MacEwen Patterson on "Keep the Arts in Public Schools"

As the nation is waking up to the long-term impacts of No Child Left Behind and what a tone of public policy can do to a generation of children, our ability to scientifically measure it is surfacing and adding new light.

Here's the results of the Nations Report Card:

The National Assessment Governing Board released the 2008 NAEP Arts, which presents the educational progress of eighth-grade students nationally in visual arts and music.

Theatre and dance were not surveyed because of budget restrictions and difficulty in previous years finding enough theater and dance classes to yield reliable results. In addition, the questions that assessed student creation of music were eliminated for budget reasons.

In both music and visual arts,

* Average responding scores were higher for White and Asian/Pacific Islander students than Black and Hispanic students. The pattern was the same for the visual arts creating task scores.
* Female students had a higher average responding score than male students. Female students had a higher average creating task score in visual arts.
* Students who were eligible for free/reduced price school lunch had a lower average responding score and a lower average creating task score in visual arts than those who were not eligible.
* City students scored lower than suburban, town and rural students.


Additional findings included the following:

* Eight percent of surveyed schools do not offer music instruction. Fourteen percent of schools do not offer visual arts classes.
* Eight percent of surveyed schools offer music instruction less than once a week. Ten percent of schools offer visual arts instruction less than once a week.
* Fifty-seven percent of eighth-graders in 2008 attended schools where students received music instruction at least three or four times a week.
* Forty-seven percent of eighth-graders in 2008 attended schools where students received visual arts instruction at least three or four times a week.

Although this survey is not designed to assess the frequency of instruction (unlike the 2012 F.R.S.S. in the arts will do), today’s press release began with the headline, “Frequency of Arts Instruction Remains Steady Since 1997 on the Nation’s Report Card in Music and Visual Arts.”

This report is thin. And it is the best we've gotten in over ten years. The New York Times ran a piece today with the headline:

The New York Times

June 16, 2009
‘Mediocre’ Arts Skills for American Eighth-Graders
Link: http://bit.ly/nytArts

The article by Sam Dillon begins... (excerpt):

Music and art instruction in American eighth-grade classrooms has remained flat over the past decade, according to a new survey conducted by the federal Department of Education, and one official involved in the survey called student achievement in those subjects “mediocre.” [Read More Here - http://bit.ly/nytArts ]

So where does this leave us?

As a Facebook Cause it leaves us with more information to work with and hopefully more inspiration to do something. I want, finally to introduce briefly, Gladstone & Narric, the Director and Associate Director of Federal Affairs. Quick Photo: http://twitpic.com/7hb97

I'll be sharing more with you as the week unfolds.

Two quick housekeeping items:

1. If you are in Los Angeles and are concerned about Summer School being canceled, we are doing what we can to create an option. If you have a willingness to help, that's great. I'll set up a volunteer page by Wednesday.
2. July 4th is our Day of Giving - we have a lot of new members who may not know we're gearing up for one day of coordinated donation. $10 is the minimum Causes can process. Please save up.

Thanks to all of you. I appreciate knowing how important this is to you!

MacEwen
Admin
www.twitter.com/KAIPS