THE COMPLETE CURRICULUM Ensuring a Place for the Arts and ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

NASBETHE COMPLETE CURRICULUMChapter 3The Narrowing of theCurriculumThis chapter examines the state ofarts and foreign language education inthe country today. While the actualpicture of the study of arts and foreignlanguages is mixed, the Study Group isconcerned that the trend is movingtoward a more narrowed curriculum—one that does not include an adequateamount of instruction in the arts andforeign languages as a part of the corecurriculum.The good news is that thenumber of credits earned by highschool students in the arts and foreignlanguages has been rising for 20 years.However, there is bad news in severalareas. First, there is a problem withequity. Students who attend wealthy,high-performing schools often havemany more opportunities to study thearts and foreign languages than studentsat low-performing schools or schoolsthat serve low-income students.Second, there is a large gap inpolicies surrounding the arts andforeign languages. While most stateshave standards in these subjects forwhat students should know and beable to do, the arts and foreignlanguages are generally absent frompolicies that hold districts and schoolsaccountable for student learning. Inresponse, when educators andadministrators allocate resources,schedule classes, and implementprograms, the arts and foreignlanguages are often given short shrift.The State of the ArtsArts education has receivedincreased attention in recent years,due in large part to promotionalefforts in the national arena, as well asrecent research citing increasedacademic, personal and social successas a result of engaging in the arts.This renewed emphasis on artseducation came after a period ofneglect during the 1980s and early1990s when the arts were oftenslighted as school budgets grew tightand as educational priorities shifted tothe basic subjects, such as reading,mathematics, and science. The trendcame to a head in 1989; the NationalEducation Goals were crafted at thehistoric summit in Charlottesville—with no mention of the arts.However, work had alreadybegun to reverse this trend. In 1988,the National Endowment for the Artspublished Toward Civilization, whichargued that the state of arts educationin American schools was in distressand offered recommendations forimprovement. This was followed by awave of artistic activism and researchstudies into the benefits of artseducation. In 1991, the NationalAssessment Governing Boardapproved the inclusion of the arts inthe 1997 National Assessment ofEducational Progress (NAEP). Threeyears later in 1994, Congress passedand President Clinton signed theGoals 2000 Act, which added the artsto the National Education Goals, andthe National Arts Education Standardswere released. During this time,a series of federal initiatives werelaunched to create sample assessmentframeworks, encourage arts education10
Ensuring a Place for the Arts and Foreign Languages in America’s Schoolsresearch, and convene nationalmeetings to promote arts education.As detailed in Chapter 2, the resultsof these research studies confirmedthe advantages of student participationin arts education.Results from a 1999-2000 FastResponse Survey System (FRSS) onthe status of arts education found thatmusic and visual arts instruction wereavailable in nearly all of the publicelementary schools across thecountry. 13 In high schools, roughlythe same percent of schools offeredmusic and visual arts (90 and 93percent, respectively). However, onlyone-fifth of elementary schools and 14percent of secondary schools offereddance. Drama was available for 20percent of elementary school studentsand just under half of high schoolstudents. It should also be noted thatwhile art and music were available inthe majority of schools, the number ofschools that offered them with fulltimespecialists was markedly lower.The FRSS study also found thatschools offering courses in the artsdid not vary greatly when takinginto account race or income.However, a gap did exist whenexamining issues such as dedicatedspace for arts instruction, as well ascurriculum resources in elementarysettings. For secondary schools,those with lower concentrations ofminority or high-poverty studentswere also more likely to receiveoutside funding and to employ agreater number of specialists, thuscreating more opportunities for artsactivities.The development of a national testfor arts education was anotherimportant step for the field. In 1997,the National Assessment of EducationalProgress (NAEP) arts assessmentwas administered to 6,500 eighthgradestudents nationwide who hadreceived any arts instruction duringtheir school careers (a process whichrevealed, among other things, thatonly half of eighth grade studentsacross the country had received anyarts instruction). The NAEP testmeasured students’ knowledge andskills in music, theatre, and visual arts—an important breakthrough in thedevelopment of assessments across artforms. The results further highlightedanother alarming trend of themarginalization of the arts in thecurriculum.The framework for the assessmentemphasized creating andperforming works of art, and studyingand analyzing existing works. Tocapture these elements, the artsassessment focused on exercises thattested authentic tasks, such as singingor dancing, and constructed-responseand multiple-choice questions, whichgauged the students’ abilities toevaluate works of art in written form.The results varied by discipline,but tended to be higher when gauginga student’s ability to evaluate a pieceof art versus creating or performing.14 For example, for visual arts 55percent of students could identifywhich of four works were contemporaryWestern art, while virtually allstudents found creating threedimensionaltasks challenging.Using the NAEP assessment as aspringboard, a handful of states havealso worked to develop assessmentsin the arts. One state, Missouri, fieldtesteda fine arts assessment in 2000for students in grade 5. The stateestablished five achievement levels,Budget Cutters Target the Arts—andCommunities RespondIn Scotts Valley, California, budget woes spurred parents to launch afund-raising campaign after the superintendent announced a $300,000shortfall in the district’s $16 million budget. Following closely on theheels of the superintendent’s announcement, Governor Gray Davisproposed to cut the state’s education budget to the tune of more than $5billion. Fearing among other things that positions would be cut andprograms like art and music would be eliminated, the communityformed a foundation called the 4 Schools Fund. The foundation targeted7,000 community members, raising $30,000 of their $1 million goal. The$1 million will allow them to set up an endowment, the interest fromwhich would help sustain the district in the future. 16A similar threat in Holliston, Massachusetts resulted in anothercampaign by parents on a much smaller scale. Shrinking state aid,coupled with a decrease in student enrollment forced the local schooldistrict to announce the elimination of the district’s fourth- and fifthgrademusic program. The Music Parents Association quickly movedinto action, raising more than $30,000 to save the program and theteacher who runs it—at least for the coming school year. 1711
Page 1 and 2: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and F
Page 9: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and F
Page 27: Ensuring a Place for the Arts and F
Page 30 and 31: NASBETHE COMPLETE CURRICULUMAppendi
Page 32: NASBETHE COMPLETE CURRICULUMPerform

THE COMPLETE CURRICULUM Ensuring a Place for the Arts and ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?