from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) and our colleagues from the Arts Education Legislative Working Group that tracks legislative action. The webinar entitled "Federal Policy & State Implementation for State Leaders in Arts Education" covered accessing ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds from the U.S. Department of Education programs Race to the Top (RTTT) and Investing in Innovation (I3).
Click here to view the webinar and associated documents.
10/2/2009 - U.S. Department of Education Stakeholders Meeting on Reauthorization of ESEA
On September 24 the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan made remarks at the monthly stakeholders meeting regarding the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and why we can’t wait.
“Let us build a law that discourages a narrowing of curriculum and promotes a well-rounded education that draws children into sciences and history, languages and the arts in order to build a society distinguished by both intellectual and economic prowess. Our children must be allowed to develop their unique skills, interests, and talents. Let's give them that opportunity.”
MENC Senior Deputy Executive Director Michael Blakeslee was in attendance at the meeting and asked this question of Deputy Secretary Tony Miller:
“Are you in favor of, and will you push for, the public reporting of a wider variety of accomplishments of the schools and of students in all the core academic subjects?”
Deputy Secretary Tony Miller’s response:
“I think, principally, yes… we in education think transparency is very, very important to understand what is the state of learning at the state, district, and school levels, that allow parents and communities to engage effectively… And what we have learned is that there are no single metrics that best capture what is really effective learning.”
Read the Department of Education press release, transcript or view video of the session.
9/25/2009 - Common Core State Standards Available for Comment
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released the first official public draft of the college- and career-readiness standards in English-language arts and mathematics as part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, a process being led by governors and chief state school officers in 51 states and territories. These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing, academic college courses and in workforce training programs.
The NGA Center and CCSSO are encouraging those interested in the standards to provide feedback, which must be supported by research and evidence, by October 21 at www.corestandards.org.
9/15/2009 - Secretary Duncan on the Record
On September 3, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a town hall forum in Sacramento, CA. In response to a question from a community member about promoting arts in schools, Duncan said:
"It's always the arts that get cut when money gets tight, (but) it's often band, choir, musicals, being on a sports team, being on a debate team that keep children in school. We cannot afford to narrow the curriculum, and (teaching the arts) is one the best underutilized strategies for keeping children in school."
9/3/2009 - Advocacy Letter to Your Principal
Use the form letter below to send to your principal explaining the use of ESEA Title I funds for music education:
Dear Principal [Insert principal’s name here],
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently penned a letter in support of arts education and as a reminder to education administrators that Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I funds may be used to fund arts education in our schools. The Secretary writes,
“At this time when you are making critical and far-reaching budget and program decisions for the upcoming school year, I write to bring to your attention the importance of the arts as a core academic subject and part of a complete education for all students. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) defines the arts as a core subject, and the arts play a significant role in children’s development and learning process.
“Under ESEA, states and local school districts have the flexibility to support the arts. Title I, Part A of ESEA funds arts education to improve the achievement of disadvantaged students. Funds under Title II of ESEA can be used for professional development of arts teachers as well as for strategic partnerships with cultural, arts and other nonprofit organizations.”
I hope you will pursue these funds for music education because, as you may already know [Insert fact about music from the SupportMusic “Make Your Case” database here].
Thank you for your consideration and I look forward to the upcoming school year.
Sincerely,
[Insert your name here]
If you would like an electronic copy of this letter to format for your use, please e-mail advocacy@menc.org.
8/28/2009 - Back to School Advocacy Speech
Use the outline below to address parents on your back to school night:
Welcome, I’d like to say that I’m really looking forward to teaching [blank, e.g. 8th grade chorus] this [year, semester, quarter].
I’m so pleased that we’re able to work together to learn music. Did you know that, in addition to being fun and a great way to round out the education of the whole child, music education:
[Insert an appropriate fact/quote/statistic from the new “Make Your Case” database powered by SupportMusic.com]
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently stated his support for arts education in an August 2009 letter to school and education community leaders. He writes: “At this time when you are making critical and far-reaching budget and program decisions for the upcoming school year, I write to bring your attention to the importance of the arts as a core academic subject and part of a complete education for all students […] I was reminded of the important role that arts education plays in providing American students with a well-rounded education. The arts can help students become tenacious, team-oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively.”
Recently, Secretary Duncan highlighted three things advocates can do to bolster arts education locally:
1. Highlight the successes [insert local success story]
2. Support creative partnerships [insert example of a local creative partnership]
3. Encourage parents to demand arts education
As your child’s music teacher, I encourage you to please continue your support of our music program and all of our school’s arts education programs throughout the year.
Again, welcome, and I’m certain that we’ll have a great time together in the coming [year, semester, quarter].
8/19/2009 - U.S. Secretary of Education Highlights the Importance of Arts Education
On August 18, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke with the SupportMusic Coalition regarding his August 2009 letter to school and education community leaders about the importance of arts education.
Secretary Duncan highlighted three things advocates can do to bolster arts education locally:
1. Highlight the successes,
2. Support creative partnerships and
3. Encourage parents to demand it [arts education].
Following Secretary Duncan’s comments, MENC’s Mike Blakeslee, Heather Noonan of League of American Orchestras and Mark Goth of Paige’s Music shared perspectives on how to turn the Secretary’s words into action.
Listen to the call and read the transcript at SupportMusic.
Read the report about the call from the NAMM Foundation.
7/27/2009 - U.S. House Appropriations Committee Report on Funding for the Arts in Education
Every year, the Congress determines levels of funding for the Arts in Education section of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This is important, because even though a variety of activities and programs are authorized under that act, nothing happens with out appropriations. Traditionally, this appropriation process for the Federal Fiscal year (October to September) begins in the House of Representatives. This year’s House Appropriations Committee report is just out, and includes an overall $2 million increase for the section, including $1 million each for each of the competitive grant programs under that section. Here’s how it breaks out:
Noncompetitive programs
VSA Arts $8,639,000
Kennedy Center $6,838,000
Evaluation activities $ 494,000
Competitive Grant programs
Model Arts Development and Dissemination Grants $14,675,000
Arts Educator Professional Development Grants $ 9,520,000
The “evaluation activities” were requested by MENC and our partners so that we have a better handle on how to improve both Department programs and arts education in general. The committee report recognizes this need, saying that “the Committee requests that the Department of Education produce comprehensive reports on the status of all arts education disciplines in U.S. public schools when implementing future Fast Response Statistical Surveys and National Assessment of Education Progress evaluations.”
We will keep you informed when money for the competitive grants is available, and about the rules for applying for those grants. Descriptions of the programs can be found at www.ed.gov/programs/artsedprofdev/index.html and www.ed.gov/programs/artsedmodel/index.html.
7/2/2009 - Secretary Duncan's Remarks at the Rally for Music Education
Listen to Secretary Duncan's speech
From the U.S. Department of Education Building, Washington, DC, June 18, 2009 -- Thank you so much! I think this is my weightlifting for the day! I’ll take them all home and surprise my wife with these boxes tonight.
I appreciate the collective leadership so much. And I really want to thank the students who are here today—it’s extraordinarily important that we continue to listen to our students, to learn from them. All of our collective jobs as adults is to give you the opportunities that you need to be successful. And as you probably know I’m traveling the country on this listening and learning tour, trying to figure out what’s working, what’s not, and how do we improve. And it’s been fascinating. I’ve been in inner city Detroit; I’ve been in rural Vermont; I’ve been in West Virginia; I was on the Indian reservation in Montana. And there’s a number of themes emerging. It’s interesting—urban, rural, suburban—the themes are very, very consistent. And the students, teachers, parents, principals—everyone seems to share the concerns that you’re expressing today. Everyone’s concerned about a narrowing of the curriculum; everyone’s concerned about a lack of access to quality arts education, quality music education; and what worries me the most is the children who need the most access are often the ones who have the least. It’s the children who don’t have access to private lessons who need it.
To me this is so important for a couple reasons. Yes, we want to have great math scores and we want to, you know, have our students be successful, but we all know the research shows exposure to music helps those math scores. These things aren’t in conflict; in fact, they actually mutually reinforce each other.
Also, it’s so important to me that we give our students a reason to be excited about coming to school every day, to be passionate. We have to dramatically drive down our dropout rates in this country. We lose 30% of our young people before they graduate from high school. They have no options in today’s economy. None. For me it was sports. For other students, it’s dance, or drama, or music, or band, or chess, or debate, or yearbook, or all those things that are seen as “extras” or extracurriculars—those are actually the heart of giving our students a reason to get up and go to school every day and to be excited.
So I pledge to you, as we go forward and think about NCLB reauthorization, and as you know, this is a big deal, this is not something we’re going to do every year. It’s something we’re going to create a new law for the country and that law’s going to be in place for five, six, seven, eight years. As we go forward, and we continue to listen and learn, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we don’t continue to narrow the curriculum, that we broaden it out, that we give all of our young people a chance before school, during school, lunch, after school—you name it—to develop their skills, to develop their sense of self-esteem, to develop their passions. The only way that happens is if our children have exposure to a broad range of activities, and music is a huge, huge piece of that.
I’m absolutely convinced that if more students had that kind of exposure, test scores would go up, and much more importantly, graduation rates would go up, students would feel better about themselves, and long term, their success in life would be dramatically better because they had those basic opportunities.
So I thank you for your collective leadership. I thank MENC for bringing us all together. To the adults here, thank you for your passion. But again, most importantly, for our students from around the country, from Alaska and everyone else, I want you to know that we hear you loudly and clearly, and we want to work with you going forward to make sure that every child in this country has a chance to develop their skills, develop their sense of self esteem, be excited about going to school every single day, and music is a huge, huge part of that.
So thank you so much for your hard work, and I look forward to work with you together going forward. Thank you so much.