Lessons From School Districts That Value

ARTS EDUCATION

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES and ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP
GORDON AMBACH

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

COUNCIL OF CHIEF STATE

SCHOOL OFFICERS

WASHINGTON, DC

BENJAMIN CANADA

SUPERINTENDENT

PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PORTLAND, OR

RAMON C. CORTINES

EXECUTVE DIRECTOR

THE PEW NETWORK FOR

STANDARDS-BASED REFORM

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

PALO ALTO, CA

DIANE FRANKEL

DIRECTOR

INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM

AND LIBRARY SERVICES

WASHINGTON, DC

DOUG HERBERT

DIRECTOR

ARTS IN EDUCATION

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT

FOR THE ARTS

WASHINGTON, DC

JIM HERBERT

DIRECTOR

DIVISION OF RESEARCH

AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR

THE HUMANITIES

WASHINGTON, DC

DAVE MASTER

DIRECTOR

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT

AND TRAINING

WARNER BROTHERS FEATURE

ANIMATION

GLENDALE, CA

BONNIE POLITZ

SENIOR PROGRAM OFFICER

CENTER FOR YOUTH

DEVELOPMENT

AND POLICY RESEARCH

ACADEMY FOR

EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

WASHINGTON, DC

JANE WALTERS

COMMISSIONER

TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT

OF EDUCATION

NASHVILLE, TN

DENNIE PALMER WOLF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

PACE - HARVARD

GRADUATE SCHOOL

OF EDUCATION

CAMBRIDGE, MA

OTHER ADVISORS

ELLEN MCCULLOCH-LOVELL

DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE

PRESIDENT AND ADVISOR

TO THE FIRST LADY ON

THE MILLENNIUM

WHITE HOUSE

MILLENNIUM COUNCIL

WASHINGTON, DC

SARAH HOWES

AGENCY REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT

OF EDUCATION

WHITE HOUSE

MILLENNIUM COUNCIL

WASHINGTON, DC

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

Honorary Chair

JOHN BRADEMAS

Chairman

PEGGY COOPER CAFRITZ

Vice Chair

EMILY MALINO SCHEUER

Vice Chair

TERRY SEMEL

Vice Chair

SUSAN BARNES-GELT

LERONE BENNETT, JR.

MADELEINE HARRIS BERMAN

CURT BRADBURY

JOHN H. BRYAN

HILARIO CANDELA

ANNE COX CHAMBERS

MARGARET CORBETT DALEY

EVERETT L. FLY

HARVEY GOLUB

RICHARD S. GURIN

IRENE Y. HIRANO

DAVID HENRY HWANG

QUINCY JONES

ROBERT MENSCHEL

RITA MORENO

ANTHONY PODESTA

ANN SHEFFER

RAYMOND SMITH

ISAAC STERN

SHIRLEY WILHITE

HAROLD WILLIAMS

FEDERAL MEMBERS

DAVID BARRAM

JAMES H. BILLINGTON

WILLIAM R. FERRIS

DIANE B. FRANKEL

JOHN D. HAWKE, JR.

I. MICHAEL HEYMAN

BILL IVEY

JAMES A. JOHNSON

TERRY PETERSON

EARL A. POWELL, III

ROBERT STANTON

HARRIET MAYOR FULBRIGHT

Executive Director

PRESIDENT'S

COMMITTEE ON

THE ARTS AND

THE HUMANITIES

ARTS

ADVISORY

COMMITTEE

ARTS EDUCATION

PARTNERSHIP

RICHARD J. DEASY

Director
President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and Arts Education Partnership

Funded by

GE FUND

THE JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

BINNEY & SMITH

Additional Support Provided by

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

WHITE HOUSE MILLENNIUM COUNCIL

Lessons From School Districts That Value

ARTS EDUCATION

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE
COPYRIGHT © 1999 PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES

AND ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP

EDITOR/WRITER: LAURA LONGLEY

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Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION

CONTENTS

FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PAGE 4

by Harriet Mayor Fulbright 

and Richard J. Deasy

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 5

by Ramon C. Cortines

HOW THE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 7

THE STUDY'S FINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PAGE 9

SCHOOL DISTRICT CASE STUDIES AND PROFILES . . . . . . PAGE 15

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PAGE 87

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE
PAGE 4

T his report responds to questions posed by school and

community leaders throughout the United States about public

school districts that have made

competence in the arts as well as

literacy one of the fundamental

purposes of schooling for all their

students.

As Dr. Benjamin Canada,

then superintendent in Atlanta,

Georgia, and now in Portland,

Oregon, put it to us when we first

considered undertaking this study:

"I want to know what is going on in

these districts, how they are doing

it, and what effects they see."

Similar questions were

framed by school superintendents

and school board members we gathered in focus groups at the beginning

of this study. The "hows" that interested them were not only the

strategies and practices regarding

staffing, programs, and facilities.

They were perhaps even more interested in how these districts developed

and sustained arts education in the

face of the enormous pressures on

them to prove the success of their

schools by accountability measures

that focus largely on reading, math,

and writing.

We believe this report – and

the database available on its accompanying Web site – provide answers

to both sets of "how." It documents

some of the best practices used by

these school districts to address

staffing, program and resource

needs. Yet if there is a single, overriding lesson they teach it is that

the presence and quality of arts

education in public schools today

require an exceptional degree of

involvement by influential segments of the community which

value the arts in the total affairs of

the school district: in governance,

funding, and program delivery.

Orchestrating this involvement so that the arts are seen as

fundamental to the general education of all students is a task that

falls on school and community

leadership alike. This report shows

ways it is being done throughout

the United States.

Ninety-one school districts

are featured in this report. But

hundreds more were identified by

state and national education and

arts organizations as having outstanding arts education throughout

their schools. We are grateful to the

countless individuals in all of the

districts who contributed their

time, wisdom, and enthusiasm to

make this report meaningful to

their colleagues across the country.

They knew better than we the questions that needed to be answered.

We hope we have recorded their

answers faithfully and accurately.

FOREWORD

by Harriet Mayor Fulbright and Richard J. Deasy

This study was directed on behalf of the

President's Committee on the Arts and

the Humanities and Arts Education

Partnership by Harriet Mayor Fulbright and

Richard J. Deasy. 

Harriet Mayor Fulbright,

executive director of the

President's Committee on the

Arts and the Humanities since

the spring of 1997, has spent

most of her adult life in the

fields of education and the

arts. Her administrative

experience includes the

Congressional Arts Caucus

(its first assistant director), the

Fulbright Association (executive director), the Center for

the Arts in the Basic

Curriculum (president), and

the Fulbright International

Center (president).

Richard J. Deasy,

director of the Arts Education

Partnership, formerly known

as the Goals 2000 Arts

Education Partnership, served

as assistant state superintendent of schools for Maryland,

where he had responsibility

for all curricular areas and

statewide assessments as

well as services to special

student populations. Deasy

also served as executive

assistant to the secretary of

education in Pennsylvania 

and as president and CEO of

the National Council for

International Visitors. A prizewinning journalist covering

politics and government at the

state and local levels, he was

nominated for a Pulitzer Prize

for his reporting on housing

and urban affairs in the

Philadelphia area. 

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

“...the presence

and quality of arts

education in public

schools today

require an

exceptional degree

of involvement

by influential

segments of the

community which

value the arts...”
Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 5

INTRODUCTION

by Ramon C. Cortines

A WORD TO MY COLLEAGUES:

There is a two-day retreat described

in this report at which superintendents of

each of the school districts in New York

City – challenged by the redoubtable

Maxine Greene – decide that it is important for each of them to clarify his or her

philosophy of arts education and the specific application of the philosophy that

will work in their districts. The school

leaders recognize that they need a vision

and that they must be able to articulate

the values of arts education to their unique

communities. 

I have colleagues like those in

mind as I offer the following thoughts on

making the case for district-wide arts

education in public education today.

S

ince the early 1980s, education

in the United States has undergone a sea change. Reformers

have come to espouse a systemic perspective, viewing the different

components of the education system

as fundamentally interrelated. The

challenge for educators is to create

schools that help students acquire the

knowledge, skills, confidence, and

motivation to succeed in the increasingly sophisticated workforce and as

parents and citizens. 

Because the arts possess the

power to play a role in meeting this

challenge, an arts education must be

fundamental, not incidental. I consider the arts to be the "fourth R" – a basic

component in the curriculum and a

basic tool in the school reform arsenal.

But there are legions of people who do

not see the arts as either intrinsically

valuable or even useful in acquiring

"real world" skills or achieving success

in the "other basics." Therefore, making the case for the arts to important

constituencies involved in school

reform – parents, business and civic

leaders, other educators – is a crucial

part of a school leader's job today.

In my experience, the case for

the arts is built upon either (1) the

intrinsic value of the arts or (2) the

value of an arts education's consequences. Both are valid. 

To establish the value of an

arts education's consequences, its "real

world" benefits, many people point to

the wonderful skills and habits that

artistic appreciation and production

help form. Indeed, the arts stimulate,

develop, and refine many cognitive

and creative skills; they contribute significantly to the creation of the flexible

and adaptable "knowledge workers" so

many business people say will be crucial to the 21st century economy; and

they draw upon and draw out the multiple intelligences of students.

On the other hand, trying to

answer the question, "Why should we

care about the arts?" from the standpoint of intrinsic value is a little like

trying to answer the question, "Why

should we care about our health?" The

arts, like our health, need no calculus

of justification. We engage in the arts,

we ought to teach the arts, because

this is part of what it means to be

human. The arts are fundamental to

communicating and understanding

not only ourselves, but others.

Through the arts we learn to appreciate, and even to create, things of

MAKING THE

CASE FOR

DISTRICT-WIDE

ARTS EDUCATION

RAMON C. CORTINES,

is the executive director of the Pew

Network for Standards-Based Reform at

Stanford University. He has been a school

teacher and an administrator since 1956.

He has taught at the elementary, middle,

and senior high school levels and held

numerous positions in public schools,

including the post of superintendent for

the Pasadena, San Jose, and San

Francisco, California, school systems.

Appointed chancellor of the New York

City Public School System in September

1993, he served in that position until

October 1995. He has chaired task forces

and committees at both the state and federal levels. He serves on the boards of

Brown University, the J. Paul Getty Trust,

Scholastic, Inc., Special Olympics, Inc.,

the San Francisco Symphony, and the

National Center for Public Policy and

Higher Education.

beauty. We know about the ancient

Greeks and Native Americans, for

example, by the architecture, poetry,

and paintings they left behind. We,

too, will be known someday to future

generations by the art we produce and

leave to posterity. I believe that students cannot understand culture, their

own or others', without a solid sense

of the arts. 

There are other important

points that strengthen the case for the

arts to parents, to business people, to

other educators.

Parents are naturally concerned with the basics. We can explain

how the arts are themselves basic and

how they contribute to learning the

"other" basics. But we can also tell parents how the arts help develop a

young person's character and values,

confidence and empathy, respect and

tolerance. 

If, for example, you are a

member of the cast of a play, you have

an obligation to learn your lines well.

You have to help pull the performance

together. You can't just ad lib and "do

your own thing." You have to work

continued on next page

toward the goal of the group. Through

the arts, children learn that there is a

time for originality and a time for replication, a time to be the star and a time

to be a productive member of the

group. The arts help children build a

value system in which they learn selfdiscipline and responsibility; they learn

to value effort and to get enjoyment

and inspiration from its results. 

Business leaders tell us they

want higher-order thinking skills in the

21st century – specifically, critical

thinking and nimbleness in judgment,

creativity and imagination, cooperative

decision making, leadership, high-level

literacy and communication, and the

capacity for problem posing and problem solving. This is exactly what the

arts help produce. 

The so-called "creative arts

industry," moreover, is no small thing.

The arts represent six percent of our

gross national product, a figure equal

to wholesale trade. In 1990, consumer

spending on the performing arts outpaced expenditure on either motion

pictures or sports. Meanwhile, technology is tapping into the arts and

incorporating them into ever more

sophisticated and stimulating products

and processes. Even now future integration of arts and technology is being

shaped in and by our school systems,

including several districts profiled here.

How, finally, do we make the

case to other educators? 

We must show, plainly and

simply, that an arts education

improves teaching and learning. 

Educators say they want

materials and activities that are "constructivist," that is, concrete and

hands-on. They seek materials that are

multi-modal, multicultural, appealing

and challenging to the classroom's

diverse range of learners. They look

for activities that provide not just one

means of assessment but multiple

ways to track and evaluate a student's

progress. They want materials that

promote critical thinking. They look

for activities that are interdisciplinary.

So what do we know from

decades of research? We know that the

materials, the activities, the answers

that address all these needs are to be

found in the arts.We know:

• that an arts education contributes

significantly to improved critical

thinking, problem posing, problem

solving, and decision making;

• that, as with language and mathematics, the crux of an arts education

involves the communication, manipulation, interpretation, and understanding of complex symbols;

• that developing fluency in artistic

expression and understanding fosters

higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation;

• that the arts are multi-modal,

addressing and fostering the multiple

intelligences of students (spatial abilities, for example, develop through

drawing and sculpture, mathematical-logical abilities through

producing and listening to music,

kinesthetic or physical abilities

through dance, interpersonal skills

through drama); 

• that the arts develop a person's imagination and judgment, permitting

each individual, in Maxine Greene's

classic phrase, to create "as if" worlds,

places where we see the world afresh.

I know a teacher who edits

the school's creative arts magazine. She

teachers her students that a story or

poem needs to have what she calls

"moment," making the reader pause

and reflect on the world. An arts education is all about developing the

capacity for "moment" – a seismic jolt

that shakes up our consciousness, our

old encrusted ways of seeing and

doing things. 

Research confirms what we

always knew intuitively: The arts teach

all of us – students and teachers alike –

innovation, novelty, and creativity. We

learn to be wondrous. 

We know, of course, that arts

education is not the magic pill that

will simultaneously reform schools

and boost student achievement.

Systemic reform in the 1990s has

taught us that improving education

will mean paying attention to all parts

of the educational system. But the arts

are a basic part of any program of education and crucial to any program of

reform. Again, arts education must be

fundamental, not incidental. 

What can you as a school

leader do to support arts education –

beyond making the case to key constituencies? Consider these steps:

• Join the board of the local arts council.

• Consider the arts background and

cultural interests when hiring your

next educator, whether you are looking for a music teacher, a math

teacher, or a principal.

• Reach out to the local university or

college to establish or strengthen a

partnership that will enhance arts

education.

• Invite local arts groups to give performances or demonstrations at your

schools.

• Call a community forum on the arts

to discuss recent research on the arts

and learning.

Finally, take the time to familiarize yourself with the variety of

programs and practices described in

this report. While there are no surefire formulas for success, the vast

multiplicity of ways to incorporate the

arts into schooling makes it easy for

every educator to promote the arts and,

in so doing, promote high-quality education throughout our school systems.

PAGE 6
Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 7

All of the school districts considered for inclusion in this report

and database were nominated

by education, arts, and arts education

organizations at the national, state,

and local levels using a set of criteria

developed by the project advisors and

researchers.

More than 500 school districts

were nominated and invited to submit

documentation for further review.

Some 300 districts responded. Schools,

programs, and students in virtually all

of these districts have been honored in

recent years for their achievements in

arts education. Reviewers, however,

sought districts that over a number of

years have been attempting to reach

all students and all schools. Ultimately,

the school districts included in this

report were chosen because they met

this standard and because they were

willing and able to commit the time

and energy to respond to interrogation

by the project team during the two

years of the study.

All districts in the study were

asked to comment on the major strategies, strengths, and practices which

they believe contribute to their ability

to teach the arts (see "Participating

School Districts – in General"). Eight

HOW THE STUDY

WAS CONDUCTED

of the districts were selected on the

basis of demographic and geographical

considerations for site visits by a team

that included at least one researcher

and one superintendent of schools.

The purpose of the site visit was to

probe and clarify through a series of

questions and observations the factors

that enable districts to sustain quality

arts education system-wide. Phone

interviews and document reviews were

used to determine if these factors were

at work in the districts not visited. As a

result, the study reports on a general

set of findings as well as specific strategies and best practices found in the

districts. Descriptions of the districts

in this written report are used to illustrate a major finding, crucial strategy,

or outstanding practice. A complete

list of districts nominated for inclusion

in the study, including individuals to

be contacted in each of the districts,

are provided in the database accessible

through the project's Web site. 

PARTICIPATING SCHOOL DISTRICTS –

IN GENERAL

Before the first interviews were conducted or sites visited, it was

possible for the researchers to make a

number of generalizations about school

districts with strong arts education

based upon the 500 district recommendations and the completed surveys and

applications of the 300 respondents.

Through data and description, the districts provided information about

student performance, breadth and

depth of arts education offerings,

staffing, access, innovation, community involvement, resources, leadership,

and use of guidelines such as local,

state, or national standards.

Student Performance:

• Many of the districts have students

who win local, state, and national

awards, including Scholastic Art

competitions, regional band competitions, Presidential Scholars in the

Arts recognition.

• A few of the districts and their states

assess student achievement in the arts.

Breadth:

• Most districts participating in the

study offer visual art and music in

most of their schools. 

• Some districts offer theater in middle

schools; many offer theater in high

schools.

• A few districts offer dance separately

from physical education.

• A growing number of districts are

expanding, adding, or planning to

develop arts and technology and/or

school-to-work programs with computer graphics, design, MIDI music

composition, video, film, animation,

photography.

• Some districts mention special writing courses and activities above and

beyond creative writing as part of an

English course.

Depth: 

• Most districts offer a range of sequential arts coursework in their high

schools for the developing student.

• The stronger districts begin arts education in the early years; frequently, this

is an area of emphasis for rebuilding.

Staffing:

• Most districts included in this report

had a high percentage of full-time,

certified arts education specialists.

• Districts usually have more specialists

in music than in other disciplines.

• Stronger districts have specialists in

the elementary schools.

• Medium-sized to large school systems with support for arts education

usually have at least one district arts

coordinator.

• Districts choosing to integrate the

arts across the curriculum have a

high percentage of classroom teachers using arts techniques.

continued on next page
PAGE 8

(NOTE: Districts overcoming great challenges

often had a different staff profile.) 

Access:

• This area is a challenge for districts.

• Some districts made special attempts

at outreach to students with at-risk

backgrounds and/or disabilities who

are often underrepresented in the arts.

• The strongest districts make a commitment to providing a basic

education in the arts to every child,

usually in the elementary years.

• Districts perceive graduation requirements in the arts as helpful in

increasing access and exposure in

secondary schools. 

Innovation:

• Urban and rural districts faced great

challenges in offering strong arts

education.

• Community collaborations were

overwhelmingly cited as a way to

overcome those challenges.

Community:

• Most districts work with the community to offer and enhance arts

education through parent involvement, artists in the schools, and

relationships with arts institutions,

businesses, and universities. 

Resources:

• Most districts have a district-level

commitment to the arts through

apportioned resources.

• Many districts are rebuilding after

severe cuts to the arts 15 years ago.

Leadership:

• Many districts have school boards

and superintendents who have won

awards for leadership in arts education, such as the Kennedy

Center/National School Board

Association award.

• Some of the strongest districts have

arts-supportive school leaders who

have worked for the district for more

than a decade.

• District arts coordinators often take a

leading role.

Guidelines:

• Many districts working on educational reform use state and national

standards in the arts to shape their

arts education.

• Some districts work to overcome the

effects of the "back-to-basics" standards movement that moved the arts

to the background, if not out of the

picture altogether.

WHO STUDIED THE

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

S

even school superintendents and

educators provided this study

with their knowledge of school

districts, administration, arts education, and specific programs across the

nation; with their evaluation of applicants to this study and their time and

expertise on site visits to the "case

study" districts, and with their invaluable review and comment on the final

draft of this report. At the request of

the President's Committee and Arts

Education Partnership, they also share

on the report’s Web site (www.pcah.gov)

what they feel they personally learned

from these school districts.

Dawn M. Ellis, who served as senior

project associate, President's Committee

on the Arts and the Humanities and Arts

Education Partnership, graduated from

Yale University and received her Ed.M.

in Administration, Planning and Social

Policy from Harvard University.

Mary Lee Fitzgerald, senior fellow,

New Jersey Institute for School

Innovation, received her Ph.D. from

Rutgers University. Previously, she

served as New Jersey state commissioner of education. 

Nellie King, superintendent of

Lackawanna City Schools in New York,

received her certificate of advanced

study in educational administration at

Buffalo State University. 

Lane Plugge, superintendent of Grand

Island (NE) Public Schools, currently

serves as president of the Nebraska

Council of School Administration. He

received his master’s degree from the

University of Nebraska at Omaha, and

his Ph.D. from the University of

Nebraska at Lincoln.

Warren Newman, owner and private

consultant for Livewire Arts, spent three

years as the director of the Arts in

Education Program of the National

Endowment for the Arts, prior to

which he was superintendent of

South Pasadena (CA) Schools. He

received his Ed.D. from the University

of Southern California.

Paul Williams, superintendent of

Beachwood (OH) City Schools, received

his Ph.D. from Michigan State

University. Currently, he is the chairman of SMART Consortium, a math

and science study initiative.

Brent Wilson, professor and head of

art education in the School of Visual

Arts at the Pennsylvania State

University, holds a Ph.D. in art education from the Ohio State University,

an MFA degree in painting and sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art

(1958), and a bachelor of science

degree in art and art education from

Utah State University. His most

recent book is The Quiet Evolution:

Changing the Face of Arts Education

(1997), published by the Getty

Education Institute for the Arts. 



continued from previous page

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE
Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 9

PURPOSE AND

PROCESS

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY

IS TO IDENTIFY THE CONDITIONS

AND PRACTICES THAT CREATE

AND SUSTAIN DISTRICT-WIDE

COMMITMENT TO ARTS

EDUCATION FOR ALL STUDENTS.

WHY DISTRICT-WIDE? 

Quality arts instruction can be

found in schools throughout the

United States. Often, however, these

programs reach only segments of the

student population. This study examines efforts in public school districts –

urban, suburban, and rural – throughout the United States to make the arts

an essential part of the general education of all students.

All of the districts discussed

here have been recognized at the

national, state, and/or local levels for

the outstanding quality of specific

aspects of their instructional programs

in dance, music, theater, visual arts, or

other art forms. There are lessons to be

learned from each of them. 

But what are the factors that

make it possible for a district to reach

the entire student population, to treat

the arts as a subject comparable to

math, science, or social studies? To

probe this question in depth and to

add to the information gathered from

documents and phone interviews,

researchers visited eight demographically and geographically different

school districts.

A CENTRAL FINDING

Acentral finding emerges. School

leaders repeatedly affirm:

THE SINGLE MOST CRITICAL

FACTOR IN SUSTAINING ARTS

EDUCATION IN THEIR SCHOOLS

IS THE ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT

OF INFLUENTIAL SEGMENTS OF

THE COMMUNITY IN SHAPING

AND IMPLEMENTING THE

POLICIES AND PROGRAMS OF

THE DISTRICT.

The real and metaphorical

walls of the school district become

"permeable." A kaleidoscope of small

communities composed of individuals

and groups from the broader community actively engage with one another

in arts and arts education activities

inside and outside of the schools.

Their interactions deepen their appreciation for and understanding of the

arts and strengthen their bonds. They

form networks that actively promote

the importance of arts education in

the general education of all students

and in the social, civic, and cultural

lives of the broad community. Their

influence creates a degree of consensus

among the school board, the school

superintendent, and major influential

segments of the general community

that the arts are an essential part of

learning. They work to sustain that

consensus using a repertoire of strategies, resources, and skills that can be

seen in the case studies and profiles

in this report.

THE LOCAL CONTEXT

AND CRITICAL

SUCCESS FACTORS

The specific characteristics of these

networks and the consensus that is

reached vary in response to local contexts. Vancouver, Washington, differs

in specific detail from Miami, Florida,

as will be seen in the case studies. And

while a degree of consensus is the sine

qua non if the arts are to be part of the

education of all students, other factors

must be in place to create and sustain

the quality and scope of the district's

arts education. 

These factors can be stated

generally, but the critical lessons again

lie in the way they play out in concrete situations. 

NOT ALL ARE PRESENT IN EVERY

DISTRICT, BUT A SUFFICIENT

NUMBER OF THE FOLLOWING

FACTORS MUST BE AT WORK TO

SUSTAIN ARTS EDUCATION IN THE

SCHOOL SYSTEM.

THE

STUDY’S FINDINGS

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

continued on next page
PAGE 10

Support for arts education in school district budgets is obviously an

essential factor if all students are to have access to learning in the

arts. Districts included in this report were asked to quantify their

annual spending for arts education as a percentage of the total budget

or to provide other measures of financial support. They found it difficult to do so, as they would if asked to do the same for science, social

studies, or other school subjects. Budgeting methods and strategies

vary from school district to school district throughout the United

States, but, generally, funding for arts and other subjects is encompassed within broader categories such as personnel, facilities, materials,

and so on. The advent of site-based management further complicates

the analysis as individual school buildings are often given discretion to

construct their own budgets within general district spending.

Researchers for this report took another approach in assessing

the financial commitment districts make to arts education. They

looked for the evidence in numbers of personnel – coordinators and

arts specialists in particular – in the appropriateness of the facilities for

arts instruction, in professional development programs for faculty,

and in the support for students and faculty to engage with the arts

and cultural resources outside of the schools. Researchers also sought

evidence that during periods of budget cutting the arts were treated

comparably to other curricular areas. As would be expected, districts

with strong arts education in their schools make these commitments

consistently. Districts rebuilding their programs increase budgets

strategically and often incrementally. On occasion, a major new

investment – in a new school building or specialized program – is a

catalyst for a general spending increase for all schools in the interest

of fairness or because of a new level of support in the community.

In virtually every district with strong arts education,

resources from the community or other sources supplement the regular district arts education budget in the form of grants, contributed

services, equipment and supplies and the like. Personnel in these

districts are entrepreneurial in their search for these supplemental

funds and, in the strongest districts, treat that quest as a regular part

of their professional responsibility. Fundamental support must

come from the regular school district and school budget, but the

strongest districts further enliven their programs with these supplemental funds.

How to Measure

Commitment to

ARTS EDUCATION



THE ARTS AND

"MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES"

Researchers for this study found that

Dr. Howard Gardner's theory of 

"multiple intelligences" has deeply

affected philosophies and programs

in many school districts. One district

(Vancouver, WA) rearranged its learning framework to reflect many ways

of learning and to include the arts.

Another (Redondo Beach, CA) created a technological laboratory which

strives to include as many of the different intelligences in its teaching as

possible. Superintendents and school

board members referred to the

Gardner research as a reason for supporting the arts in their schools. Again

and again, the research team heard,

"It's been shown, kids learn in different ways, so we need to be giving

them the opportunity to do just that."

The arts, this study's researchers

observed, provide multiple ways for

students to exercise intellect. 

THE ARTS AND

INTEGRATION OF INSTRUCTION

Researchers for this study noticed

that teachers frequently are torn

between two competing ways of

organizing instruction. 

One approach is to think of

each school subject as a separate

and distinct collection of knowledge

best understood, studied, and

learned by itself. Especially at the

secondary level, the school day is

organized with a specified time for

mathematics, music, etc.

The second way to organize

instruction is to assume that every

school subject has connections to

other school subjects and that the

best way to learn is by encouraging

students to actively examine those

relationships. By providing students

with large projects, themes, or problems, educators encourage them to

apply complex pieces of knowledge,

skills, and inquiry processes from several school subjects simultaneously.

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE
Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 11

FACTOR: THE

COMMUNITY

IN DISTRICTS WITH STRONG

ARTS EDUCATION, THE

COMMUNITY – BROADLY DEFINED

AS PARENTS AND FAMILIES,

ARTISTS, ARTS ORGANIZATIONS,

BUSINESSES, LOCAL CIVIC AND

CULTURAL LEADERS AND

INSTITUTIONS – IS ACTIVELY

ENGAGED IN THE ARTS POLITICS

AND INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAMS

OF THE DISTRICT.

The community assists in the teaching and learning activities of the

faculty and students, mobilizes and

supports arts education through political activity, uses school facilities as

community arts venues and provides

venues for faculty and student works

and performances. 

Formal "partnerships" of

school and community arts organizations providing arts education

programs to students can be found in

many of these districts, and the creation of those partnerships is a strategy

a number of districts use. But the pattern of relationships in the strongest

districts is more richly textured and

involves a wide range of formal and

informal interactions among school

staff and the community. School

administrators in these districts encourage or support an array of interactions

described in the profiles, including:

• active parent and community

involvement in school arts programs;

• interdisciplinary teams involving arts

specialists in the development of

curricula;

• arts faculty involvement in community arts events;

• artist residencies;

• student exhibitions and performances for community audiences.

FACTOR: THE

SCHOOL BOARD

SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH

STRONG ARTS EDUCATION

PROGRAMS GENERALLY HAVE

BOARDS OF EDUCATION THAT

PROVIDE A SUPPORTIVE POLICY

FRAMEWORK AND ENVIRONMENT

FOR THE ARTS. 

Typically, one or more influential

members of the board have had

personal experiences or education that

developed their knowledge and valuing

of the arts and use this background to: 

• adopt written policies that value the

arts as equal to other school subjects;

• support the development of plans to

strengthen arts education, then

apportion resources in accordance

with the plan;

• treat arts education equally with

other subject areas when budget cuts

are required;

• consider the artistic qualities of

buildings and the needs of arts eduCRITICAL SUCCESS

FACTORS for Achieving

District-Wide

Arts Education

✓

✓

✓

✓

continued on next page

cation programs during facility

renovation and development.

FACTOR: THE

SUPERINTENDENT

SUPERINTENDENTS WHO

REGULARLY ARTICULATE A VISION

FOR ARTS EDUCATION ARE

CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO ITS

SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION

AND STABILITY.

Superintendents interviewed for the

study generally credit school staff,

key board members, and/or influential

community forces with assisting or

convincing them to develop a vision

for schooling that includes arts education. But the subsequent actions by

the superintendent are vital to sustaining district-wide arts education. 

Superintendents in these districts take such actions as:

• regularly articulating in writing,

memos, and speeches the importance of the arts in achieving the

goals of the school district;

• appointing highly effective districtwide arts coordinators;

• developing a shared understanding

with their district arts coordinator(s)

of the role of arts education and providing support for implementation;

• encouraging education staff to collaborate among disciplines to ensure

district-wide initiatives apply to and

include the arts;

• committing personal time to meeting

with the arts education personnel of

their district and to representatives

from the arts and cultural organizations of the community.

FACTOR:

CONTINUITY

THERE IS ENOUGH CONTINUITY

IN THE SCHOOL AND

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP TO

IMPLEMENT COMPREHENSIVE

ARTS EDUCATION. 
PAGE 12

Many districts examined in this

study have board members,

superintendents, and/or district arts

coordinators who have served in their

districts for a decade or more. Similarly,

many building-level leaders have

worked in the district or the same

school for even longer periods.

Stability in these formal leadership

positions is important in pursuing a set

of educational goals, while strong community traditions that embrace the arts

are important factors in shaping a consensus supporting arts education. 

School leaders told the

researchers that consensus was a key to

continuity. Superintendents and principals who enjoyed healthy

relationships with the board and influential segments of the community had

the freedom and time to pursue their

educational visions. Demographic,

political, or value shifts in the community produce board and leadership

turnover, a major problem in sustaining arts education.

FACTOR: THE

DISTRICT ARTS

COORDINATOR

DISTRICT ARTS COORDINATORS

FACILITATE PROGRAM

IMPLEMENTATION THROUGHOUT

A SCHOOL SYSTEM AND

MAINTAIN AN ENVIRONMENT OF

SUPPORT FOR ARTS EDUCATION.

School board members and superintendents repeatedly affirm the

essential role of the district arts coordinator(s) in sustaining strong arts

education programs and in keeping

"the arts" part of a district's definition

of education. Their first piece of

advice to their colleagues in other districts is to hire an effective

coordinator. They emphasized the

care with which they searched for "the

right person" – some tapping a recognized leader among the ranks of the

arts teachers, others wooing an outstanding arts educator from another

school district. 

Smaller districts often lack

resources for a full-time coordinator

but add the responsibility to the workload of a district curriculum specialist

or an arts educator at a school. While

the approach has problems – overwork

and lack of clarity among them – it is

essential in these districts as well.

Effective coordinators play a

number of crucial roles and provide

several vital services:

• They are often the staff member

most actively engaged with influential segments of the community that

value the arts and are instrumental

in nurturing and mobilizing community support for arts education.

• Board members credit arts coordinators with keeping "the arts on the

table" during budget sessions.

• They negotiate between board and

central office policies and school-level

decision making, an increasingly critical role as districts move towards

site-based management.

• They often participate with schoollevel leadership in the screening and

hiring of teachers. 

• Teachers in turn cite the role of district coordinator in facilitating

communication among individual

schools and in fostering the climate

of support for arts education in the

community and district.

FACTOR: A CADRE

OF PRINCIPALS

SCHOOL PRINCIPALS WHO

COLLECTIVELY SUPPORT THE

POLICY OF ARTS EDUCATION FOR

ALL STUDENTS OFTEN ARE

INSTRUMENTAL IN THE POLICY'S

SUCCESSFUL DISTRICT-WIDE

IMPLEMENTATION. 

T he study reaffirms research on the

role of the principal as the primary instructional leader at the individual school level. Principals create 

the expectations and climate in the 

school building, and their support for

arts education is essential. 

Many principals interviewed

for the study spoke of early learning or

involvement in the arts or of professional development opportunities that

helped them to decide to support arts

in their schools. Others were convinced by the effectiveness of arts

education in addressing specific issues.

For instance, principals looking to

create a thematically focused or interdisciplinary approach in an elementary

or middle school have found that art

forms can play a central role because

of their complex content and range of

activities. Others have found that

hard-to-reach students become actively

engaged in the arts and, subsequently,

in other aspects of the school.

Similarly, parent and family

involvement in arts education enhances

the overall environment for learning.

For a district as a whole to sustain the successful implementation of

arts education for all of its students, a

sufficient number of these buildinglevel leaders must personally value the

arts or be persuaded by other pragmatic

considerations to make them an important aspect of the school. In view of

the national trend to site-based management, this factor is critical.

Recognizing this, district-level leaders in

several of the districts studied include

arts education in the professional development activities of school principals. 

FACTOR: THE

TEACHER AS ARTIST

EFFECTIVE TEACHERS OF THE

ARTS ARE ALLOWED TO –

INDEED ARE ENCOURAGED TO –

CONTINUE TO LEARN AND GROW

IN MASTERY OF THEIR ART

FORM AS WELL AS IN THEIR

TEACHING COMPETENCE. 

T he presence of arts specialists in a

district's schools proved time and

again to make the difference between

successful comprehensive, sequential

arts education and those programs in

development. What the study found

✓

✓ ✓
compelling is the vibrancy that teachers who practice their art bring to an

already strong program.

Whatever their medium or

m ́etier, teachers who also pursue their

artistic life repeatedly told researchers

for this study that the value placed on

the professional quality of their art by

school administrators stimulates and

refreshes their commitment both to

their art and to teaching. Administrators, in turn, pointed out that the

best teachers stay actively engaged in

their art form through exhibitions

and performances in district and community venues. In the strongest

districts, this commitment to the

teacher as artist is reflected in recruitment and hiring practices that include

auditions and portfolio reviews to assess

the applicant's competence in the art

form. Experienced arts teachers in the

district participate in these reviews.

FACTOR:

PARENT/PUBLIC

RELATIONS

SCHOOL LEADERS IN DISTRICTS

WITH STRONG, SYSTEM-WIDE

ARTS EDUCATION SEIZE

OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE

THEIR PROGRAMS KNOWN

THROUGHOUT THE COMMUNITY

IN ORDER TO SECURE SUPPORT

AND FUNDING FOR THEM.

I

n the districts profiled here, school

leaders employ a variety of techniques to engage the total school

community in arts activities that create

a climate of support for arts education.

Exhibition spaces and performance

venues in the schools are made available to students, faculty, and

community artists. Free tickets are provided to students, staff, and faculty for

attendance at community arts events.

One district provided free piano lessons

to all district staff. Others create weeklong festivals of the arts engaging the

school and community organizations.

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 13

✓

These activities are conceived

as part of a general strategy to strengthen school-community ties in support of

the district's general educational goals

as well as the arts education budget

and programs. Principals told

researchers that parents who never

come to school for parent-teacher conferences will come to see their child

perform, creating opportunities for

building relationships important to the

school and district. 

FACTOR: AN

ELEMENTARY

FOUNDATION

STRONG ARTS PROGRAMS IN

THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

YEARS ARE THE FOUNDATION

FOR STRONG SYSTEM-WIDE

PROGRAMS. 

District leaders advise their colleagues to establish strong arts

education in the elementary school

years and to begin any rebuilding

efforts at that level. They give several

reasons for doing so. Elementary programs establish a foundation in the

arts for all students, not just for those

in specialized programs or those who

choose an arts course of study in high

school. Moreover, in some art forms

such as instrumental music, a long

period of time is needed for students

to achieve even a basic level of proficiency. If such instruction is not

begun in elementary grades, a district

will not have quality programs at the

secondary level.

The arts also have proved to

be strong components in the adoption

of an interdisciplinary curriculum by

elementary schools. School leaders

find, too, that beginning programs in

the early years builds relationships

with parents and community organizations important to sustaining their

support for comprehensive arts education. These leaders advise their

colleagues seeking to reestablish strong

arts programs to begin with a major

focus on the elementary years.

FACTOR:

OPPORTUNITIES FOR

HIGHER LEVELS OF

ACHIEVEMENT

SCHOOL LEADERS IN THESE

DISTRICTS PROVIDE SPECIALIZED

ARTS PROGRAMS AS PART OF

THEIR BROAD STRATEGY FOR

SECURING AND SUSTAINING

COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR THE

DISTRICT'S OVERALL

EDUCATIONAL GOALS. 

Districts examined in this study

offered a wide range of specialized programs for students of the arts,

including magnet schools, Advanced

Placement programs, and summer and

weekend programs. These programs

create an environment of excellence

that challenges teachers to continue to

develop proficiency in their art forms

and encourages students to aspire to

professional levels of performance.

Students studying the arts in these

specialized programs expressed to

interviewers their intense pride in and

commitment to their work. They compete for and win recognition in arts

competitions at the local, state, and

national levels. Their achievements

contribute to community enthusiasm

for the arts and a belief in the excellence and quality of the district's

educational system. 

FACTOR: NATIONAL,

STATE, AND OTHER

OUTSIDE FORCES

MANY DISTRICTS IN THIS STUDY

EMPLOY STATE OR NATIONAL

POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO

ADVANCE ARTS EDUCATION. 

Policies, mandates, and funding from

the state or national levels will not

of themselves forge the community/

school consensus required for district-

✓

✓

✓

continued on next page
PAGE 14

wide arts education. But committed

leaders in districts examined in this

study marshaled such forces to

strengthen the consensus to support

policies and programs in the schools.

National and state standards for arts

education, state education reform

movements, federal funding for general

school improvement or targeted programs or populations all were used to

support and advance the arts education

agenda in these districts. Similarly, support from private foundations has

served to stimulate reform efforts in a

number of the districts examined.

System-wide implementation, however,

required intense community involvement and consensus.

The case studies that follow in

this report illustrate the specific ways

in which consensus has been achieved

and sustained in eight school districts.

They also illustrate how these critical

factors contribute to the conversion of

consensus into programs and practices.

The lessons from these districts offer

practical guidance to school and community leaders in their parts of the

country who are seeking ways to make

arts education fundamental in their

schools and communities. 

FACTOR: PLANNING

SCHOOL LEADERS IN THIS

STUDY ADVISE THE ADOPTION

OF A COMPREHENSIVE VISION

AND PLAN FOR ARTS EDUCATION

BUT RECOMMEND ITS

INCREMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION.

Leaders at the district and building

levels repeatedly told researchers

that it was important to combine a

compelling vision of the importance of

arts education with a thoughtful implementation plan that showed how

resources would be apportioned over

time to reach all schools and students.

The plan established confidence among

arts teachers and building-level administrators that resources eventually

would be available but that the 

increases in district-wide support must

necessarily be incremental. Districts

have developed a number of strategies

for allocating new resources, many of

them based on stimulating a "bottom

up" request for arts education funding

from school sites.

FACTOR:

CONTINUOUS

IMPROVEMENT

SCHOOL DISTRICTS THAT

SUCCEED IN ADVANCING ARTS

EDUCATION PROMOTE

REFLECTIVE PRACTICES AT ALL

LEVELS OF THE SCHOOLS TO

IMPROVE QUALITY.

While researchers found few districts using student assessments

in the arts as part of a formal accountability system, the strongest districts

actively encourage the use of arts

assessment techniques for improving

student, teacher, and administrative

performance. A few districts, for 

example, use portfolio review for evaluations of principals and teachers as

well as students. Others encourage

teachers to set themselves a challenge

within their art form that will be

addressed and assessed throughout the

year – composing new music for a

choral group, for instance. What

researchers observed in these districts

was the disposition to reflect on and

improve practice that is central to

improving artistic achievement.

✓

✓

Conclusion

Not every schooldistrict examined in

this report exhibits these

factors to the same degree.

But the more intensively

the factors occur, the

stronger the presence of

quality arts education in

their schools. A level of

agreement among formal

and informal leadership in

the community and school

on the importance of arts

education is essential.

Implementing and

sustaining that agreement

requires a sufficient

presence of the critical

success factors to achieve a

level of quality that keeps

the consensus intact. The

following profiles and case

study reports show how

this occurs in specific local

contexts. The lessons of

this report are best learned

by analyzing these districts.

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

Reading the Profiles

Factors that have played roles in 

building a district’s strong arts education are checked at the beginning of

each district case study or profile. 

Statistics provided by the school

districts are 1997 figures. 

Abbreviations and numbers appear

as they are used by districts, e.g. CSD

#25 (Community School District #25 in

New York City), MSAD #40 (Maine

School Administrative District #40),

followed by locations.
PAGE 15

SCHOOL DISTRICT

CASE STUDIES

AND PROFILES

Lessons From School Districts

That Value

ARTS EDUCATION

THE STUDY'S

AUTHORS

T here are, literally, hundreds of

writers of the case studies and

profiles published – in print

and on the World Wide Web – in this

report. Leaders of national arts organizations, chairpersons of state arts

councils, state school officers, community members wrote many an eloquent

recommendation that found its way

into the report text and context.

Superintendents, coordinators, arts

specialists, and board members provided articulate, detailed, focused, and

sometimes passionate reports on arts

education in their districts. The study's

researchers, directors, project assistants, and editor also served as

contributors. In those instances where

it was clear which of two or more

contributors wrote a particular report

or passage, we have quoted that individual. In other cases, we quote

directly from the "district report." 

Therefore, while the case

study sites were visited by researchers

whose observations form the basis for

the report, the profiles may reflect selfreporting. Further, the length of a

profile or case study in no way reflects

the importance of a district or the

quality of its arts education programs.

In some instances, the profile may

simply reflect those features the district wanted to call to our attention.

All of the school systems 

recommended for this study which

participated by providing a complete,

written application detailing arts education in the district can be found in

the printed report, on the Web site, or

both. Printed case studies and profiles

appear alphabetically. (For a state-bystate listing, see inside back cover.) 

Those districts have provided

contact information, which is available

on the study's Web site, and welcome

questions and comments from other

school districts. 

The President's Committee on

the Arts and the Humanities and the

Arts Education Partnership hope this

study will serve as a catalyst for the

sharing of strategies among school districts nationwide. Both organizations

urge school board members, superintendents, principals, district arts

coordinators, teachers, and leaders of

arts, business, civic, and parent-teacher

organizations to contact districts

directly to learn more firsthand about

developing and sustaining strong, high

quality arts education district-wide. 

THE STUDY'S WEB

SITE: WWW.PCAH.GOV

Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons

From School Districts That Value

Arts Education can be accessed at

www.pcah.gov on the World Wide Web.

All of the profiles and case studies

included in this publication appear on

the Web site. The Web site includes

contact information for each district.

In addition, contact information is provided for other districts recommended

for inclusion in the study because of a

specific aspect of their arts education. 

Several other useful additional

files are available on the Web site, such

as a chart of demographic data on the

school districts studied. The chart has

city or county population statistics and

ethnic minority percentages; per capita

income, education, and unemployment

figures; the rural, urban, or suburban

nature of the school district; its location

in the state and nearest large city, as

well as categories of the area's primary

businesses and industries.

On the Web site, district information may be accessed by factors

studied as well as alphabetically by

school district or by state.

FACTORS, STATISTICS,

AND A FEW TERMS

T he study's findings section details

the major factors that enable a

school district to provide arts education comprehensively throughout all

of its schools. The factors highlighted

above each district profile are those

illuminated in the text.

Data for this study was reported by the districts. It was based upon

1997 information-gathering and

checked with the districts for accuracy

prior to publication. Names and circumstances may have changed.

continued on next page
Among the terms used in the

profiles and case study are these:

• Arts enrollment is the number of

students enrolled in arts course(s)

annually.

• Arts magnet schools: Some

schools discussed in this study have

special arts focuses. Designated as

arts magnets, many of these schools

were organized during the 1970s to

attract students from across school

neighborhood boundaries (Miami,

FL; Milwaukee, WI). In recent years,

however, new arts magnet schools

have been developed, not to balance

ethnic and economic diversity across

a school system, but to take advantage of the unique contributions that

the arts make to students' education

(Greenville, SC; Vancouver, WA).

Arts magnet schools exist at all three

levels: elementary, middle, and high

school. Some arts magnets are highly

selective, admitting only those students who successfully audition or

present outstanding portfolios. Other

arts magnets admit students on a

first-come, first-admitted basis or on

the basis of interest. 

• Artist residency programs:

Many, if not all, of the districts studied had residency programs, but in

general these programs were

designed to enrich basic K-12 arts

education. School officials agree

that arts residency programs cannot

replace balanced, comprehensive,

sequential arts education taught by

certified arts specialists.

• Arts specialists are teachers hired

specifically to teach a particular art

discipline. (In those cases in which a

teacher teaches two subjects, the arts

discipline is the primary subject of

instruction.)

• Discipline-Based Arts Education

(DBAE): Educators who take the

DBAE approach, developed by the

Getty Education Institute for the

Arts, integrate content from the four

disciplines that contribute to the

creation, understanding, and

appreciation of art:

 making art (art production); 

PAGE 16

 responding to and making judgments about the properties and

qualities that exist in visual forms

(art criticism); 

 acquiring knowledge about the

contributions artists and art

make to culture and society (art

history); and 

 understanding the nature, meaning, and value of art (aesthetics).

– From Getty Education

Institute for the Arts

• District arts education budget

includes salary, materials, resources,

space, travel spent annually on arts

education. It does not include capital

expenditures unless otherwise noted.

(See "How to Measure Commitment

to Arts Education" in the preceding

section.)

• Infusion of the arts into the curriculum... 

• Integration of the arts into/across/

through/throughout the curriculum...

• Interdisciplinary approach to

arts education...

The phrases above are currently in

use nationwide to describe approaches

to curriculum and the teaching of the

arts. "Infusion" (as in "arts-infused"

curriculum) is used less often today

than it was in the early 1990s. The

term still communicates the "pouring

of the arts into" a basic curriculum

where the presence of the arts might

have been missing altogether.

"Integration" conveys the creation of a

"whole" curriculum by the bringing

together of several subjects and disciplines. The degree to which the arts

and other curricular areas such as

mathematics, science, or social studies

are brought together and "integrated"

usually can be ascertained from the

context of each profile or case study.

"Interdisciplinary" in relation to arts

education is used primarily to describe

either cooperation between arts teachers of different genres, such as music

and visual art, or cooperation between

teachers of different curricular areas,

such as music and mathematics.

Again, context is key.

THREE WAYS THE ARTS IMPROVE

SCHOOLS

1. The Arts Improve the School

Climate. 

Schools organized around the arts

look, sound, and feel different. All in

all, the climate is different. The

schools the researchers visited were

attractive, warm, welcoming, and

visually exciting. 

2. The Arts' Comprehensive Tasks

Challenge Students.

Arts students, with the help of their

teachers, undertake big projects. They

produce a play, present a concert or

dance recital, create an Advanced

Placement theme-based portfolio,

mount exhibitions. In doing so, students master an enormous number of

artistic skills, direct a myriad of aesthetic and expressive qualities toward

given ends, and symbolize human

behaviors and emotions in a great

variety of ways. In artistic creation,

means and ends are continually interrelated. Each small element is

connected to the creation of a complex but coherent whole work. 

Students willingly discipline themselves and undertake rigorous

practice and rehearsal sessions. They

learn physical boundaries and, in the

process, learn to see the boundaries

in a world that, to many teenagers,

appears to be without them. Students

also learn to ration their time. They

carry the discipline required in arts

making to the discipline of study. 

3. The Arts Turn Schools Into

Communities.

Wherever the research teams went in

arts-based schools, they were greeted

by smiles. Students, teachers, administrators said, "We are like a family."

"We support one another." "This is

our place." The occupants of artscentered schools see themselves as

members of communities – communities that they have a role in creating

and sustaining. They are able to

capitalize on the fact that the arts

encourage students and faculty members to work together, to create things

together, to perform together, to display the results of their efforts

together. Teachers are continually

modeling their skills, revealing their

interpretations, insights, and judgments to the younger members of

these arts communities.

The arts transform learning and schools.

– Brent Wilson, Ph.D
THE LOCAL CONTEXT

Community School District #25

(CSD #25) in Queens, New York,

serves some 24,000 children in grades

pre-kindergarten through grade 12

from a multicultural community. Its

students come from all over the world,

representing more than 100 countries

and speaking 95 languages. District

#25 is a highly challenged school district. At the same time, it is hugely

blessed with the artistic wealth of

New York City. It benefits not merely

from opportunities for students' "exposure" to the arts, but from the direct

involvement of world-class artists in

the district's classrooms. Dancers,

musicians, actors, visual artists from

City Center, Young Audiences, Studioin-a-School, Carnegie Hall, the Alvin

Ailey Dance Theater Foundation, the

Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum, the

Asia Society, the Paul Taylor Dance

Company, the Museum of Modern Art,

the Marquis Studios, TheatreMoves,

Columbia University, the Brooklyn

Conservatory of Music and more play

active roles in teaching and learning in

this school district.

With such a wealth of resources

available to the community, it may

come as a surprise for some to learn

that until 1991, like most of New York

City, the district's elementary schools

had no music program and many of its

model arts partnership programs were

nonexistent. The flowering of the arts

in CSD #25, not to mention the second highest reading and mathematics

standardized test scores for a district in

the New York City public school system, can be credited to an involved

community, a forward-looking school

board, and the leadership of a remarkable community superintendent, Dr.

Arthur Greenberg. 

THE SUPERINTENDENT: TAKING

THE COMMUNITY'S CUE

An education leader who believes

that the arts are direct links to the

physical, intellectual, and social development of children, Dr. Arthur

Greenberg interviewed for the position

of superintendent in 1990. He indicated

to the Board of Education that the first

thing he would do was to visit all the

schools and ask community members

what they wanted to make their children’s education stronger. Board

members laughed about hiring him on

the spot, giving him six months to hit

the road and report his findings. After

his time in the field and talks with parents (many of whom repeated the same

refrain: "This is New York City, cultural

Mecca of the world. Where are the

arts?"), Greenberg returned to the school

board and identified those areas of the

curriculum that needed bolstering. 

High on his list were the "expressive arts": visual art, dance, drama, and

music. The superintendent's resulting

"Areas of Emphasis" became the vision

for the development of all CSD #25

curriculum initiatives, including the

expressive arts. 

That vision has become reality

through a number of initiatives which,

taken together, make for a strong infrastructure to support and to advance

teaching and learning in and through

the arts. The initiatives include: 

• the systematic restoration of the district's elementary school music

program (lost in budget cuts in the

early 1990s), including a sequential

program that supports early childhood teachers' use of music in the

classroom, recorder instruction for all

third graders, and the opportunity for

fourth through sixth graders to learn

to play string or band instruments; 

• the inclusion of community-based

volunteers and the creation of a network of highly qualified artist

mentors/partners who work with elementary teachers and students on

short- and long-term projects in

visual arts, music, dance, and drama;

• ongoing professional development

for arts specialists and classroom

teachers, including CSD #25's Direct

Service to Children/Professional

Development for Teachers model as

well as teachers' individualized plans;

• a team approach to all curriculum

initiatives, including the Expressive

Arts Program, to ensure that arts

activities are integrated across curriculum areas authentically;

• the consistent work on the part of the

directors of funded programs and

expressive arts to work collaboratively

to seek competitive funding for the

district to provide innovative arts programs (see sidebar "Finding Funding").

A COORDINATOR'S

PIVOTAL ROLE

One of the first moves Greenberg

made toward implementing the

community's "bring back the arts" consensus was hiring Dr. Sharon Dunn,

the district’s first arts coordinator in a

decade and a half and now special

assistant to the chancellor for the

entire New York City school system.

Under Dunn’s leadership and later

under her successor team of Arlene

Jordan and Pat Lieberman, the district

concentrated not only on hiring specialists but also on bringing the value

of arts education back to the schools.

To do this, they encouraged

"integration" of the arts into the curriculum. They also elected to make a

modest start: Dunn created a small

pool of money and concentrated on

the schools most interested in having

arts education (approximately onethird of the district's schools). As

interest among District #25 educators

has increased, with more classroom

teachers voting to add arts specialists

to their schools' "teacher cluster," the

district arts program and its pool of

funds and grants have grown as well.

Superintendent Greenberg's philosophy likens the approach to Tom

Sawyer and his fence: Limit initial parLessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 17

A Case Study:

CSD #25

(QUEENS, NY)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 31

Students (Total): 23,946

Per Pupil: $4,000

Arts Teachers (Total): 91

SCHOOL DISTRICT

CASE STUDIES

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

continued on next page
ticipation to only those most interested,

let others watch the fun, and they'll

line up for the chance to paint the

fence (bring the arts into their classrooms). In practice, it hasn't been quite

so easy for Community School District

#25 to rebuild the arts in its schools.

For one thing, the district has site-based

leadership: Principals have choices,

such as whether, how, and how much

arts education to offer. For another,

integration of the arts into curricula for

other disciplines presents a challenge to

educators seeking to maintain a high

quality of arts education district-wide.

In fact, the researchers for this

study who spent several days in the

district did find variations in the quality and rigor of arts education. But the

district is addressing these inconsistencies through professional development

of teachers and also by strengthening

the arts specialist programs. Additionally, the district has provided direct

assistance to principals who have

requested help to "bring back" the arts.

District #25's aim is to strengthen the

value of the arts throughout the district and give all administrators and

educators the means to provide highquality arts education to all their

students.

ARTISTS AND TEACHERS

TEAM UP

Because New York is rich in cultural

partners, Community School

District #25 has been able to develop an

intensive professional development program in which artists team with

teachers in short- and/or long-term relationships (sometimes multi-year).

Artists work with teachers to develop

lessons appropriate to the students’ curricula, based on the New York State

standards, then coach the teacher in

techniques of their particular discipline.

They team-teach classes, giving each

other feedback. Over time, the teachers

learn to incorporate certain artistic

skills. The artists learn more about classroom management and curricula, and,

in some cases, start taking education

courses to gain teacher certification. 

CSD #25 is also tapping the talents of New York's institutions of

higher learning such as St. John's

University and Columbia University.

Three elementary schools, for example,

are partnering with Columbia arts educators, researchers, and program

developers to find ways to incorporate

media arts into the traditional arts

education curriculum. 

PAGE 18

CSD #25: FINDING FUNDING

It would be understandable if a student

of arts education were to point to the

renaissance of the arts in New York

City as the cause of CSD #25's recent

successes. Indeed, funds received by

CSD #25 through the Center for Arts

Education (Annenberg III) and Project

ARTS initiatives to restore and expand

arts education in all schools have been

very welcome and well used, constructing, for example, studios at the

performing arts junior high school. 

However, like communities all across

the country, CSD #25 has been supporting the arts through local funding

for the past six or seven years. The

district has sought and received competitive funding to supplement its

operating budget from such organizations and programs as the National

Endowment for the Arts, Federal Title

VII Grants, New York State Council on

the Arts, New York Foundation for the

Arts, New York State Education

Department Improving School

Services, and Comprehensive

Educational Plan Grants. The community of Flushing, New York, has

exhibited major support for the arts,

making its facilities available for special district arts events throughout the

year. In addition, the arts budget has

been augmented by arts partners who

chose to provide services to CSD #25

through grants that they had won, recognizing that the district had made an

extraordinary commitment to arts education. 

The annual budget for the district is

now more than $95 million. The allocation for arts education in the 1997-98

school year was approximately $4.7

million, or 5 percent.

Lessons for New York City's

Superintendents

"The Arts for Literacy" was the theme of the

Fordham University-New York City

Superintendent Network's Forum held on one

of the days the study's research team visited.

Dr. Arthur Greenberg, then superintendent of

Community School District #25, is the current

chair of the group. Greenberg has a reputation

throughout the boroughs for his support of arts

education, as does his former arts supervisor,

Dr. Sharon Dunn. (Both have since been

recruited by Chancellor Rudy Crew for the central administration. Greenberg, whose CSD #25

successor is Michelle Fratti, is now serving as

Supervising Superintendent for Executive and

New Program Development.) 

"You have got to believe in the arts yourself

first," Greenberg told his colleagues. "You can't

expect your staff to make reform, to bring back

the arts, if you won't take the lead."

Greenberg recounted his early work in District

#25, espousing what he calls his Theory of

Sloppy Change: Begin with schools and personnel committed to the arts and strengthen

their programs first. 

Columbia University's Dr. Maxine Greene also

challenged the superintendents, urging them to

clarify their philosophy of arts education, consider its specific application in each of their

unique districts, and determine what skills he

or she needs to implement it.

Through small group discussions, the superintendents tackled the questions of personal

philosophy and planning. 

They agreed that each needed to:

• develop a personal definition of "arts" for

their district;

• decide their view on "art for art's sake" and

state their commitment;

• determine the utility of the arts for work,

citizenship, other public values;

• set out a belief system: why the arts count;

• show the connections: to community, 

among disciplines.

And they agreed on key elements of a

formal plan:

• state a vision and mission, write goals and

objectives;

• actively communicate with school and 

community;

• lay out a realistic timeline;

• commit resources to implementation, including:

 staffing and materials, 

 professional development for arts specialists and others so the arts are integrated,

 assessment and evaluation procedures to

gauge effectiveness.



THE LOCAL CONTEXT

The School District of Greenville

County is the largest in South

Carolina and one of the largest in the

Southeast, serving 58,000 students, 28

percent of them African-American and

72 percent white. One-fifth of the children receive free or reduced lunch.

Within its 800 square miles, it encompasses 92 urban, suburban, and rural

schools, including cluster arts magnet

programs and elementary and middle

school arts academies. Its arts program

at the elementary level employs 48

teams of full-time certified teachers in

art, music, and physical education

(dance). The district has four afterschool orchestras, the only daily strings

chamber music program at the high

school level in the United States, and

an after-school program for gifted and

talented elementary and middle school

students which engages nearly 500 students for 100 minutes twice a week in

the visual arts, drama, dance, and

strings instruction. In addition, there is

a two-week summer program that

serves 250 elementary students and

150 middle school students on a firstcome, first-admitted basis.

GREENVILLE: EVERYTHING

GOING FOR ARTS EDUCATION

To the arts educator or school system

administrator regarding it from afar,

the School District of Greenville might

appear to have everything going for it.

Indeed, nearly every factor that this

study has found to contribute to the

building and sustaining of strong system-wide arts education can be found

at work in Greenville: 

 a community that supports the

arts...including parents who always

pitch in with materials, muscle, or

matching funds for grants or special

projects; artists who participate in residencies and conduct professional

development workshops for teachers

on every imaginable art form; arts

organizations that work with students

in the schools and in their own theaters and rehearsal halls, and

businesses such as General Electric,

which provides foundation grants for

needy children to attend performances; Fluor Daniel, which makes

possible programs at the Fine Arts

Center (see sidebar), and the American

Federal Bank, which underwrites the

Arts Teacher of the Year Award;

 a school board, twice recognized for

excellence by the Kennedy Center

and National School Boards

Association, which voted approval of

two new select schools for the arts at

the elementary and middle school

level, and, within the past two years,

has created 58 new positions in the

arts to meet the district's needs; 

 a former superintendent, Dr.

Thomas E. Kerns, who envisioned a

balanced curriculum that included

the arts in Greenville – a vision that

continues to be supported today by

the district's current superintendent,

Dr. Rudolph Gordon; 

 continuity of support for arts education that goes back to the 1960s

when the district employed music

and art consultants to ensure quality

programs in every school and continuity of arts education delivery by

excellent art teachers who kept the

delivery of arts education consistent

throughout periods of district-level

leadership change;

 a cadre of principals who have

stayed in the district for decades and

encouraged school environments –

schools alive with murals of rolling

South Carolina hills, dense forests,

rollicking sea waves – in which the

arts and children thrive; 

 district arts coordinators who have

succeeded in making the teachers

and students, curricula and class

schedules, instruments and art materials, community and administration,

band rooms and budgets for an extraordinarily rich set of arts education

offerings come together into a cohesive district-wide program; 

 teachers who practice their art,

including some, like former classroom teacher Deborah Rose, who so

loved practicing her art outside the

school that she moved to teaching

art full-time (see sidebar);

 attention to parent/public relations, reinforcing the bond between

community and school district in

the most effective ways possible – by

sharing student art in all its myriad

forms with the community through

festivals, art shows, poetry readings

at a local cafe, performances of the

jazz guitar ensemble, the string quartets, the gospel choir, the dance

company, the theater productions,

the superintendent's holiday greeting

cards, and by communicating with

parents and public the students',

teachers' and districts' successes; 

 an elementary foundation, with

mandatory instruction for every student (K-5) in art, music, and physical

education (dance), followed by a

sixth-grade requirement for each student to elect either visual arts or

music (strings, band, or choral); in

some schools, it is possible to take

drama and, at the elementary arts

academy, to take daily dance classes; 

 opportunities for higher levels of

achievement in the arts, including

the twice-weekly, after-school gifted

and talented program A.R.M.E.S.

(Arts Reaching Middle and

Elementary Schools) attended by

more than 500 elementary and middle school students in visual art,

strings, dance, and drama; Advanced

Placement courses in drawing and

studio art, music theory and art history; two arts academies – Stone

(elementary) and League (middle) –

and the Fine Arts Center (secondary); 

 national, state forces, including the

National Standards for Arts

Education, the South Carolina Visual

and Performing Arts Framework, and,

overall, a state structure that has

been unusually supportive of arts

education (see "ABC Project" sidebar); 

 planning, including five-year plans

created by the school board since

1970 – long before "strategic planning" became de rigueur for school

districts. 

FINANCIAL REALITIES

And yet, even in Greenville, the arts

have not been – are not now –

immune from the financial woes or

changes in leadership that affect the

health of arts education elsewhere in

the nation. 

Financial realities first hit home

in Greenville in the late 1980s and

early 1990s. In 1989, the School

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 19

A Case Study:

GREENVILLE COUNTY

(SC)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

A Cadre of Principals√

Teachers Who Practice Their Art√

Parent/Public Relations√

An Elementary Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other Outside Forces√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 92

Students (Total): 58,000

Per Pupil: $6,578

Arts Teachers (Total): 206

continued on next page
District of Greenville County had just

received another major tribute, the

state's highest arts education honor,

the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Award.

But in 1991, due to a serious revenue

shortfall, the music and arts consultant

positions were eliminated; the following year the district lost the fifthgrade strings program. 

Then, in 1995, the school board

and then-superintendent Patrick

Timothy Jenny reinstated these positions, and, with two new consultants,

the commitment to high-level arts

education was reemphasized. Under

the leadership of Dr. Rudolph Gordon,

the 1997-98 school year and the current year has seen the employment of

seven new related arts teams (comprised of art, music, and physical

education teachers) to assist the 41 elementary-level teams in place in order

to provide 30 minutes of arts education to the all-day, five-year-old

kindergartens. More teams will be

added for the 60-plus kindergartens

coming online. 

The elementary arts teams, along

with art, music, drama, and dance

teachers at the middle and high school

levels, elect "lead teachers" who represent them in policy and curriculum

discussions. The leads and the afterschool choral, orchestra, band, and

drama teachers recently were awarded

salary supplements to recompense

them for the extra hours they spend

each day providing extra training to

students. 

FILLING IN GREENVILLE'S GAPS

Still, even in Greenville, most teachers continue to see needs and fill

them, often without thought of recompense. And even in Greenville, it is

essential to find and deploy resources

where they are lacking. 

Parents help, either as volunteers

or through their direct donations or in

the more formal manner of Parent

Teacher Associations. Business

Education Partnerships provide dollars,

equipment, and supplies. The Alliance

for Quality Education – a local granting

agency whose interest is supplementing the budgets of public schools with

funds for innovative teachers and programs – distributes more than $50,000

each year to schools and to teachers,

some of which is for arts programs. 

Southern Bell teacher grants aid

arts teachers, along with those in other

disciplines; the Metropolitan Arts

Council makes awards to teachers and

to schools, and the South Carolina Arts

Commission, through its Artist

Education Initiative, has an enormous

impact on the face of public education. 

Service clubs, particularly Rotary

Clubs, underwrite three community

projects that, over their long histories,

have become community fixtures:

"The Singing Christmas Tree," "Spring

Sing", and "A Night of Music." It is

through their efforts that some students get their first experience

performing for an audience in the

highly regarded arts complex in downtown Greenville, the Peace Center for

the Performing Arts. 

The district emphasizes the need

for schools to develop business partners who can help the school by providing volunteers for specific

programs, technology in the form of

donated used copiers and computers,

even direct donations. One of the

most successful direct grant partnerships is the one between the Fine Arts

Center and the world's largest construction company, Fluor Daniel. For

several years, the company has underwritten a major portion of the match

monies required for one of the largest

individual school artist-in-residence

grants in South Carolina.

CHANGES IN

EDUCATIONAL FOCUS

Even in Greenville, there can be

periods of transition. The district

has experienced several in recent years:

transitions from superintendents Kerns

to Jenny to Gordon. In addition, the

school board has acquired more conservative members and its focus has

shifted towards "back to basics." So

school board members such as

Margaret Griffin Burch and Ann

Sutherlin who together have spent

more than two decades on the school

board, can find themselves once again

"making the case" for the arts in education at the district level.

Parents and arts educators also

find themselves making the case at the

school level today. Since the district

moved to site-based decision making

and the state passed "accountability"

PAGE 20

ONE FINE ARTS CENTER

Greenville's pride and joy is its Fine Arts

Center (FAC), the school district's hub for

intense study in the arts. It was launched

27 years ago by South Carolina arts legend Virginia Ulrich – community member,

activist, teacher, principal, and, today, 

the powerhouse behind the future

Governor's School for the Arts, which will

bring top arts students to Greenville from

all over the state. 

The Fine Arts Center's focus is and will

continue to be the School District of

Greenville County, providing opportunities in the fine and performing arts to

those students in the district most interested and qualified. Here more than 260

diverse students can expand their horizons beyond music, art, drama to

dance, photography, and creative writing. Fine Arts Center students spend

half the day at their home-base schools,

the other half at the center pursuing

pre-professional studies, often with a

particular concentration, under the guidance of highly accomplished

artist-teachers. According to student

David Blackwood, one highlight is the

Center's teaching faculty who "allow

you to shape your projects and facilitate

rather than dictate or demonstrate." 

The researchers for this study first met

Blackwood when they visited the center

and found him working independently

on his two-dimensional portfolio. Later

they discovered that he also had a stunning ability to work in three dimensions

crafting metal – and that his talents had

been highlighted in glass on metal: The

Enamelist’s Magazine. There was one

more thing: Like so many arts students,

the researchers learned, he performed

well in other areas – and had just scored

"perfect 800s" on the SATs.

A World History Tour Via

Integrated Curricula 

In less than 50 minutes of classtime,

Riverside High School art teacher Pat

Grills and his students gave this study's

research team a lesson in world religion

and history through the lens of architecture and art history. After brief

introductions in the classroom, the

class traipsed outside, visitors in tow,

to the Western and Eastern Empires.

There, laid out to scale on the school's

playing fields, were the students' architectural re-creations of the ancient

world's great buildings. Proudly presenting their replicas in historical

context, the students traveled from site

to site, telling their visitors how the followers of Judaism, Islam, and

Christianity had constructed buildings

for their separate religions which, over

centuries, became focal points for conflict and resolution.



legislation, principals are evaluated on

the test scores of their students. But

the arts – seen as difficult to "measure"

– are not tested. Some Greenville principals privately expressed concern to

this study's researchers that, despite

their support of the arts, the fact is

that student performance in the arts

does not put their jobs at risk but it

does in math.

Other principals said that the

arts help them in so many areas – early

learning, student engagement, parental

involvement – that keeping the arts

strong is worth the investment and

will pay off in the long run.

Superintendent Gordon felt enlightened principals with a vision for total

education would find ways to include

the arts. Long-time arts teachers

deduce that since the arts are not part

of the principal accountability system,

they run a real risk of alienation for

the first time in decades.

POLITICAL REALITIES

Even in Greenville, administrators

must take political realities into

account. Sometimes it is a matter of

focus or emphasis. When principal

Edward Holliday, for example, set

about transforming a neighborhood

elementary school into an arts-focused

school, he encountered some community resistance. Working with the

district leadership, he was able to build

the school around a broader, more

inclusive definition of the arts as they

relate to communications. The resulting Stone Academy of Communication

Arts has since earned kudos from "conservative" and "liberal" community

members alike. In 1997 the South

Carolina Arts Commission designated

it as an official Arts in the Basic

Curriculum site. 

Similarly, Dr. Roy Fluhrer, who

directs the successful 27-year-old artsmagnet high school, the Fine Arts

Center, finds himself revisiting the mission of the school and looking at new

ways to make it a resource for the district's other schools. Whether grounded

in reality or perception, a recurring

issue associated with special schools is

the drain of talent. The challenge

before Fluhrer is to unify the vision of

a high school for students specializing

in the arts to that of a specialized facility that serves the arts education needs

of other schools as well.

Even in Greenville, the future of

the arts in education is a little fragile

in the face of competition for more

funding for "academics." The challenge arts education leaders in

Greenville see as the district enters the

21st century will be to maintain funding for the arts at levels commensurate

with its importance to student development. Fluhrer summed up, "You can

do it, but you still have to work to

make it flourish." 

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 21

The Arts in Basic Curriculum

(ABC) Project 

A statewide collaborative initiative

begun in 1987, the Arts in Basic

Curriculum (ABC) Project aims to

ensure that every child in South

Carolina, from pre-school through college levels, has access to a quality,

comprehensive education in the arts,

including dance, drama, music, visual

arts and creative writing.

Cooperatively directing the ABC

Project are the South Carolina Arts

Commission, the South Carolina

Department of Education, and the

College of Visual and Performing Arts

at Winthrop University. The project's

statewide steering committee of more

than 80 leaders of schools and school

districts, colleges and universities,

artists, educators, arts organizations,

government, and business meets

three times each year to recommend

and review initiatives. 

The project sponsors a model sites

program that provides grant funds for

the development of innovative arts

programs. Its "blueprint" for arts education, completed in 1988 with funds

from the National Endowment for the

Arts (NEA), provides a forum for the

development of strategic arts initiatives and serves as the foundation for

a broad advocacy coalition for arts

education reform in South Carolina.

The ABC blueprint also outlines a curriculum to be taught by qualified arts

teachers and reinforced by other subject area teachers, administrators,

professional artists, arts organizations,

and community resources. The ABC

Project Office serves as clearinghouse for Arts Education in South

Carolina: The ABC Project, 105

McLaurin Hall, Winthrop University,

Rock Hill, SC 29733; (800) 277-0036.

The ABC Project Web site, from

which the above description is drawn,

is <http://www.winthrop.edu/vpa/

default.htm>

AT THE HEART OF THE ARTS

IN GREENVILLE: 

TEAMS OF ARTS TEACHERS

Arts educators in Greenville

function as teams, so the

researchers for this study often

met with teachers in pairs and

found them quite knowledgeable

about one another's work. Veteran

visual art teacher Deborah Rose

and her colleague, music specialist

Andrea Stephens, embody this

collaborative spirit. When the

researchers first visited Taylors

Elementary School and met Rose,

her hands full of clay, she talked

with great enthusiasm about her

career as a classroom teacher who

had discovered she loved art so

much that she moved to teaching

it full time. Stephens spoke with

equal passion about the newness,

excitement, and challenges of her

first year of teaching music. These

colleagues share a bond that goes

beyond discipline. Rose has given

the benefit of her teaching experience to Stephens, who talked

about classroom management and

teaching ideas she learned from

the senior teacher. 

Both credited Taylors Elementary

principal Mary Woods, who has

been at the school almost two

decades, for their productive environment. Woods is a highly

focused, effective educator.

Awards dot her office wall. She is

clearly an institution in both the

school and the community at

large. In part because of her support, both music and art enjoy

large, well-equipped spaces in

which the students seemed at

home, whether learning to pinch

pots or dance to Japanese music. 

Whether Greenville principals will

continue to give such strong support to arts specialists remains to

be seen given South Carolina's

new accountability act which measures principals' performance by

test scores in other areas of the

curriculum. THE LOCAL CONTEXT

The second largest city in the State

of New Mexico, Las Cruces lies

northwest of El Paso, Texas. In this

place many cultures that have shaped

this part of the country meet, perhaps

most exuberantly in the schools of

Dona Ana County. 

Outside, above the doorway of

the Las Cruces Public Schools administration building, which is housed in a

renovated department store, a tiled

mosaic of the district logo, designed by

a young student, announces to visitors

that the arts are at home here. Inside,

the gateway to the district offices

shines with the latest secondary students' art exhibit. The permanent

student art collection can be found

just around the corner. The vitality

and vibrancy of the building make it

hard to imagine this as a school district in which the arts had no place 15

years ago. In the words of school

board member Mary Tucker, "We had

nothing." 

The lesson of Las Cruces is one

of a community taking stock and

rebuilding with the arts at the heart of

learning, from kindergarten up. 

AN ARTS COUNCIL AS

AGENT OF CHANGE

When the people of Las Cruces

look to identify the key agent of

change for arts education in their community, they point to the Dona Ana

Arts Council. Despite band parents'

and arts students' out-of-pocket contributions to music and visual arts

activities, the school district had no

plans to restore the arts until the arts

council organized parents in support

of arts education. The school board

began to listen when a larger, stronger

parents' group delivered a clearer,

louder message: that the school district

should take on – and build upon – the

arts education responsibilities the parents had assumed. 

As one board member said, "The

parents' support helped us decide to

put a high priority on rebuilding the

arts program here."

Once that decision was made in

1983, the district began conducting an

in-depth assessment of Las Cruces' curriculum and enrollment, goals and

objectives, and the school board took

to a hard look at the elementary and

secondary music program. That assessment and ongoing community support

eventually led to passage of a $1 million bond issue to upgrade, refurbish,

and supply new instruments to the

music program. In this period, the

board also brought Jesse Gonzales on

board as superintendent to continue to

increase district support to the arts,

step by step: 

• A Point Person for the Arts

The next critical step was Gonzales's

hiring of John Schutz, a 25-year 

veteran band leader, as district 

coordinator for visual and performing arts. First a part-time coordinator,

then full-time, Schutz became the

district's "point person" for the arts.

"He’s the voice that reminds us about

the arts and lets us know how we’re

doing in the rebuilding process," says

a board member.

Schutz, in turn, reached out to

arts educators to help them plan for

growth. He made visual arts a priority

since music was his specialty – a

move that the district's visual arts

educators noted and appreciated. He

built value into the visual arts by

requiring principals to bid for the

expanding programs by indicating

how much space, matched time and

money their schools would supply.

Meanwhile, state education reform

measures mandated that the only

local expenditures allowed in the district were to be for capital or material

needs. So the community's passage of

the $1 million bond to help refurbish

music equipment represented a major

demonstration of community support

and a large commitment of resources.

• The School's Portfolio: 

A Principal's Measure of Support

Since then, the commitment of key

school leaders has also become

stronger. Las Cruces principals, in

particular, have been important to

the rebuilding of arts education.

While visiting Las Cruces, the

study's researchers/reporters had the

opportunity to sit in on the secondary principals' regular Thursday

morning meeting led by

Superintendent Gonzales. 

After moving through issues as

varied as uniforms, school choice,

and busing – extremely important in

this growing rural area of New

Mexico – Gonzales encouraged the

principals to form ad hoc groups to

achieve consensus on the issues. He

concluded the meeting by reminding

them that he was coming around to

meet with each one to review and

discuss his or her portfolio. "Take me

through it – what you’ve achieved for

the kids, what’s important," the

superintendent said. Each principal

keeps a portfolio of accomplishments

for the school, for the students. In

turn, each elementary arts educator

keeps a portfolio to share with his/her

principal and other school leaders.

• The Teacher's Portfolio: Evidence

of Success in Arts Education

It was no surprise, therefore, that

each elementary visual arts educator

with whom the study team met

whipped out his/her teacher portfolio without prompting. Teacher

Bonnie Hosie flipped through a sampling of a year’s worth of student

work, explaining the curriculum she

and other teachers had developed. 

"Here we study the color wheel,

and here they work with mixing

color two ways - once in pencil, next

in fingerpaint. I can remember when

one student looked up to me and

held up his paint-covered hands and

said, 'Orange! Red and yellow make

orange!’ He looked back down at

them and never forgot. Weeks later,

he would still look at his hands to

remember color mixing." From skill

exploration to the unit on the seasons, Hosie could show exactly what

she had taught and what students

had learned in her classes. 

• The Students' Portfolios:

Pictures of Pride in Their Work

The students keep portfolios, too. As

Las Cruces rebuilds the arts in the

early years, students select and maintain portfolios demonstrating their

learning in the visual arts through

the years. These portfolios sit near

the front of the classroom, a position

of honor. Students and teachers

alike use them to show, gauge, and

grow. At Vista Middle School, students in the sixth through eighth

grades develop portfolios as part of

their "Right of Passage Experience."

Music and art and other subjects are

included. 

PAGE 22

A Case Study:

LAS CRUCES (NM)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

A Cadre of Principals√

Parent/Public Relations√

Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 32

Students (Total): 22,454

Per Pupil: $3,624

Arts Teachers (Total): 65
Eighth graders schedule an

appointment to present their work

before three of their peers and their

teachers. Parents and grandparents

often attend. The students then

answer questions, much like an oral

dissertation defense, to demonstrate

their knowledge of the material covered. "It’s an emotional experience.

It helps them with the realization

that middle school is over – and see

what they have learned!" says principal Olivia Ogas.

• Presentations to the School Board:

Keeping the Arts in Mind 

Every board meeting begins with a

student performance. The board

meeting that the researchers attended was packed with presenting

district administrators, parents of

performing students, and other community members. Led by an

award-winning elementary music

teacher, Laurie Norman, a class

marched in to the library and began

to sing and dance. The teacher conducted and coaxed as Orff instruments accompanied young voices.

For the finale, large tires and bottles,

wrapping paper and paper bags started rattling and shaking during a

difficult counterpoint piece about

recycling. 

John Schutz explained that the

performances help keep the arts on

the table as board members – former

educators, a business leader, a former

legislator – make decisions that

affect education. Schutz, for example,

has begun exploring ways to expand

dance in the Las Cruces schools by

engaging the community. As schools

dabble with groups like Ballet

Folklorico, he can remind board

members of the successes of the Las

Cruces High School Mariachi Band,

which linked arts education to community culture. 

One important way the board

supports the arts is to keep the arts in

mind during discussions about

remodeling or new construction.

"When it’s time to build a new building," said a member, "that’s the time

to remember the arts. I’m the one

who remembers to ask, 'What about

the music sound system? What

about the music space?' In a rapidly

growing district, the commitment of

space makes all the difference in the

years to come." 

• Continuity in Las Cruces

Las Cruces has the benefit of a stable

board and a superintendent who

enjoys the board's support and,

therefore, remains in his eleventh

year. But Las Cruces still faces challenges of resources and expansion.

The visual arts program at the elementary level continues to grow

slowly, but it may begin facing funding competition from incoming

technology initiatives. Theater

appears to be less valued in the community, and the expense of meeting

ADA (Americans with Disabilities

Act) requirements for accessibility to

stages has affected Las Cruces' decision not to invest heavily in raised

proscenium performance spaces.

Lack of a large enough performing

space limits the district and the community. 

Despite any drawbacks or concerns, however, the atmosphere from

community to school leaders, superintendent to district coordinator,

parent to student, new teacher to

veteran is one of arts growth and

strengthening. Las Cruces is moving

forward to reform education and

including the arts at the heart of

their children's learning. 

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 23

BLOCK SCHEDULING IN LAS CRUCES:

NO ROADBLOCK TO ARTS LEARNING

"Band parents" like Doug and Jan Brown

have long been the backbone of music

programs nationwide. Their son Jeremy, a

high school senior at Las Cruces' Mayfield

High School, and his parents talked about

his commitment to music over dinner with

the researchers during their visit. 

Without a lot of fanfare, over the years

Jeremy had quietly become the trombone mainstay of his school band, and,

when it came time to plan his schedule

for senior year, he told his parents he

wanted to include music as one of his

areas of concentration. 

Doug Brown was worried that, with the

new block scheduling at Mayfield, college-bound Jeremy's academic

performance would suffer if he spent too

much time in the arts. "One-fourth of my

son’s education was going to be spent in

band. That was hard to swallow at first.

Then, as I saw what playing did for him –

he’s a quiet kid, but he really shines in

band – I saw how he learned and grew. 

I became a believer."

Jeremy's parents' willingness to accommodate his music studies was matched

by Mayfield High's willingness to adapt as

well. The entire Las Cruces district is

moving towards block scheduling.

Mayfield began restructuring in 1995-96

as it moved to a full block schedule with a

four-period day throughout the week.

Traditional two-semester classes are

offered in one semester. Students take

fewer courses. For Mayfield, the key to

this transition has been flexibility. In order

for Jeremy to continue to pursue band

and Advanced Placement coursework,

Mayfield guidance counselors developed

an independent AP English course so he

could attend band. This adaptation

impressed the Browns, who felt that

Jeremy would not have to choose "arts"

or "academics." He could do both.

Las Cruces uses block scheduling in different forms, including 4x4 with a

6-period Monday and the above 5x4.

Arts educators mentioned their concerns

about the changes. Among them is a

possible reduction in enrollment in arts

courses given that students will take

fewer courses on these schedules.

Professional development and a risk-free

year of experimentation have helped the

transition in Mayfield. The students

interviewed preferred block scheduling:

"Less stress, less homework." "More

time to learn; you’re not bouncing

around so quickly." Ruth Bird, one of

the visual arts teachers at Mayfield,

appreciated the extra time to work and

develop ideas with students. 

A Case Study:

MIAMI - 

DADE COUNTY (FL)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

A Cadre of Principals√

Teachers Who Practice Their Art√

An Elementary Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 328

Students (Total): 341,000

Per Pupil: $5,137

Arts Teachers (Total): 1,200

THE LOCAL CONTEXT

Miami-Dade County is not only the

fourth largest school system in

the country – with more than 340,000

students and nearly 18,000 teachers –

but it is also one of the nation's most

diverse. The district's students come

from 155 different countries and speak

150 different languages, which adds

language barriers to the hurdles of

poverty and other urban ills constantly

facing Miami schools leadership. 

continued on next page
THE SCHOOL BOARD'S

COMMITMENT

The arts, officially embraced by the

school board in the early 1990s,

have become critical components of the

district's strategy to manage and benefit

from its diversity. As 35-year-board

member G. Holmes Braddock told this

study's visiting researchers, "As a board,

we decided that we needed to make a

statement about the arts – that they

were as basic as any other subject." 

That policy, still in place and

supported by superintendent Roger C.

Cuevas nearly a decade later, reflects

the community's politically demonstrated desire to make the arts part of

learning in Miami-Dade County. It was

a grassroots swell from the arts community, which elected arts advocate

Betsy H. Kaplan to the board, that led

in part to the board's commitment to

the arts.

An avid arts supporter over

decades in the classroom, community,

and politics, Kaplan serves as a walking, talking, voting reminder of the

commitment the board made and continues to keep by its actions. Arts

education, for example, has not been

compromised to help pull up the slack

elsewhere in the curriculum. Even

when some district schools and their

language arts programs were deemed

"deficient" by the State of Florida

Board of Education, the School Board

chose not to cut art, music, and physical education in favor of language arts.

Instead, the Miami-Dade County board

opted to extend the school day by one

hour in those schools to allow for the

additional hour of language arts. Board

members also advocate the arts

statewide by their participation in a

multitude of arts-related conferences

and organizations. Kaplan has served

for more than 10 years on the Florida

Alliance for Arts Education/Arts for a

Complete Education board, which

makes recommendations to the Florida

Department of Education. 

But as many a school district has

discovered, the only certainty is

change. Miami-Dade County's board 

of education grew from seven members to nine members in the last

elections, changing from at-large to

single-member district representation.

As a result, the board's dynamics have

begun to change. That fact – as well as

a relatively recent change of superintendent – presents the board's current

challenge: learning how to work

together to develop and strengthen

consensus of policy direction as

Miami-Dade County Public Schools

move into a new millennium.

Meanwhile, translating the

board's vision into a system-wide way

of teaching and learning in and

through the arts has been and continues to be the work of a large,

committed network that includes the

superintendent, school principals, district arts supervisors, teachers, parents,

and civic groups. In searching for clues

to how a school district builds and sustains strong arts education, the

researchers for this report met with

and observed many participants in

that vital network.

THE MANY LESSONS OF

LILIA GARCIA AND THE

DIVISION OF LIFE SKILLS

I f Betsy Kaplan has served as the

community's arts beacon on the

school board, the lightning rod in the

operating system of arts learning is

Lilia Garcia, director of the Division of

Life Skills, which houses the visual

and performing arts programs, along

with physical education, for the entire

district. 

Some 20 years ago, Garcia

helped to organize arts teachers into a

powerful lobby that gained the support of key school board members,

business leaders, local arts organizations, and parents. "We became a force

to be reckoned with," said Garcia.

Today Garcia is a force to be recognized – the linchpin for district-wide

arts learning for all students at all levels in all schools, taught by full-time

certified arts specialists. Under her

leadership, the Division of Life Skills

has an explicit policy of relating to

"the implementation of a series of

reading, writing, and mathematics

learning strategies that are integrated

with the arts curriculums and which

focuses on supporting the [school]

District initiative of raising performance standards." It seems to matter

little in which curriculum area the district undertakes an initiative. Lilia

Garcia and her staff of arts supervisors

will ask the question, How do the arts

fit into this new program?

Miami-Dade's "Sketchbook/

Journal" projects, which take place in a

number of schools around the district,

exemplify the initiatives that integrate

the arts and other school subjects. In

this case, it is the visual and language

arts. The Sketchbook/Journal's goal

includes the enhancement of children's "ability to express themselves

clearly and creatively" to provide "a

way for students to travel from where

they are at the beginning of the book

to a better place at the end." Visual

and verbal imagery interact as students

PAGE 24

A Page at a Time

While visiting Biscayne Gardens

Elementary School in Miami,

researchers for this study had the pleasure of meeting two sixth-grade

students who showed them a compelling large-format book they and their

classmates had made the year before.

The book, entitled A Page at a Time,

grew out of an instructional unit with

the theme "Conflict and Resolution"

that had been planned cooperatively

by social studies, language arts, and

visual arts teachers. 

Students from five elementary schools

in the district visited the Wolfsonian

Museum, which specializes in the decorative and propaganda arts, in Miami

Beach. There students viewed artworks

related to the First and Second World

War and, in the museum's library,

perused book, many of them rare and

beautiful, that chronicled in words and

images the conflicts of this century. 

Back at school, the Biscayne

Gardens elementary students fashioned a cover of stitched fabric that

evoked both chaos and calm. Inside,

students painted canvas pages with

vivid shapes and lines that echoed

the chaos and calm of the book's

cover. At the center of each page,

they mounted a photographic portrait

of a student. Each portrait, however,

was printed on transparent acetate,

which made it possible to see fragments of student handwriting on the

sheets beneath the photographs. The

sheets were filled with stories and

historical accounts of how students'

family members and other acquaintances had experienced conflict in

their lives and how they had resolved

it. The students had conducted the

interviews and written the chronicles

of family struggles and triumphs.

The Wolfsonian directors and curators

so appreciated this book and those

made by the students in the other

participating schools that they 

purchased them for the museum's

permanent collection. draw pictures that retell stories, which

they then rewrite. They draw pictures

that show a sequence of events and

then write about the sequence. They

draw pictures that show customs

shared by different cultures, and they

share ideas about those customs with

classmates. By transferring ideas from

one symbol system to another, and

sometimes to another and another,

students become involved in several

school subjects simultaneously, and

often the arts provide the catalyst for

the translation of knowledge from

realm to realm. 

Garcia's team of arts supervisors

also puts a lively public face on the district's arts commitment. They are out

in the community – in the schools, at

local arts events – presenting student

artwork, arranging performances, promoting the district's arts activities with

well-honed skills and polished materials. They practice teamwork. Within

the first hour and a half of the

researchers' visit, the Miami-Dade

County arts supervisors scheduled

parades, ordered buses, promoted their

new curriculum, planned professional

development activities, reorganized

their visitors' schedules and transportation, then walked them to the

ArtWorks Gallery at the Omni Mall to

watch the jurying of student artwork

for the national Scholastic Art Awards. 

The Omni Mall is one of many

businesses partnering with the school

district in a multitude of well-attended

district-wide music festivals, dance and

choreography adjudication and showcases, student exhibitions, theater arts

showcases, evenings of one-act plays.

These showcases are, admittedly, good

public relations for the school district

and the businesses, but they also provide another opportunity – the

opportunity for the community to

assess the work of students, teachers,

and arts supervisors. 

Three Miami-Dade County arts

supervisors on hand at the Omni Mall

articulated the importance of arts educators' participation in their art form as

well as in education. Ray Azcuy, district

visual arts supervisor, explained that he

and his colleagues William Chiodo and

Marie Mennes, as well as the music and

theater arts supervisors, are assessed on

their performance and knowledge of

their arts discipline. Robert T. Davis,

currently the only music supervisor,

shared a bit about his self-selected professional development portfolio for the

district: Part of his montage was to

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 25

write and compose a book of new holiday pieces and make them available to

the district's music staff.

Dr. Robert D. Strickland, theater

arts supervisor, is an activist and presence in the Miami theater community.

Like Strickland, Miami-Dade County's

1,200 district arts teachers actively participate in their disciplines. While

visiting the district, this report's

researchers spent one evening attending

a professional production of Goodby, 

My Friduchita, a play written by district drama educator Delores Sendler.

If Miami-Dade's teachers, students, and community benefit from so

many opportunities to participate in a

lively and creative environment, they

also reap the rewards of opportunities

that, while somewhat less public, are

no less important to arts education in

the district. One such high-impact program brings together students,

teachers, and the rich resources of the

area's museums. Every week, 27 elementary arts educators spend at least

one day in one of 16 art museums and

galleries around Miami. These "museum educators" facilitate deep

relationships with their adopted collection for their own students and for

other students who visit. While at the

museums, the teachers develop museum-connected study guides and other

educational materials that are used in

the schools before and after museum

visits. The curriculum materials are

shared with teachers and students

throughout the district. The visual arts

teachers/museum educators lead tours

for the 26,000 students who makes visits to these institutions each year.

When the teachers return to

their schools for the rest of the week,

they bring the depth of knowledge of

the collection back with them.

Museum staff told this study's

researchers how their own docents

learn from these educators. The educators spoke about a tremendous

opportunity for professional growth.

The students talked in detailed, intellectual ways about the collections,

their interest in art, and their relationships with artwork and the

institutions. Each year student artworks created following museum visits

are exhibited in the Wolfsonian

Museum. (See sidebar.)

THE PRINCIPALS' DIFFERENCE

With many award-winning schools

on the site visit list, the report's

researchers anticipated strong principals. They found them in schools that

offered a wide range of learning formats – "regular" to arts-focused – for a

student population of every ethnicity.

Principal Frederick A. Morley of

Charles R. Drew Elementary School in

Miami's "Liberty City" cordoned off the

drug wars and the prostitution down

the street by creating a school of excellence. Walk in and you find school

uniforms and the arts living in harmony as young, mostly African-American

(91 percent) children are busy exploring paints and clay, photography,

dance, and drama. In Morley's view,

the arts keep kids engaged, involved,

off the streets, and in "the right stuff." 

Miami Beach Senior High

School's principal, Dr. William

Rénuart, also believes the arts engage

youngsters in learning. A man of colorful speech, Rénuart did not mince

words with visitors as he shared the

CD of a student playing and singing a

Beatles tune. "You know," he said, "

this student, who made this CD – he

couldn’t even speak English or read it.

He used to give me no end of trouble.

Then he got involved in this music,

and he starts this band, and that’s it,

he shapes up....You listened? You can’t

even tell the difference in his language; you would never know [he had

had such problems]." 

As Rénuart sees it, the arts keep

kids in schools. "If they don’t come to

school, you can’t teach them. So I’m

going to have arts in my school." His

high school is a "regular" school with

students who recently immigrated

from Columbia, Nicaragua, Cuba, and

the Bahamas. The school has a

Saturday program, which helps keep a

web of support in place for the kids.

The arts are an important part of the

Saturday program, which is showing

initial success in reducing dropout

rates of young people likely to leave

school before finishing. The school is

also working to connect learning to

"real life" by employing the arts: The

"ARTEC" program brings film and technology together for at-risk students. It

gives back through student projects

that serve the community. 

EQUAL ACCESS AND HIGHER

LEVELS OF OPPORTUNITY

Miami-Dade County Public School

district is continuously working

to keep the solid base of opportunity

offered by "regular" schools in balance

continued on next page
THE LOCAL CONTEXT

For more than 150 years, Milwaukee

Public Schools have demonstrated a

strong commitment to the arts in education. Indeed, innovative arts

education is a trademark of MPS education. Not only does each school have

budget line items for the arts programs,

but the community, parents, the school

board, and partnerships round out the

resources that MPS creatively utilizes to

provide model arts programming

throughout Milwaukee's schools. 

Largely as an outcome of

Milwaukee's efforts to achieve ethnic

balance of students across the district,

the MPS system today is shaped by the

diversity of its schools. By designing

magnet and special focus schools, the

district has tried to entice students to

travel from their neighborhoods to

other parts of the city to enroll in special programs. 

A Case Study:

MILWAUKEE (WI)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

A Cadre of Principals√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 154

Students (Total): 107,043

Per Pupil: $7,768

Arts Teachers (Total): 473

ONE SCHOOL'S

MISSION STATEMENT

Tippecanoe, a K-5 arts and

humanities school, for example,

provides the district's students

and parents with this description of its special character:

"Our nationally recognized program presents pupils with

experiences in music, art, literature, philosophy, and language

from multicultural and historical

perspectives. The arts and

humanities are closely tied with

the sciences to produce citizens who are able to function in

a highly technological society.

School-to-Work activities give

pupils opportunities to connect

the arts, humanities, and sciences with every day

experiences which will allow

them to make a variety of postsecondary choices."

with the choice of a higher level of

opportunity in "specialized" schools.

The arts have been key to that balancing act. As Dr. Solomon Stinson,

school board chair, affirmed, "The arts

have been an integral partner in the

development of every curriculum initiative and education practice

produced at each school site and 

district-wide." 

In Miami's "regular" schools,

every child learns art and music,

receiving 60 minutes of art and 90

minutes of music every week. Many

children also learn theater and dance.

The report's researchers encountered

enthusiastic educators who set the

tone for learning inside their rooms –

drama teachers encouraging reading

aloud (and writing in silence), art

teachers bridging elementary lessons

with museum collections. They also

met a few who were not engaging

their students. But by and large, the

research team found a solid base of

opportunity for the students, even in

middle school, where the "wheel"

structure – six to nine weeks of lessons

in a particular area – poses challenges.

The "specialized" schools – the

schools of choice – offer a higher level

of opportunity. These hubs provide

the best of arts training to the students

who can compete and be admitted on

talent, as demonstrated in audition

and portfolio. 

PAVAC, the Performing and

Visual Arts Center, is a school of

choice within Miami Northwestern

Senior High, a school that serves a primarily African-American urban

community where barbed wire and

cement barriers are part of the neighborhood landscape. But open the

doors of PAVAC, and visitors find students focused on music. In one

rehearsal space, a teacher admonished

students – all trying to get into the

swing of jazz – for not tuning up first:

"If this were the gig, and you weren’t

tuned, you would lose the gig."

The Design and Architecture

Senior High School can be found in

Miami's fashion and design district.

Here one can sense the creativity and

pick up students' sense of humor, too:

"The Phantoms"– the school's nonexistent sports team rendered in a large

mural – guard the door. Outfits of

feathers, leather, lace, and cloth adorn

the windows. Design and Architecture

students cut and paste, engineer and

design their way to portfolios and

skills that make them ready to comPAGE 26

pete in the applied arts worlds waiting

for them in Miami, New York, Los

Angeles. This study's researchers met

one parent who pulled her child out of

a private school to attend this public

school of choice.

The New World School of the

Arts is another unusual institution,

offering both high school and state

university collegiate programs with the

highest level of pre-professional training, constant exposure to outside

artists, and great expectations for

achievement. Students here – including 40 high school students who met

with report researchers – speak of purpose and discipline, of the teachers

who care, and a place to be themselves

and pursue their goals. They speak of

hard work and of summer plans which

will help them continue to learn more

– from performing opportunities to

working on a portfolio. And, they say,

the school cares for them: When one

student had no money for dance

shoes, teachers and the school found a

way. Regrets? "That the day is not

longer!" one student exclaimed. "That

we do not have dorms here, since I

travel an hour and a half to get here

each day." 

Schools of choice raise issues of

equity. The Miami-Dade magnet program, which is intertwined with the

Life Skills program, certainly is the

place where arts shine the brightest.

But what the researchers found in

Miami as well as in Milwaukee and

other districts with strong magnet programs is that the arts help create an

environment for learning no matter

the focus of the magnet school. In

other words, a science and technology

magnet school that incorporates the

arts will have a more vital environment for learning.

While Miami's 16 special arts

schools/programs reach only 4,900

students – a small percentage of the

340,000 student population – they

reach them well. The question for

the district leader is how to expand

upon the resources of the choice

schools. How does a school district

continue to raise the level of all the

other schools, so they, too, experience

excellence in the arts and in learning?

Miami does not have easy answers.

Instead, it works hard to ensure that

the baseline -- the least a child will get

-- is a strong arts education. Many a

school district in America would be

proud to do just that. CONTINUITY AND CHOICE:

STRIKING A BALANCE FOR

ARTS EDUCATION

The Milwaukee Public Schools district has had considerable success

with its efforts. Today, 26 of MPS's 114

elementary schools are "citywide":

Students from anywhere in the district

may attend them. Eleven schools with

middle school-aged students are "citywide," and 12 are "regular." Of the 21

schools with high school students,

nine are "regular," and 12 are "citywide." Whether "regular" or "citywide,"

each school must provide the commuLessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 27

nity with its philosophy of education,

mission statement (see sidebar), organization, and instructional approach.

For the arts, Milwaukee students

may self-select their school, choosing

among an arts elementary school, two

arts middle schools, one arts high

school, as well as an enormous array of

How is Milwaukee's vast array of educational

choices and specialized programs reconciled with

the general expectation that all students should

receive a balanced education in (1) the sciences

and mathematics; (2) the language arts; (3) visual

arts and performing arts; (4) the humanities and

social studies; (5) vocational options; and (6)

physical education?

By making every school special and by giving the

arts an important place in many of its schools,

Milwaukee provides a model for other districts

where there is a wish to offer students a choice of

quality educational programs. 

It is important to point out that the great diversity of

school organizational plans and programs are not

imposed from the top down but just the reverse.

However, because the district has such a history of

central office leadership in the arts, the innovative

schools include the arts as a matter of course. This

practice has served to institutionalize the arts

despite numerous changes, including changes in

district leadership. 

Three schools of art provide three different models of choice: 

Elm Creative Arts Elementary School 

Twenty-one years ago, before Elm Elementary

School became Milwaukee's Creative Arts

Elementary School, its students' achievement test

scores placed the children in the district's lowest

10 percent. After one year as an arts magnet

school, although 50 percent of the neighborhood's

students remained in the school, the students'

achievement test scores placed them in the district's upper 10 percent. 

Surely there were many factors that contributed to

the first year's dramatic rise in test scores: an

influx of new students whose parents wished them

to receive a special type of education, enthusiastic

teachers and administrators specially selected to

work in the school, a curriculum that integrated the

arts with each school subject, and active cooperative learning. 

Parents, teachers, school administrators, arts

supervisors, and students explain student

achievement at Elm by pointing to these factors: 

• The arts make schools engaging places for children.

• Teaching and learning are fun.

• Reading, calculating, and other "academics" are

not so onerous when they are done in the context

of the arts (for example, students learn to compute through dance). 

• The arts schools are kinetically engaging.

• They are places where learning is valued.

They also are places where the arts can flourish

simply because they have facilities for dance, theater, and other art forms. In addition, teachers and

administrators in the arts-focused schools emphasize the importance of a dedicated staff and a

high level of parent participation in planning

school missions and programs. 

Achievement test scores are very high in

Milwaukee's four arts-focused schools. These

scores and other data and information, however,

have not been used to determine what it is about

the arts that facilitates students' learning and

changes their attitudes toward school. In many

cases the data already exist; they await analysis in

Milwaukee and in other cities where students have

the option to attend arts schools.

A.E. Burdick's Traditional

Educational Program

A. E. Burdick is a neighborhood K-8 school that,

according to its description, offers a "traditional

educational program." Descriptions notwithstanding, education at Burdick is far from traditional.

The school places special emphasis on music,

computer technology, and multimedia education.

The music program creates an atmosphere of

innovation and excitement that pervades the

school. The two full-time music teachers and parttime instrumental teachers have created a music

program in which every student plays a musical

instrument. In the words of one teacher, "Every

kid expects to play an instrument." Actually, every

student plays several instruments, sings, and

more. They are all composers and conductors.

The students and teachers have created an

orchestra's worth of "instruments"– an amazing

collection of plastic bottles and buckets, tubes,

pans, pieces of wood, metal percussion objects

that hang from a wire extending the width of the

music room, all sorts of things that create sounds

when blown into, stroked, or beaten upon. As a

succession of student composers mounted the

"podium" to conduct their compositions, other

students informed the researchers, "Sure, we

could recognize each kid's style, even if we couldn't see who was conducting." Students are also

able to improvise seemingly endless compositions

without the aid of a conductor.

Not all the instruments created in the school are

"low-tech." When funds were unavailable to purchase a drum synthesizer, one of the music

teachers and his students constructed one.

The music teachers wrote proposals and received

grants for computers on which students both compose and perform their compositions. The school

has also received grants to underwrite the acquisition of digital photographic equipment so that

students can create a multimedia yearbook that

incorporates sound and includes students' own

compositions and performances, photographic

images, video clips, images and information from

the Internet, produced and issued to students in

either CD-ROM or video formats. 

Creating a multimedia yearbook is an enormously

complex task that requires students to acquire

skills and competencies relating to a variety of

computer programs. The task also requires them

to make thousands of design decisions relating to

the relationships among graphic designs and

sounds, video clips, still images, and musical

compositions. By the time the yearbook students

complete eighth grade they know just about

everything necessary to live productively within

the digital age.

Throughout the year students work with musicians

in residence – composers and performers. The

music program fills the entire school. In the words

of one of the music teachers, "We wanted to incorporate music into all areas of the curriculum. We

are a school family." Because of music, Burdick is a

happy family and a joyous place.

Milwaukee School of Languages 

Milwaukee School of Languages for students in

grades 6 through 8 "offers continuing language

immersion in French, German and Spanish (with a

beginning elective in Japanese) for students from

elementary programs or with sufficient language

proficiency. Math, language arts, and social studies

are taught in the second language in grades 6-8." 

In actuality, the arts – literature, music, visual arts,

and theater – provide the content for large segments of the School of Language curriculum. The

reason is simple: The study of a language comes

to life though the culture of its country of origin.

And what reveals culture? The arts.

The school's language teachers in each subject

matter area are able to rely upon a vast collection

of visual and music resources developed to support the music and art curricula. (The district

spends literally millions of dollars on arts resource

materials on a regular cycle – the last being purchased in 1993. These reproductions, recordings,

books, and other resource materials are placed in

each school – just like textbooks.) More importantly, the language school's visual arts teachers serve

as resources for their colleagues, suggesting the

artworks that provided the specific subject matter

for each language teacher's individual curriculum. 

Matters of Choice in Milwaukee: Three Schools of Art



continued on next page
PAGE 28

special programs that include the arts

as an important component. Different

schools – regular as well as specialized

schools – also offer a variety of curricular emphases, instructional approaches,

and organizational structures. 

No matter which kind of school

this study's researchers visited in

Milwaukee, they found the arts strong

and hard at work. In many respects,

the MPS district seemed to bring to life

the second goal of the National

Standards for Arts Education, K-12

Teaching and Learning Goals:

"Students will participate and gain

knowledge in all of the arts (visual

arts, dance, theater, literature, music),

developing personal vehicles for self

expression reinforced in an integrated

curriculum."

While Milwaukee principals,

teachers, and parents in each school

have been given enormous latitude to

develop the kinds of schools they

desire, at the same time the district

administrators and curriculum specialists, through their work in curriculum

and assessment, send strong signals

that all schools, regardless of their particular specializations, are expected to

present balanced programs that

include the arts. 

Milwaukee can be seen as a selfrenewing system. During the past few

years, with a rapid turnover in superintendents, administrative support for

the arts has varied somewhat.

Regardless of the level of support, the

arts curriculum specialists continued to

work with individual schools. Some of

the schools with exemplary arts programs continued to flourish in times

when central support was weaker.

These schools continued to innovate

and have provided exemplary models

for other schools to follow. 

In other words, the authority

that resides both within schools and

within central administration,

although sometimes fluctuating

between these two poles, insures that

arts leadership and innovation remain

within the Milwaukee Public Schools

system and keeps the arts relatively

strong throughout the entire system. 

COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP

MPS provides an excellent example

of the advantages that come

when leadership responsibilities are

shared among individual schools and

central district office administrators

and curriculum specialists. In

ASSESSMENT AND THE ARTS

Milwaukee is experimenting with a district-wide assessment program involving

authentic/performance-based tasks. In the

arts portion of the assessment initiative,

the National Standards for Arts Education

have provided some evidence.

Nevertheless, Milwaukee arts teachers are

working in new territory. With the assistance of assessment consultants, district

teachers developed three comprehensive

arts assessment tasks – one for fifth

grade, one for middle school, and one for

high school students. The three tasks

were designed to assess students'

strengths and weaknesses relating to the

development, communication, or expression of an idea through the use of artistic

skills and imagination. 

Fifth-grade students are asked to use a

variety of art forms to create a television

commercial and incorporate the design of

a logo. The task assesses students' ability

to use the arts to sell a product. Middle

school students are asked to produce a

work, in an art form of their choice, that

conveys the idea "This Is My School." The

task for high school students is creating a

self-portrait that expresses "Who I Am."

They are permitted to develop their selfportraits through one or more of the arts –

visual arts, dance/movement, theater/acting, creative writing, or music. Through

comprehensive assessment exercises,

students are to demonstrate:

(1) their preference for a particular art

form or combination of art forms, 

(2) the degree to which they have mastered the skills, techniques, and

processes associated with the form(s),

and (3) how imaginatively they can use the

form to express an idea. 

The program's launch was not without

problems. By the spring of 1994, the

teachers who had worked on the development of the exercises had conducted pilot

tests of the assessment tasks in their own

classrooms. The following spring, meetings were held to prepare teachers to

administer the tasks. The arts tasks were

administered by teachers on an optional

basis in the spring of 1996 and again in

the spring of 1997. (Teachers of mathematics, writing, and science were required

to administer assessment tasks in these

areas.) Although arts teachers were not

required to administer the assessment

tasks, in the fifth grade approximately

35,000 students completed the task. 

Issues pertaining to the scoring of students' responses and how the findings

might be analyzed and presented to the

public are still being developed. Indeed, it

is an enormous initiative for which there

are few, if any, models to follow.

Nevertheless, the approach represents

important advances, permitting students to

respond to a task employing a preferred

art form or forms, and the task itself simultaneously assesses many of the National

Standards for Arts Education.

Milwaukee, this pattern of collaborative leadership pervades virtually every

dimension of education and, in large

measure, accounts for the strength of

the district's arts programs.

Another important contributing

factor in sustaining strong arts education programs is, of course, the

commitment of the superintendent.

Today, Superintendent Alan S. Brown

supports and articulates a vision for

"one of the outstanding urban arts education programs in the world." To that

end, he is working to achieve "quality

arts instruction for all children in the

district which includes high standards

and effective assessment" and "expansion of the highly successful artscentered schools and programs." 

COORDINATING MORE

WITH LESS

I

n Milwaukee, visual arts and music

curriculum supervisors have been

and continue to be leaders nationally

as well as in the state and district. In

recent years, however, budget reductions have left their mark on

Milwaukee. Like many other school

districts around the country, MPS has

reduced the size of its central office

arts supervisory staff. 

In the early 1980s, the central

office art supervisory staff was large,

with one art curriculum specialist, one

art supervisor, and, at different times,

anywhere from four to six supervising

teachers of art who also worked from

the district office. Now there are just

two curriculum specialists – one for

art, the other for music – in the central

office, while a second art specialist

works in the Division of Curriculum

and Instruction on programs relating

to the arts and special education. The

resources of one art and one music

supervisor are stretched thinly as they

work to serve the needs of hundreds of

visual arts and music teachers.

ADDING ARTS SPECIALISTS

Milwaukee visual arts teachers

report that they missed the close

contact, opportunities for professional

development, and instructional support they used to receive from the

cadre of art supervisors. However, while

losing arts coordinators, the district

was gaining art and music specialists in

the elementary schools. Once a few elementary schools began to add special

arts teachers to their staffs, the arts cur- Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 29

riculum supervisors were presented

with the equity argument: "If specialists

are good for some schools, why aren't

they good for all schools?" 

Today all of Milwaukee's elementary schools, in addition to its middle

and high schools, are served by art and

music specialists. It is noteworthy that

the addition of art and music specialists

to the elementary level was accomplished during the same time that

much of the authority to establish educational programs was being transferred

from the district to individual schools. 

THE MILWAUKEE

COMMUNITY: INSIDE AND

OUTSIDE THE SCHOOLS

The Milwaukee community plays a

critical and ongoing role from outside the school system (as advocates

and funders) and from inside the system (through artist residencies and

program partnerships). MPS is developing new partnerships all the time. Two

stand out: the Milwaukee Symphony's

ACE program (see sidebar) and the disMILWAUKEE'S ACE PROGRAM

Arts in Community Education – ACE –

is a comprehensive education partnership between the Milwaukee Symphony

Orchestra and 25 private and parochial

schools in eight school districts, including Milwaukee Public Schools. ACE

brings learning through music into the

classroom every day, aiming to

advance each child's overall learning

and development. 

ACE pursues that goal through a series

of culturally diverse arts experiences

that are integrated throughout the curriculum beginning in kindergarten and

continuing through each grade level.

These experiences are structured

around a coordinating theme for each

grade. For example, kindergartners

learn about the "Family of Music" (composer, conductor, performer, audience)

– a theme which emphasizes social

development and the relationships

found within all types of "families."

Third and fourth graders develop cultural awareness, sensitivity, and pride by

exploring cultural heritages and crossinfluences found in communities

worldwide (third grade) and in

Wisconsin (fourth grade). Fifth graders

become "Ace Inventors" and explore

interdependence in artistic and scientific processes and problem solving. 

Supporting each theme, MSO provides

an interdisciplinary curriculum, three or

four in-school ensemble workshops per

grade, an evening family concert at

each school, a specially designed concert by the full orchestra for each grade

level (parents invited), teacher in-services and summer curriculum planning

workshops, and a parent newsletter. An

ambitious assessment component

annually documents ACE's progress

and effectiveness in achieving interdisciplinary and critical thinking, problem

solving, self-esteem, self-confidence,

motivation, cooperation, listening,

communication, and creativity. 

At the middle school level, ACE's

emphasis broadens to encompass

three areas:

• integrating the arts across the school

curriculum, bridging students' learning in academic subjects and the arts;

• supporting schools' music and arts

curricula through close contact with

MSO musicians and other outstanding professional artists;

• addressing school-to-work issues

through broad access to MSO and

other arts industry resources and personnel.

At the sixth-grade level, a team of two

MSO musicians are designated to work

with arts and academic faculty

throughout the school year. As partners, they plan and implement all

program components, including ACE

curriculum, artist visits, parent involvement, and assessment. 

In 1998-99, 50 specially prepared

ensembles and individual artists are

making 400 presentations in ACE

schools. MSO musicians, conductor,

and chorus comprise 22 of them.

Another 28 involve community "cultural

partners," such as the American Indian

Center, Ballet Wisconsin, Chance ,

Dancecircus, Discovery World

Museum, and more. 

Now in its ninth year, Arts in

Community Education is funded by

grants from the National Endowment

for the Arts, GE Fund, Harley Davidson

Foundation, Emory T. Clark Family

Foundation, among many others.

trict's collaboration with the

Milwaukee Art Museum. The museum

partnership provides curriculum materials for teachers, junior docent

programs, arts classes for teachers, and

opportunities for in-class guest speakers and artists. Through the

Milwaukee Art Museum's new program

with Lincoln Center Middle School of

the Arts, spaces in the school have

been designed as studio and performance spaces for community arts

groups. The school studios are

"bartered" for artists' school programs.

Their studios are intermingled with

classrooms throughout the school

building, resulting in artist-student

interactions all day, every day – an

artist residency in the fullest sense. 

APPLAUSE

Milwaukee district's arts programs

have received considerable local,

state, national, even international

attention. Dutch educators are studying MPS's Elm Creative Arts School

as a model for schools in the

Netherlands. Elm also was selected

for a 1997 Business Week Award for

Instructional Innovation. Lincoln

Center Middle School received the

City of Milwaukee Award of

Excellence for its collaborative programs involving students, educators,

artists, and performing arts groups.

The Wisconsin Alliance for Arts

Education recognized 10 Milwaukee

elementary schools for their exemplary programs. The Milwaukee

Public Schools' arts programs were

examined by researchers for Toward

Civilization: A Report to the 

President and Congress on Arts

Education (1988). The Milwaukee

visual arts program was studied in

depth by the Rand Corporation and

the Getty Education Institute for the

Arts; the results were reported in

Beyond Creating: The Place for Art in

America's Schools (1985).



THE LOCAL CONTEXT

One of three adjacent middleincome "beach towns" south of Los

Angeles International Airport and separate spiritually if not physically from

L.A., Redondo Beach is, in many ways,

a community caught in the middle.

Economically, an educator points out,

we're "not rich enough to afford everything we need in education" – unlike

extremely well-to-do neighbors – but

"not disadvantaged enough to qualify

for grant assistance"– unlike other

neighboring communities. On average, a Redondo family has an income

of $48,000. The impact of immigration

is beginning to be felt, and the number of Spanish-speaking families is on

the rise. Of the 7,255 students in

Redondo Beach Unified School

District, 38 percent are nonwhite; 8

percent live below the poverty line.

Redondo Beach Unified School

District – until recently a K-8 district

with a separate high school district – is

a small system: one high school, one

continuation high school, two middle

schools, and eight elementary schools.

Historically, the school board has

voted to sustain the arts - with just

one major cut of the strings program

during a hard budget time. This commitment has not been easy to sustain

in California, ever since Proposition 13

was passed more than a decade ago

and made funding arts education difficult. But Redondo Beach also has a

history of capitalizing on its opportunities. From the early days of its arts

education renewal, Redondo Beach

Unified School District has found partners to help the district create and

sustain its arts education programs. 

The City of Redondo Beach and

its recreation department, for example, assisted the district in developing

a K-6 vocal music instruction program. Los Angeles' Getty Education

Institute for the Arts provided

teacher/administrator workshops that

proved particularly effective in creating value and interest for integrating

art production and analysis within the

classroom – to lasting effect. Daily, the

district reaps the benefit of its partnership with parents and grandparents

who provide experiential arts education at the elementary level. This

volunteer effort has become institutionalized as the Hands on Art program.

Recently, new partnerships have

begun shaping Redondo Beach's identity into a school system concerned with

arts through the electronic media.

With this strategy, Redondo is answering the L.A. County Office of

Education's call for content and establishing a 21st century vision for itself

by developing partnerships and securing grants that support and advance

the integration of arts and technology.

A SUPERINTENDENT'S VISION

FOR HER DISTRICT'S 21ST

CENTURY PARTNERSHIP:

ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY

I

t is not surprising that given the

proximity of Los Angeles, numerous

technology-based corporations, and

the Hollywood film industry that there

is high demand in the region for students prepared to pursue careers in the

arts and entertainment. Redondo

Beach decided to seize the day and

take community involvement to the

"next level."

Pairing the arts and technology

as "agents of change" is a strategy born

of the well-tended connections to business and county leaders of the late

superintendent of Redondo Beach, Dr.

Beverly Rohrer. A strong, vocal member of Arts Tech 100, a national arts

advocacy group of businesses, 

organizations, educators, arts patrons,

and others, she served on the

California Department of Education

Superintendent’s Task Force on the

Visual and Performing Arts. The list

below of Redondo's technology/arts

initiatives – many of which have been

underwritten by businesses – is testament to her vision and commitment

to the Redondo Beach community and

its children's futures.

COLLECTIVE IMPACT

Among the initiatives above, this

study's team of researchers, who

spent several days in Redondo Beach,

found a handful of rare gems and a

few that were more common. But the

most important discovery was the collective impact of innovative work and

the overall elevation of the level of

learning and access to opportunity in

this school district. 

During the researchers' visit,

Redondo Beach high school students

were engaged in the Interstate Musical

PAGE 30

A Case Study:

REDONDO BEACH (CA)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

A Cadre of Principals√

Parent/Public Relations√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 12

Students (Total): 7,255

Per Pupil: $4,800

Arts Teachers (Total): 47

Initiative

ArtsEDNet, L.A. Cultural

Arts Collaborative Arts

Project

Boardwalk Art: Linking

Arts, Culture and

Community

Futures Academy

CAD/Graphics Lab

Center for Excellence in

Fine Arts

Student-managed

BeachNet housing Arts

KnowledgeNetTM

Partner

Getty Education Institute

for the Arts

City of Redondo Beach 

TRW, GTE, Cal State,

Dominguez Hills, NASA,

Apple Computer, AT&T

Teacher donation

Los Angeles County

Schools - Office of

Superintendent, AT&T

GTE, Cisco, City of

Redondo Beach, Sun

MicroComputers

Description

District teachers trained in

Discipline-Based Arts Education

develop technology components

and K-6 lessons for arts web

sites under development.

K-16 students will use electronic

communication to organize arts

events involving the community.

To train teachers and communities in South Bay in integration

of technology in educational

reform.

Mac Lab for district graphic arts

donated by families of two

instructors.

District to provide county

schools with assistance in integration of arts into curricula

using technology.

Computer network established

and run by students, serves 14

districts sites, city government,

and all teachers and students;

houses online collection of arts

resources, including a teacher

area of arts standards, lessons,

assessments.
Theatre Project, an ambitious and

complex undertaking that linked three

other high schools – one in Texas,

Northern California, and Illinois –

with Redondo. The 40 or so Redondo

students in the project talked at

length and in detail about the challenges of collaborating creatively

across time and land barriers. They

described how they were video conferencing the far-flung classes in order to

brainstorm. E-mail and online chats

were their avenues for jointly crafting

the plot and script. Through ongoing

e-mail discussions, they jointly work

with students from Texas. The students

employed MIDI technology to compose music, share and critique scores.

They found ways to adapt a time-honored tradition of creative collaboration

using the tools of the future.

But – this part is important – it

was not about the tools. It was about

the play, the give and take, meeting

deadlines, surpassing boundaries, and

glimpsing success. 

In the process, the students learn

from and with each other. One

Redondo senior and a pre-eminent

MIDI musical composer (the school

consults with him in development of

MIDI classes) proudly shared with the

researchers the promotional video of

the production, which included a few

bars of the song he was composing. "It

works, it really works, it’s going to be

great!" he exclaimed. His fellow students warmly received this newest

creation. Soon after, the black box

theater hummed with the expectant

energy of auditioning. It was clear

who the writers were as they nodded

their heads approvingly, listening to

first interpretations.

What Redondo students were

learning was the basics of creation,

criticism, and performance. How have

they learned it? Interactively with students from around the country, using

the tools technology has to offer.

When we asked the group of students

why they cared so much about this

project, they responded overwhelmingly, "It’s ours!" "It’s our baby." "We

made this." "We worked hard.

Collaboration isn’t easy, but I can see

the light at the end of the tunnel!" 

Simultaneously, in the three

other communities, classes were gearing up, casting parts, making their

contributions to the collaborative original production which was to receive

its premiere performance in Redondo

a month later. Deborah Johns and Paul

Collette, the theater instructional team

behind the initiative, confided that the

endeavor had been more difficult than

they had originally imagined. It was

also proving more rewarding. 

The time and overtime this

group of Redondo students and teachers were putting into the interactive

production seemed to be nothing in

comparison to their belief in the project and in themselves: They were

breaking new ground and changing

the face of learning.

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 31

Redondo Beach did not venture into collaborations with high-tech firms and

Hollywood without prior experience with

partnerships and strong support at home.

Former and current school board members, parents and grandparents, and

principals have woven a sort of safety net

for arts education as the district explores

the arts and technology connection. 

Principals as Partners

Redondo's emerging vision for the arts

and technology stems in part from longstanding policies and programs aimed at

providing "a comprehensive arts education program (which) includes a written,

sequential curriculum in music and the

visual arts" (July 6, 1993 board policy

6142.6). The teacher/administrator workshops of Los Angeles' Getty Education

Institute for the Arts have been particularly effective in creating a value and interest

for integrating art production and analysis

within the classroom. 

Principals such as Dr. Jeffrey Bordofsky of

Washington School still speak about their

Getty training, although it may have taken

place more than a decade ago. (Bordofsky

recently chose to save art classes and

space during the classroom reduction

movement by consolidating other support

areas.) Although the funds from its early

Getty partnership have run out, Redondo

Beach maintains an art mentor position,

held by Elsie Shigeta, to continue to train

educators in using Discipline-Based Arts

Education (DBAE). The reason principals

are willing to devote teacher and administrator time to training – even though there

are pressures to offer only math and reading – is that they have seen firsthand the

successes of thematic learning. 

Every principal has a different story to tell:

One middle school principal used to

dance with the San Francisco Ballet. The

principal of the continuation high school

said art and madrigal singing were important parts of her own childhood

education; dance was her college minor. 

The principal of Tulita Elementary

declared, "Art is a powerful connecting

piece." Because integrating arts into other

subjects helps her teachers make connections with Redondo's large population of

students with disabilities, she found ways

to support arts education through Title 1

money. Yet another principal had been

transformed by a fingerpainting workshop

for administrators.

Each Redondo Beach principal in his or

her own way has a place for the arts – in

personal life as well as in school. It is

this openness of the "gatekeepers" that

helps arts education find its way into

Redondo Beach classrooms in many different manners.

A Board Member's Music Stand 

Music has a strong board of education

advocate in former president Valerie

Dombrowski. Her son, who has disabilities,

found a niche in his Redondo schooling

and in life through music. "I want to bring

back the string orchestra first," she says. 

With the steel drum band a popular hit on

the football field and the district taking

over support for the vocal music program

from the city partnership, the music program is gaining strength. However, music

teachers do not yet find sufficient

resources and colleagues to feel fully supported. Although Redondo elementary

classroom teachers feel they are able to

fully integrate the visual arts, they are still

looking for ways to expand music.

Parents as Arts Teachers

Parent involvement in the arts education

at the elementary level has become institutionalized in a program called Hands on

Art. This grassroots program trains parent

volunteers to make projects with a variety

of visual arts materials. 

The chairman of the program, Marilyn

Scara, speaks about the attention to quality in parent-training – to the extent of

ordering special brushes from overseas

and securing donations of rice paper for

an Asian art project. Training is ongoing,

and the parents enter into a long-term

relationship with one or more elementary

classes with their children and teach visual arts experiences for a project a month. 

This program has been in place for years,

with parents and grandparents taking the

opportunity to develop a visual arts interest or even background and assist in their

own child’s education. One grandmother

volunteer has followed her four grandchildren over eight years of their schooling.

Principals, Parents, School Board Members: Providing a Firm Foundation for Innovation



continued on next page
THE LOCAL CONTEXT

Vancouver, Washington – a suburb

of Portland, Oregon, and not to be

confused with Vancouver, British

Columbia – was once a thriving shipbuilding center. Some 70,000 ship

workers built 80 ships here during

World War II. But in 1989, scores of

manufacturing plants closed, and

15,000 high-wage, mostly union jobs

disappeared. As a result, Vancouver

family incomes plummeted. The average household's income loss – real, not

adjusted – was $5,000 over the previous decade's income. Consequently,

the number of students receiving free

and reduced lunch skyrocketed from

12 to 49 percent. Adding to the local

economic troubles, the Vancouver

school district faced the need to repair

at least 27 older school buildings. 

A Case Study:

VANCOUVER (WA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

A Cadre of Principals√

Parent/Public Relations√

Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 33

Students (Total): 19,000

Per Pupil: $6,043

Arts Teachers (Total): 129

DISCOVERING WHAT WORKS

Not every endeavor succeeds equally well. Redondo's Discovery Lab,

for example, was established as "a

career-to-work modular lab based upon

Dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of seven

intelligences." The lab provides students with tools to help create and

manipulate graphics, write interactive

screen plays, and aurally compose

music. Students interface with computers and their ideas, but not

necessarily with each other or the

teacher. Using Gardner's intelligences

model, the Discovery Lab program is

missing the kinesthetic (movement)

and interpersonal (person-to-person

communication) intelligences.

Students working with the lab are

learning important skills for the 21st

century. The question is whether they

are acquiring an education in the arts. 

The challenge for Redondo Beach

– and, in the future, for thousands of

school districts across America – is

learning how to connect the arts to

new media while still teaching the

basics of the original artistic disciplines.

A NEW TRACK FOR

ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY

Teachers, administrators, and students in Redondo Beach have all

played a role in the development of a

new track within Redondo Union High

Schools called the Center for the

Advancement of Art and Entertainment

(CAAE). It is designed to offer specialized study in film, computer graphics

and art, computer-aided design and animation, musical theater, MIDI music,

CD production, and broadcasting,

among other areas. In each area of

study, students are expected to meet

standards in "Artistic Perception,

Creative Expression, Historical and

Cultural Context, and Aesthetic

Valuing" to complete a specialization. 

AN ELEMENT OF RISK

I

n the face of the financial challenges

presented by the State of California,

Redondo’s strategy is to merge arts

with technology, then turn the district

into a resource for others. No other

district visited by the study's

researchers demonstrated such an

entrepreneurial spirit, with a portfolio

of "proprietary" ideas ready to market.

Bringing Adult Education into the

Schools Brings Good Things to Art 

The Redondo district collaborates with its neighboring beach districts to

offer evening classes at the South Bay Adult School on school grounds.

Classes range from Basic Skills and Parent Education to Crafts & Decorative

Arts, Fine Arts & Music, and Communication. Basic skills classes such as

English as a Second Language considered a "mandated" class can be

offered free to the public. Adults are charged a fee for arts courses. The

presence of this after-hours arts education on school grounds benefits the

K-12 students in a number of ways: 

 Shared Resources: Interest from the adult education TV Production

Workshop, for example, led to an increased demand for equipment, and

the eventual acquisition of a video production studio now shared with the

Redondo high school students.

 Shared Personnel: The assistant principal of the Adult School also spearheads development of Redondo High School’s Center for the

Advancement of Art and Entertainment (CAAE). Her talents as an administrator help spread her value of the arts within the district structure and to

the community at large. 

 New Arts Advocates: Many of the students in the adult education classes

seem to be older than parents with school children. These adults without

children speak highly of their arts experiences and their communities.

Individuals who value the arts are ripe for mobilizing in support of the arts

in local schools.

PAGE 32

As in every new venture, there

are risks: The district may discover its

varied approach makes it more difficult for students to systematically

build certain skills as defined by the

traditional fine arts K-12 curriculum.

At the same time, there may be gains:

a town meeting full of business people

who are partners for technology first,

but also for the arts; a license to 

experiment; students interested, excited, and skilled in doing creative things

with technology; and access to

resources for the arts that might not be

available any other way. 

A LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE

T here is another challenge Redondo

Beach faces – a challenge every

school district faces at one time or

another: change in leadership.

Redondo's present and future leaders

must build upon the strengths of consensus and value for the arts in

education that Beverly Rohrer helped

the community develop.

Curiously, it was the need to

address facility rehabilitation that

sparked Vancouver's educational

reform and, in turn, spurred the community's economic revitalization.

HOW VANCOUVER ACHIEVED

CONSENSUS OF VISION

• The School Board Challenges the

Superintendent

Changes in the Vancouver school

system have been directed by its

superintendent of 18 years, Dr. James

Parsley. Yet he is the first to point out

that the call for education reform

came not from him but from the

Vancouver Board of Education. It

was 1989, and Dr. Parsley had just

presented to the school board his

annual report summarizing the previous year's activities and making a

recommendation for facilities repairs. 

"I can remember," Jim Parsley

recalled, "my board president taking

the report and tossing it across the

table and saying, 'All it talks about is

bricks and mortar. All this talks

about is asphalt and roofs. There's

no vision in this. There's no direction. There's nothing in here for

kids. I want and expect a strategic

plan for the school district.'"

• The Superintendent Connects

With the Community 

Superintendent Parsley met the

board's challenge, but not by turning

to his staff to write a strategic plan.

Instead, he turned to the community

of Vancouver and engaged the citizens in developing a plan that would

belong to them. 

"Our first effort," he told this study's

team of researchers/reporters, "was to

connect with the community on

coming up with a vision and a mission statement. We had a steering

group of 80 key citizens – parents,

business leaders, students, some faculty, a couple of board members –

who involved 800 people in a series

of town hall meetings. It was there

that we started making connections

to a broader picture of public education. Through parent groups we

started hearing advocates for what

the district would have to do to get

ready for the 21st century. All of a

sudden the lights started to come

on. Our four critical strategic goals

emerged from that process."

• Consensus Leads to Strategic Goals

and District Reorganization

With consensus of vision developing

among the community, the school

board, and the superintendent,

Vancouver began shaping these specific, measurable, achievable goals:

1. Revitalization of the Curriculum 

2. Preparation of Staff for the 21st

Century

3. Rehabilitation of Facilities

4. Community Partnerships

The emerging consensus also provided a foundation for the kind of

sweeping administrative changes

that would be needed to implement

Vancouver's vision. 

In 1990, the district eliminated 24 central office positions and reconstituted

operations. Weekly school board meetings moved to alternating agendas:

Every other week the board meets on

fiscal matters; at alternate meetings, it

addresses the strategic plan and monitors all the systems and roles.

The superintendent's role, in particular, underwent significant change in

this period. As Dr. Parsley explained,

"I became the 'planner' for the school

district. Half my time and title was

moved over into the area of strategic

planning. By my heading up this

effort, we eliminated about 10 layers

of bureaucracy between planning

and the decisions of the board." 

HOW GOALS WERE SET

AND MET

What would Vancouver have to do

to get their children ready for

the 21st century? This was the question that drove the community's

discussions on education reform and

ultimately shaped its four goals. 

Goal 1: Revitalization of the

Curriculum — "What's important?"

Vancouver residents asked themselves.

"What do we want to emphasize, what

do we want to preserve, what do we

want to strengthen?"

According to the superintendent,

initial strategic planning around revitalization of the curriculum led to

some raging debates. 

One debate involved the role of

the arts in education. "We had people

who were engineers from the high

tech companies," he explained, "who

were saying, 'Wipe out the arts. We

don't need them. We need math. We

need this, we need that.'" It was

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 33

another issue – choice – that helped to

focus the arts issue. "All of a sudden,"

said Dr. Parsley, "the arts surfaced not

from the point of view of someone

saying, 'Oh, I like the arts' or 'I've had

experienced in the arts' but really from

looking at the kinds of kids we serve

and knowing that the light can come

on for some kids through the arts.

That was an 'Aha!'"

Goal 2: Staff Development —

Vancouver determined through its

planning process that if it were to be

prepared for the 21st century, then 

the district needed staff up to the

challenge. 

That decision eventually led to

the commitment of an unprecedented

$8 million in staff development and

the creation of Vancouver's Center for

Leadership, a special staff training and

development center. Last year alone,

nearly 30,000 people participated in

its programs. 

Goal 3: Facilities Rehabilitation —

While the school board's response to

How Business Sees Arts and

Academics in Vancouver 

Hewlett-Packard, the largest

employer in Clark County, has a

Community Action Plan with five

platforms, two of which are K-12

Education and Arts and Culture.

"We have a real interest in the

quality of life," said HewlettPackard education representative

Doug Sessions. "It directly relates

to our ability to attract the best

and brightest engineers in the

country." A high school principal

and long-time member of the community, Sessions was hired away to

connect the culture of work and the

culture of education and "translate

messages between them." 

Visiting Vancouver's Arts and

Academics school, he noted, "The

interdisciplinary approach to

instruction, the project-oriented

focus, the sense that students are

working in teams, collaborating,

and, too, the high expectations in

terms of the core subject areas,

that’s something that comes

through. You know, you don’t have

to be here very long to see that

there’s an ethic of high performance. It’s kind of an unusual

place for Hewlett-Packard to look

for math and science achievement,

but the whole package is here.

That’s what we want. That’s the

way our employees work." 

continued on next page
Dr. Parsley's original annual report

served to focus attention on the need

for a strategic plan, it did not eliminate

the need to do something about dilapidated buildings and the funds to fix

them. Given the economic realities of

Vancouver and the fact that only 26

percent of the voters had school-aged

children, opposition to two key bond

issues was anticipated. Once again, the

school leaders tapped the 800 community members who had helped shape

the Vancouver vision and enlisted their

help in educating the electorate. 

Meanwhile, educators and parents "went all over town," said Dr.

Parsley, "and we brought kids with us.

We met in front of Rotary, and we told

our story. If it was a music story, we had

kids as part of the presentation. I probably spoke to 40 or 50 different service

clubs," he added. The bond issues

passed overwhelmingly – with 70-some

percent of the voters approving funding

for 27 construction projects. 

How does a community that is

not affluent "buy in" to education

reform of this scope? Jim Parsley credits the community's involvement in

the strategic initiatives and a hopeful

vision of the future: "People said, 'I

want that dream.'"

Goal 4: Community Partnership —

With the community's backing of the

vision and the funding needed for

facilities in place, school leaders systematically began seeking out and

engaging organizations and individuals

of substantial means. The district

developed partnerships with locally

based corporations, such as HewlettPackard Company, Inc., and with

donors, such as Leslie Durst, whose

leadership gifts to Vancouver arts education stem from her arts-rich

childhood in New York City. Today,

Vancouver schools benefit from an

educational foundation which maintains approximately $1 million in

assets, spending interest income on

children's education needs, from musical instruments for needy students to

travel funds for competitions. School

district employees' payroll deductions –

in addition to United Way checkoffs –

amount to 25 percent of the foundation's annual revenue.

HOW VANCOUVER

IMPLEMENTED ITS PLAN

I

n 1989, Portland's loss was

Vancouver's gain when Superintendent

Jim Parsley hired a talented dance educator who had served as head of Portland's

arts magnet school. Deborah Brzoska's

own vision proved a fine fit with

Vancouver's; she espoused "All the arts

for all the students" in elementary

school, and she advocated a specialized

secondary school for the arts as one of

the district's "choice" options. 

• Elementary Arts for All

Prior to Deb Brzoska's arrival,

Vancouver already had an

"ArtsBlock" firmly in place as part of

the tapestry of education offered to

each elementary school student.

Brzoska sought to expand and

enhance the program. She helped

ensure that "elementary arts" included dance, visual arts, and music

taught by specialists by bringing in

practicing artists/educators trained at

Stanford, Columbia, and Juilliard. 

• A Specialized Arts School for

Secondary Choice

At the secondary level, the Vancouver

community’s demand for "choice"

shapes the schools. The school district's vision is for every high school

to have a focus. Science and technology, arts and academics, international

baccalaureate, and individualized education plans have already been

created; health is on its way. 

For the arts, Brzoska envisioned

a school fed by the entire K-12 district.

The newly emerging Vancouver School

of Arts and Academics brings together

a group of 600 students selected by

interest – not talent – to learn in an

arts-centered curriculum. With assistance from the College Board, the

Getty Education Institute for the Arts,

and a board of community members,

Brzoska and other educators are creating a school starting at the sixth grade

with arts teaching and experiences

truly at the core. 

Every staff member – from janitors to secretaries, teachers to

administrators – has an arts interest or

activity. The highly charged educators

wrangle daily with the evolution of

the school and the breadth of its focus.

In the "academic" half of the day, the

math, science, and language teachers

use their own arts knowledge to teach

in an integrated manner. Howard

Gardner’s theory of "multiple intelligences" is frequently mentioned

regarding the modes of learning and

their choices of environments. 

Meanwhile, other high schools

in the district offer the arts in others

ways. For example, in the new, architectural award-winning Skyview high

school, which focuses on science and

PAGE 34

technology, the arts are slated to play

an important role, thanks largely to

Principal Rich Larson's values and the

opportunity presented by facility

reform. Skyview's performing facilities

are the largest in the town, and local

arts groups are already scheduling their

seasons around its use.

Other high schools offer the arts

in more traditional ways, such as participation in marching bands which

perform competitively and become

part of a school's identity along with

its sports teams. At the Vancouver

Personalized Learning Center, where

students all have individualized learning programs, there is an ad hoc

theater improvisation group that

formed out of student and teacher

interest, not systemic support.

HOW TEACHERS, PARENTS,

AND ADMINISTRATORS VIEW

VANCOUVER'S CHANGES

Today in Vancouver, elementary

schools give broad-based arts experiences. The middle schools provide

varying levels of experiences with a

"wheel of study" designed for exposure

and electives ranging from choir to

drama. The high schools also have a

range of programs, including some

very strong traditional music, art, and

drama. Then there is the Vancouver

School of Arts and Academics, which

embraces dance, creative writing, film,

and video. The district's challenge is to

balance broad exposure and high standards with focused opportunities. 

A town meeting with parents,

students, teachers, school board members, and administrators helped this

study's researchers better understand

how Vancouver grapples with its new

direction. There is some tension

between teachers who have one foot

in the "arts school" and those who do

not. A number of board members

pointed out that some students still

will want the arts in a "balanced environment" in which they can also

cheerlead or do sports. (The Arts and

Academics high school takes students

through a rigorous extra-period school

day and does not offer sports.) 

Everyone agreed that planning

for change is best. "Start with where

the people are," said one teacher.

"Build the trust, respect, and leave time

to plan." And, Dr. Parsley, added later,

"Deliver on your promises. That builds

credibility with the community." 
On Thursday, February 5, 1998, it

snowed steadily for a second day,

resulting in the heaviest snowfall

ever recorded in the Cincinnati,

Ohio, area. The night before, in

the suburb of Wyoming,

Superintendent Ted Knapke had

canceled school for that day.

Researchers visiting the community on behalf of the President's

Committee on the Arts and the

Humanities and the Arts

Education Partnership figured they

would have to reschedule the

evening town meeting on arts education. That proved unnecessary:

More than 150 Wyoming citizens

drove or walked through falling

snow on mostly unplowed streets

and sidewalks to talk with them.

What was it about Wyoming and

arts education that would produce such a good turnout in such bad

weather? 

Dr. Paul Williams, the superintendent of Beachwood (OH) City

Schools and one of the visitors to

Wyoming for this study, came to

believe that the development of arts 

in Wyoming, Ohio – as well as in

Vancouver, Washington – was through

“communities of practice.” (See sidebar, also Vancouver case study.)

“We found,” he wrote, “that these

communities practiced advanced arts

education. In Wyoming, the arts were

developed within congruent values of

the larger community. The motivation

came from the parents, grandparents,

and citizens of the district.”

Situated on the outskirts of

Cincinnati, Wyoming is a landlocked

community of some 8,000 people and

3,300 households, 60 to 70 percent of

them without school-age children. Per

capita income hovers around $30,000.

Unemployment is low. Housing costs

are higher in Wyoming than in other

parts of the region, but many a parent

has been willing to pay the price in

order to access the local schools. There

are only three schools in this 2.57-

square-mile district: the elementary

school with plus or minus 690 students, the middle school with 580,

and the high school with 530. 

Just about everyone who lives 

in Wyoming, the researchers learned,

seems to be proud of the schools.

People used words and phrases like

"high expectations," "quality," "rigor,"

"caring," "distinctive," "excellent," and

"a sense of mission." It's fair to say that

the character of the community is substantially defined by a system-wide

education program of which the arts

are a prized part.

BUILDING A "COMMUNITY

OF PRACTICE" 

Students who grow up in middle and

upper middle class homes generally

do better than those less advantaged.

In Wyoming, most students have

advantages that come from the things

that money can buy – travel, computers, cultural events – and those money

can't buy – parents who graduated

from college, who have books in their

homes, who expect their children to

work hard, and who monitor the children's progress. 

In such an environment, how to

provide equity and opportunity for the

less advantaged can become the kind

of challenge that divides communities.

In this community of practice,

Wyoming's citizens seized upon a

problem and, in seeking a solution,

developed a strategy for all students'

success. When Wyoming school leaders observed not long ago that a higher

than average percentage of minority

students were achieving below the rest

of the students, they turned to the

community's black leaders and said,

"We need your help." Intervention programs soon were developed and

implemented with the support of ministers, civic leaders, parents, teachers,

administrators, and students who were

enlisted to help lower-achieving students. The outcome is, in the words of

one board member, "a bottom end that

has shifted up." 

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 35

A Case Study:

WYOMING (OH)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 3

Students (Total): 1,800

Per Pupil: $6,700

Arts Teachers (Total): 15

Food for Thought:

"Communities of Practice"

After visiting Wyoming, Ohio,

and Vancouver, Washington,

Superintendent Paul Williams

reflected on the "constructivist

nature of these school districts –

how they have constructed meaning, purpose, etc. within the values

of the visionary, leader, or community" and on the role of the arts in

that process. He sees them as

"communities of practice," based

upon the theory and philosophy of

Etienne Wenger and Jean Lavé

presented in their 1991 book

Situated Learning (Cambridge

University Press) and more recently

developed in Wenger's

Communities of Practice: Learning,

Meaning and Identity (Cambridge

University Press, August 1998). 

From his readings of Wenger 

and Lavé and his firsthand observations of arts education in

Vancouver, Washington, and

Wyoming, Ohio, Dr. Paul Williams

reflected on the findings. Williams

writes (and cites Wenger): 

• A community of practice has

these elements: joint enterprise,

negotiated enterprise, accountability, rhythms, local response.

• Sometimes the community creates the school, and other places

the school creates the community.

In other communities, schools are

the principal means for community identification.

• Learning is the engine of practice, and practice is the history

of that learning. 

• Communities of practice are 

different from task forces and

working groups. . . . Based on

joint learning rather than defined

tasks that begin and end, a community of practice takes a while

to come into being, and it can

linger long after an official group

is disbanded.

• The arts can be an impetus for a

self-organizing system because

systemic change needs to be

bedded in uncertainty and a bit

of chaos. 

• The arts permit the teachers to

break rules of stratified thinking.



continued on next page
receive a surprisingly high number of

awards and scholarships for a small district. Indeed, it was the success of

Wyoming's visual arts students in

regional and national competitions that

first brought the district to the attention

of the President's Committee. 

CREATING A CULTURE

OF SUCCESS

Success is grown in Wyoming. In the

arts programs – where the music

and visual arts are taught in separate

courses, and creative writing is integrated throughout the curriculum – the

quality of teaching and learning begins

at the beginning, in kindergarten, and

continues to build through graduation. 

Alison Youkilis is the high school

art instructor/district art coordinator.

She explains, "Our elementary art program has always been in place, and we

work at making sure that any and

every student feels that he/she can

take art and music classes and be successful. Often, too, our kids are going

all the way, K-12, through our schools.

So our educators are able to build on

each others' work." 

In grades K-8, 100 percent of the

students participate in music and the

visual arts. In grades 9-12, nearly 70

percent of the students elect to participate in the arts programs. Every

student (K-4) receives at least 60 minutes of visual art and 60 minutes of

music instruction each week. String

instruction begins the second half of

fourth grade, band and vocal music in

fifth grade. Middle schoolers are

required to receive 100 minutes per

week of visual arts instruction and 125

minutes of music. 

In high school, the music offerings are rich, and the rewards for

students come in the form of scholarships, superior and excellent ratings in

all-state competitions, invitations to

participate in Cincinnati Junior Strings,

Cincinnati Youth Symphony, and the

Youth Chorus of the annual May

Festival. Many have gone on to careers

in music; many more have gone forth

with success as vocational musicians

and as future patrons of the arts.

The visual arts program serves to

illustrate how Wyoming builds its curriculum from one level and course to

another. In the eighth grade, for example, Wyoming students begin to learn

photography starting with a shoe box.

They make a pinhole camera, take a

series of photographs based on a

theme, develop negatives, make prints,

and mount and bind their photographs in a small handmade book.

When these same students begin their

first photography course in the high

school, they do so with a solid understanding of photography. In high

school, they use a variety of cameras

and printing processes before they

move to the computer where they can

manipulate their photographs using

digital technology.

Seniors at Wyoming High School

are required to take four academic subjects during their final year, and

Advanced Placement art counts as an

academic subject. This, according to

high school art instructor Alison

Youkilis, is another one of the reasons

why bright students are attracted to art.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT'S

WELCOME CHALLENGE

T he College Board's Advanced

Placement program in the visual

arts has been an important factor in

making the high school studio art 

programs rigorous and substantial.

Students, usually seniors (juniors in

some schools, such as Wyoming High

School) work for a year to develop a

body of work consisting of up to 20

pieces representing a range of media

and ideas.

Students' portfolios are judged

each summer at the Educational Testing

Service in Princeton, New Jersey. Rated

on a five-point scale, students who score

three or above qualify for advanced

placement in colleges and universities.

In other words, if they choose to major

in art, they are not required to take

basic college art courses.

Approximately half of the

nation's high schools currently offer

Advanced Placement courses. Students

in these schools may select from among

18 subjects – although not all schools

offer all subjects. Advanced Placement

courses are seen as a means to challenge

students with rigorous content and

high standards. Schools are even evaluated according to the percentage of

students who are permitted to take

Advanced Placement courses and submit their work for examination. 

One of the AP courses –

Photography – is the direct result of

student interest and initiative. Youkilis

explains, "It came from the kids. One

PAGE 36

LEADERSHIP'S CONSENSUS

AND CONTINUITY

T he Wyoming school board has

found community consensusbuilding to be a very productive

strategy. The board seeks to know the

collective mind of Wyoming's citizens

and to work to resolve issues before

they become serious enough to divide

the community. Its members also take

an active interest in the courses of

study for each school subject, having

new curriculum guides, for example,

presented at special board meetings.

The actions of the five-person board

are usually unanimous.

A sense of stability and continuity

also comes from the superintendent's

office, where the occupants tend to stay

for a long time. In fact, only eight

superintendents – averaging 15 and a

half years' service each – have served in

the Wyoming school system since it was

founded in 1874. 

For most of the past 124 years,

the superintendents have stood firmly

in support of the arts. Wyoming's current superintendent, Ted Knapke, who

is in his third year with the district,

avidly seeks to sustain and enlarge the

role of the arts in the education of the

whole child. He is building upon the

same philosophy that guided his predecessor, Robert Yearout. "The arts in

Wyoming are a central part of the total

program, not an aside," Yearout

observed. "I never thought of art and

music as any less vital than any other

part of the program. One time

[because of budget problems] we

moved to cut the fourth-grade strings

program. The community came down

on our heads."

STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT

That community includes a vitally

important constituency: the students

themselves. More than 90 percent of

Wyoming's high school students go on

to college and most of them have been

active in the arts. Football players, for

example, have been known to march

with the band at half-time – in their

football uniforms. From 75 to 80 music

students – 15 percent of the student

body – willingly return in the evenings

for full orchestra rehearsals. Many high

school students take Advanced Placement courses in the arts. In music and

visual arts competitions, Wyoming students perform with distinction and
by a Wyoming High School student

has received a passing grade.

The reason so many students

enjoy the Advanced Placement Art

challenge, explains Youkilis, is that

"Advanced Placement forces high

school students to look at their work

as a unit rather than just as individual

pieces. AP means looking for a style, a

theme, a direction. AP demands that

you understand what you are saying.

Students write essays about their portfolios; they have to explain why they

have undertaken a particular theme.

For example, one girl who received a 5

– the highest score – explored the

struggles of an anorexic friend, with

the friend's permission."

As for the teacher, Youkilis feels

that "you relate to AP students differently because they have undertaken a

real task. You get to know these kids

on an emotional level. It's the portfolio, the discipline, the rigor, the visual

search and the ‘I Search’ paper they

write to explain their portfolios that

will probably change their lives." For

many it has. Between 40 to 50 of

Youkilis' students have become graphic

designers, and 25 to 30 have become

photographers. Others are filmmakers,

fashion designers, art teachers, and

jewelry makers.

There is something else the students get in the AP art courses: a place

and space in time to think, create, and

relate. Says Youkilis, "Their art class is

their oasis in the day. The kids listen

to the radio, talk to each other, talk

with us teachers. Either they think I'm

a deaf mute or they are just free

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 37

day the students said to me, 'Why

can't we have AP Photography like we

have AP Studio Art?' So I went to the

phone and called the AP organization,

and they said that as long as the children did the required drawings and

sculpture, then we could do it. So then

I had to go back and convince the

administration to create AP Photography, and the next year 13 kids signed

up!"

The visual arts program at

Wyoming High School ranks very

high. In the 1998 graduating class of

90, nearly 19 percent – 17 students –

submitted Advanced Placement art

portfolios. An additional seven junioryear students also submitted portfolios.

This is an astonishing percentage,

more remarkable still in light of the

fact that every portfolio ever submitted

Without that middle school arts

program bridging students'

elementary and high school studies,

would a school system's arts education still be strong and effective?

Where, for example, would

Wyoming be today if middle school

principal Brandon Cortes had not

met an art teacher who wouldn't

take "no" for an answer?

Brandon Cortes' office displays a

reproduction of a painting by

American artist Keith Haring, who

gained his initial fame by making

chalk drawings in New York subway

stations on the kind of black tarpaper that's used to back empty

poster frames. The principal purchased it during a visit to a Haring

exhibition in Toronto.

Cortes' interest in art and the power

of art to educate took root several

years ago when one of Wyoming's

middle school visual arts teachers

asked him to add a visit to the Art

Institute to the itinerary of the annual school trip to Chicago. "Why

would we want to do that?" he

remembered asking her, thinking

that students' interest in art would

be no greater than his own and

imagining with horror the problems

that he and the teachers would

have controlling disgruntled students who didn't want to be in an

art museum. 

So he rejected the visit.

Immediately, the art teacher sent

him an e-mail message protesting,

"You are undercutting everything I

stand for, everything I have been

trying to teach." Cortes changed his

mind and the Art Institute has

become a regular stop on the

Chicago itinerary. During the 1997-

98 trip, 60 of the 100 students

elected to visit the Art Institute.

Brandon Cortes is good at listening

to the views of others. He has created an 18-member "Envisioning

Committee" composed of parents

and teachers who meet monthly to

ask "Where are we going?" Among

the issues discussed are curriculum,

the climate and culture of the

school, and even a radical proposal

to discontinue administering standardized tests in favor of authentic

and performance-based assessment

procedures developed by teachers. 

One outcome of the process is a

proposal prepared by a teacher to

move the school's instructional program toward tasks that students

see as benefiting them through

meaningful applications to their

lives (and not just fulfilling the wishes of parents, teachers, or the

system). It calls for comprehensive,

issues-based instructional units,

jointly planned and presented by

teams of teachers representing

each subject area. The arts teachers, Cortes noted, play an essential

role in each of the integrated units –

something he didn't understand

very well a few years ago. 

Brandon Cortes' lesson in the arts

is simple: If school administrators

are to understand the role that the

arts can play in students' lives, they

may have to begin by learning more

about the role the arts play in their

own lives. 

"The Middle Man" – An Important Principal to Remember



GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

continued on next page
PAGE 38

Knapke adds, "I'm hopeful and

optimistic that the research that's been

conducted in the last 10 years will

help make the case that you can't

expect children to do well in the

‘basics’ without having the full experience of education, including the arts.

If our children are going to be

involved in using information and

solving problems, then just teaching

arithmetic and reading isn't enough.

We need to stress the whole child, the

whole package. Some 30 percent of the

kids in this country live in poverty:

How do you motivate them to do

reading and writing when their

schools are the ones that are the first

to cut the arts whenever costs go up.

And they are the ones who most need

the arts, because the arts get the kids

involved with school and learning.

"That's something," Knapke concludes, "I would hope legislators and

other leaders would work to change." 

"It does take money for art to

happen," adds Alison Youkilis. "In

order to do photography, you have to

have a camera and photo paper. This

gets to one of the most unfortunate

parts of public education: that because

money is so minimal, we as teachers

are afraid to dream and afraid to do it

and go and reach the next level." 

Youkilis concluded on a note of

optimism – "If you dream it enough

and long enough and say it to the right

people, it happens.” But in her comments, in Ted Knapke's assessment, and

in many citizens' remarks, there is a

recognition of the fragility of arts systems. The Wyoming community

seems to appreciate that consensus

must be maintained with vigilance,

and that no place is perfect. Wyoming

is part of the real world where there is

always more to be done.

Looking Ahead: What's the

Connection Between High

School and Higher Learning

"This is my twenty-fifth year in the

classroom," Alison Youkilis confessed, then quickly added, "I hope

this is the beginning rather than the

end. There are universities that

want to work with high schools.

Institutions of higher learning could

help us open a whole new concept

with computer graphics. We have

the children and the interest and

the expertise. So I've been 

canvassing and talking with universities, asking, 'What do you expect

my students to have in terms of

knowledge and skills when they

come to you?' We are finding

something really positive there." 

enough to talk around me about

what's on their minds or going on in

their lives. Sometimes, it puts you on

the spot." According to a student, "It's

like a team - the AP team. And teachers really care. They give support for

what you want to do."

Adds Youkilis, "It's so thrilling to

learn so much from my students. And

to see them learn. But you do have to

be willing to walk the kids through the

AP arts process. I've never had a kid

who didn't make it, though, and with

fewer than 500 kids in the school, we

have a smaller base to pull from than

do schools of 3,000 students. We've

been so lucky with the performance of

our children, because other kids see art

students winning contests and the like

and say to themselves, 'There's a chance

that I, too, can perform at that level.'"

THE REAL WORLD'S

CHALLENGES

For the Wyoming City Schools 

district and its arts education

departments to maintain their current

level of performance requires the same

kind of creativity and discipline that

its students demonstrate. 

Ted Knapke says that one of the

greatest challenges he faces as superintendent is providing the level of

programs and resources needed to

meet the community's expectations

when the tax base isn't high enough

to sustain it. "Our income tax base is

high," he says, "but education in Ohio

is based heavily on property tax, and

in that respect, we're an average district. We have no malls, no real

industry. So we ask our parents to help

pay for the extras. Our teachers write

grants. We go to businesses for equipment or help through partnerships.

We go to the voters for money." 

Knapke believes that Wyoming

is fortunate to have a community that

continues to reach in its pocket to

make high quality education possible.

But he sees a nationwide problem in

the point of view that even without

adequate funding any community can

create a strong school system that

includes the arts. 

"There is a phrase – 'Do more

with less' – that unfortunately translates into 'Get rid of the things you

don't need.' In a lot of communities

what people think they don't need is

the arts." 

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE



“I'm hopeful and

optimistic that the

research that's been

conducted in the

last 10 years will

help make the case

that you can't expect

children to do well in

the ‘basics’ without

having the full

experience of

education, including

the arts . . .”
Located near the Matsu Valley and

the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage is

the largest city in Alaska. Its school

district ranks as the 82nd largest

school district in the country, and it

serves approximately 48,000 students

in 89 schools. 

In the past few years, the 

district has organized 11 community

budget committees to review all school

programs. This practice has led to

greater awareness of the district’s strong

arts programs, and, after the request of

one committee to cut arts funding, the

superintendent rejected the recommendation while electing to maintain all

support for arts education.

Each year the school district pays

for release time for about 20 school

district employees who play in the

Anchorage Symphony. In return, the

symphony supplies buses to transport

several hundred students to a “Young

People’s Concert” performed during

the school day.

For six years, the school district of

Anchorage, Alaska, has worked in partnership with the Alaska Center for the

Performing Arts to build a strong cooperative arts education program largely

through staff development. That partnership has helped to spawn other initiatives

in Alaska and to serve as a model for

partnerships around the nation.

The school district-performing

arts center collaboration was solidified

when the two organizations came

together to assist the John F. Kennedy

Center for the Performing Arts with

the planning of an arts educationfocused Alaskan residency for its National

Symphony Orchestra. Out of that effort

came a National Symphony Orchestra

“American Residencies” program, an

expanded Kennedy Center Performing

Arts Centers and Schools: Partners in

Education Program, and, in Anchorage,

a continuing program of activities for

Anchorage teachers.

Today, the Anchorage School

District-Alaska Center for the

Performing Arts partnership each year

offers both arts specialists and classroom teachers workshops at which

artists help teachers explore new ways

to engage youngsters in the classroom.

The partnership also provides special

discounted tickets for teachers to attend

performances and pre- or post-lectures.

Teachers who enroll in the program earn two graduate credits for

attending 30 hours of events or one

credit for attending 15 hours. Earning

a “B” grade requires submitting a certificate of attendance and a journal of

comments and summaries of the

events attended. For an “A,” teachers

complete the “B” requirements and,

additionally, create a set of five lesson

plans (eight for two credits) that incorporates arts activities derived from the

arts events. The fees are $75 for one

credit, $150 for two. 

For the 1997-98 workshops,

attended by 68 Anchorage teachers,

topics ranged from cowboy poetry, stories, and songs for incorporation in

units on the American West to basic

rules of improvisation. The pre- and

post-performance events included an

insider’s view of the Anchorage Opera’s

winter productions and a review of a

materials packet for teachers that

accompanies the Symphony’s “Young

People’s Concert” for area fifth graders. 

The Anchorage community and

the schools collaborate in other productive ways. For example, the staff of

a local museum and several district

teachers came together in a curriculum

committee which developed a teacher

instructional activity packet designed

to help teachers prepare students for

field trips to the museum’s permanent

Alaskan exhibit. It supports both the

arts and the social studies curricula in

the schools. ●

advocacy by community and school

leaders. This sustained support has

helped to advance full access to the

arts for all students, teacher training,

curriculum integration, and the arts

through technology.

In Ann Arbor, a district that is

especially strong in music education,

the commitment to arts access for all

students may be most evident in the

fifth grade. All fifth-grade students –

approximately 1,260 in 1998 – learn

how to play a musical instrument.

Participation in the program for all

students is possible because the district

provides instruments and supplies to

all students at no charge. The vast

majority of students choose to continue their music studies, encouraged by

the district’s 58 music specialists. 

Many of the answers to questions of access in the Ann Arbor

district have been provided by community partnerships. A cooperative

outreach tutorial program, which the

district funds with the help of a local

business association, allows many students who could not otherwise afford

it to receive private lessons throughout

the year from music teachers in the

community. Scholarships contributed

by the district annually send more

than 20 students to the summer allstate program at the Interlochen

Center for the Arts.

Additional scholarship opportunities are made available through the

collaboration of the district and community and arts organizations. 

“I live in a single-parent household; my mom worked as a secretary.

There was no money to send me to

music camp," said an alumna, now a

University of Miami music student,

who once attended Interlochen on an

Ann Arbor community scholarship.

“The camp experience left me in awe.

It pushed me to be a better person."

Community partnerships have

also played a role in shaping better arts

education – including visual arts,

dance, and music. In-school residencies, performances, and master classes

engage students as active participants.

Meanwhile, frequent teacher workshops reinforce strategies for applying

the arts throughout the curriculum.

Ann Arbor’s music and arts teachers

recently joined forces in the school

district’s “Arts and Technology" course,

which allows students to explore

careers in both areas. ● The Ann Arbor School District –

located in a university town 40

miles from Detroit – has benefited

greatly from 20 years of ongoing arts

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 39

A Profile:

ANCHORAGE (AK)

Factors

The Community √

National, State, and Other

Outside Forces √

Statistics

Schools (Total): 89

Students (Total): 48,066

Per Pupil: $7,788

Arts Teachers (Total): 192

SCHOOL DISTRICT

PROFILES

A Profile:

ANN ARBOR (MI)

Factors

The Community√

Continuity in Leadership√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 30

Students (Total): 15,874

Per Pupil: $7,981

Arts Teachers (Total): 106
The public school system of

Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of

Washington, D.C., educates one of the

nation’s most diverse and sophisticated

student populations – 17,500 students

from around the world speaking 53 different languages. Students consistently

score well above state and national averages on standardized tests. The high

school graduation rate is 92.5 percent. 

The Arlington School Board, its

chairman noted,“understands the benefits every student receives from the

arts.” That understanding is clear

throughout the Arlington school system, where the arts – music, visual arts,

theater, and dance (included in the

physical education curriculum) – are

given full consideration as academic

disciplines, complete with weekly

instructional time of elementary students in music and the visual arts,

certified specialists in each field, staff

development opportunities, residencies, special-focus programs, and a

comprehensive, sequential curriculum

that more than meets national standards. In addition, Arlington has

formed numerous community-based

and arts-organization partnerships. The

district has partnered with the John F.

Kennedy Center for the Performing

Arts in that institution’s Performing

Arts Centers and Schools program.

Just as schools have reported in

this study that arts teachers who practice their art contribute to the quality

of a district’s arts education, school

board members who are actively

engaged with the arts on a personal or

professional level bring something

more to their jobs as well. As a recent

board chairperson, Mary Hynes, pointed out in an awards nomination letter,

“School board members are also active

artists. Libby Garvey plays the piano

and sings with a performing group;

Diane Smith is a member of the board

of the Arlington Arts Center, a professional gallery; I received my bachelor’s

degree in textiles. All board members

enjoy school arts events throughout

the year. In addition to supporting student performances, we enjoy community and professional performances,

exhibits, and lectures.” ●

new funding for arts education in more

than five decades, a new magnet

school for arts, science, and technology

is underway, and national standards for

arts education have been implemented.

●

PAGE 40

The Atlanta Public Schools’

board members value the arts, and,

therefore, they fund the arts. The

Atlanta school district is one the few

in this national study that includes a

line item and discrete funds allocated

specifically for arts education. Funds

specified for arts programs cannot be

diverted to other disciplines. School

leaders believe that this approach

helps protect arts programs from losses

that could threaten basic needs. In a

district in which 80 percent of the students are considered poor, this strategy

has been key to maintaining equal

access to quality arts schooling. In

1997-98, for example, the board allocated $1,000,000 beyond the budget

request to refurbish band instruments. 

District leaders have been equally diligent and creative in seeking

support for the arts from Atlanta’s

business community and from unconventional sources as well. For

example, when the Georgia Legislature

offered school districts a Special Local

Option Sales Tax – a one cent sales tax

for school construction and renovation – wheels started turning. The

superintendent assessed needs and presented his case to the community,

including the need for equipment and

space for music students. The result

was community approval to redirect

these funds to instruction. During

1997-98, fine arts programs received

2,600,000 new dollars to upgrade programs over three to five years.

Benjamin Canada, who is now

superintendent of Portland, Oregon,

public schools and an advisor to this

study, served as superintendent of

Atlanta from 1993 to 1998. He made

articulating the value of the arts to the

community a fundamental part of his

job. The message was well received:

Today Atlanta has the highest level of

ATLANTA’S BUSY “MAC" 

Atlanta Public Schools' Music Advisory

Committee (MAC) is composed of 10

music teachers who represent K-12

instruction in general music, band, chorus, and orchestra proportionately. They

are invited to participate in the MAC by

the district music coordinator. Atlanta

school leaders say that the group has

opened communications by educating

teachers in administrative procedures

and limitations and providing them with

a way to voice their concerns in a timely,

appropriate, and effective fashion. 

The MAC surveys staff for input on issues

both small and large, including funding,

staffing, and supplemental pay and brings

those issues to their meetings. The MAC

discusses the issues and offers suggestions on how to make improvements. The

music coordinator takes these suggestions under advisement when developing

proposals for the administration and the

Board of Education. 

The MAC has provided assistance in

publishing a music teachers’ handbook

for the school system, providing specifications and installation priorities for new

music technology, and recommending

teachers for staff development. It instituted free piano lessons for the district’s

employees, making the point that what

is good for the students is good for their

educators, too.

Statistics

Schools (Total): 41

Students (Total): 17,568

Per Pupil: $9,330

Arts Teachers (Total): 104

A Profile:

ARLINGTON (VA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

Parent/Public Relations√

An Elementary

Foundation√ A Profile:

ATLANTA (GA)

Factors

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

National, State, and

Other Outside Forces√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 108

Students (Total): 60,208

Per Pupil: $7,188

Arts Teachers (Total): 219

A Profile:

BEAUFORT

COUNTY (SC)

Factors

A Cadre of Principals√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 19

Students (Total): 15,008

Per Pupil: $4,509

Arts Teachers (Total): 79

Beaufort County Public Schools began

advocating for arts education in

1989 when the district joined the Arts

in the Basic Curriculum (ABC) Project

(see Greenville, SC, case study). In order

for the district to join the statewide ABC

effort, the necessary funding for it had

to be approved by each individual

school, which had responsibility for sitebased arts funding. 

The choice to participate made

by the Beaufort schools reflected the

support of both school principals and

the community. What’s more,

although private sources have contributed generously to the arts

education programs, the schools of

Beaufort have chosen not to rely on

this “soft money” to cover the district’s payroll of nearly 80 arts

specialists. Instead, the nearly $60,000

in private funding raised by the community is used for “extras” – scholarships,

arts festivals, and special projects. 

The community’s involvement

with Beaufort County Public Schools

includes partnerships with local arts

organizations such as the Arts Council

of Beaufort County and the Self-Family

Arts Center. The former education program director of the South Carolina

Arts Commission, Jill Warzer, pointed

out, “Every performing and presenting

organization of note has initiated an

educational outreach component

which may be as diverse as providing

artists and ensembles in the schools to

funding scholarship initiatives.” ●

act.” The mayor is a musician; the

governor is a clarinetist. The annual

event is so important to the community – helping to define it and provide

its cohesion – that a 30-member coordinating committee meets monthly to

plan it. 

to arts education programs in the face

of tightened budgets with the help of

community partnerships, parents’

fund-raising efforts, and joint buying

of arts materials. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 41

A Profile:

BOISE (ID)

Factors

The Community√

Continuity in Leadership√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 41

Students (Total): 26,680

Per Pupil: $4,719

Arts Teachers (Total): 185

A Profile:

BURLINGTON (WI)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 7

Students (Total): 3,529

Per Pupil: $6,082

Arts Teachers (Total): 24

A Profile:

CHARLOTTE - 

MECKLENBURG (NC)

Factors

The Community√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 130

Students (Total): 92,619

Per Pupil: $5,081

Arts Teachers (Total): 515

Once a stop on the Chautauqua circuit, Boise is an example of a place

where music took hold at the turn of

the century and continues to play a

vital role in the life of the community

today.

Each year during the first week

in May, this metropolitan community

of approximately 250,000 people,

“drops everything and makes music

for itself,” explained Larry Williams,

coordinator of music in the Boise

Schools.

“Music Week” in 1998 marked

the 80th anniversary of this celebration – nine full days of music in the

parks, churches, performance halls,

and schools. “It permeates all of our

institutions at every level,” Williams

noted, “and everyone gets in on the

ABOVE AVERAGE

Counselors in each of the high

schools in Boise, ID, reviewed the

records of students involved in school

activities. They found that students

who participated in the orchestra had

grade point averages and attendance

records higher than school averages. 

Boise Independent School

District spends “upwards of 15 percent” of its $133 million general fund

budget on the arts, including salaries,

supplies, equipment, busing for special

field trips and more. This financial

commitment supports a high quality

instructional staff (11.5 percent, or 185

certified arts teachers, of the district’s

1,600 teachers). It provides for the

space required for teaching classes in

visual arts, musical arts, dance and

movement, theater, and creative writing. Boise also makes sure there is

time for the arts: To promote rather

than restrict student electives, Boise

has seven-period days plus a “zero”

period class opportunity at many of its

secondary schools. 

In addition, Boise schools make

the most of the outreach programs of

the area’s arts organization such as the

Idaho Academy of Dance, which offers

a 10-week artist-in-residence program

to four schools each semester. ●

The K-12 school district of

Burlington, a town just north of

the Wisconsin-Illinois state line that is

known for its chocolate factory, serves

some 3,500 students in seven schools.

A supportive school board and administration have managed to resist cuts

Fifteen years ago, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, like other districts its size,

faced many competing demands on its

resources and offered limited arts education to its students. Yet the community also had a number of strong

arts advocates with a powerful vision

of what the arts could do for students.

Their vision was grounded in the

shared conviction that the arts play an

important role in helping children to

think critically and to find creative

approaches in solving problems. They

believed, too, in the role the arts play

in learning across the curriculum.

Bringing that vision to life,

however, required a plan. So the community’s arts advocates, working with

the school system’s arts administration

and the Arts & Science Council of

Charlotte and Mecklenburg County,

brought in the Wolf Organization

(now Wolf, Keens and Company) of

Boston as consultants to assist in planning. 

A number of strategies and activities contributed to and helped shape

the resulting plan. A survey conducted

by the consultants found “overwhelming” community support for the arts in

education, including endorsement by

92 percent of respondents for additional classroom instruction in the arts. As

a result, school arts administrators and

local artists began exploring options

together. They articulated a mission

and goals statement with the aim of

building a high-quality, comprehensive arts education program that would

be nationally recognized within five

years’ time. 

The Arts & Science Council,

which funds services for schoolchildren, established a new policy — procontinued on next page
A Profile:

CHARLOTTESVILLE (VA)

Factors

The Community√

An Elementary Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

Continuous Improvement√

posed by the local arts group — that

designates arts education as a top priority. The policy appropriates one-third

of all new monies raised to support

educational programs that directly benefit Charlotte-Mecklenburg youth. At a

time when public funding of the arts

was an issue for debate, the Arts &

Science Council stepped into the void

to facilitate and distribute the support

necessary to keep arts programs in

Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. 

The Wolf Organization, meanwhile, began developing a 10-year plan

designed to integrate arts in the

schools through the North Carolina

Standard Course of Study. The Arts &

Science Council also began requiring

groups seeking grants to specify on the

applications how their service would

interface with the Standard Course of

Study. In other words, a criteria for

funding became a program’s relevance

to the goals set down in the state standards. Also, multiple, interrelated

experiences became the norm. (See

“The World of Oz.”)

The Arts & Science Council also

formed the Cultural Education

Collaborative, an organization tasked

with the coordination of arts education activities between the schools and

local arts and science organizations.

Additionally, the Council has supported the renovation of an arts facility

devoted to arts education and the collaboration of the schools and community organizations. 

Local businesses — including

national banks headquartered in

Charlotte — have rallied around arts

education efforts as well. The

Education Foundation, which has

received national recognition, provides

grants to support new initiatives, such

as the formation of a quintet of music

teachers to perform in the system’s

schools. In this way, the teachers are

recognized as musicians as well as

instructors. 

Today Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s

long-range planning is manifest in

each student’s education. Every elementary student in the district is now

taught art and music every week by

trained specialists. The district’s students also may look forward to the

availability of Advanced Placement

courses in the arts when they reach

secondary school. Carefully planned

block scheduling has not only

increased opportunities for offering

new, specialized courses but also has

afforded students a greater ability to

enroll in programs of their choice. At

the high school level, the system as a

whole is moving away from generalist

arts courses into more specific content

areas with higher expectations. ●

PAGE 42

For more than two decades, the

Charlottesville City Schools district

has nurtured an environment for the

growth of ever-stronger arts programs

and ever-greater access to them.

Charlottesville City Schools’

orchestra program, for example, has

flourished since the early 1980s —

growing from eight to nearly 100

members, garnering state and national

awards, playing at the White House

and state conferences. The choral and

band programs also have won student

participation and their share of

awards. The growth of these programs

is the result of careful cultivation. To

interest fourth graders in a year-long

fifth-grade arts course, Charlottesville

City Schools created the Fine Arts

Introduction and Recruitment

Program. Fine arts teachers go into

each fourth-grade classroom, sometimes with older students, to describe

their programs or give hands-on

demonstrations of their instruments.

In addition, the Charlottesville and

University Symphony Orchestra performs an annual “Young People’s

Concert” for all fourth graders on the

grounds of the University of Virginia.

With the district’s population

representing a wide socio-economic

range, Charlottesville City has made

accessibility a major goal. Over the

years, Charlottesville City Schools has

stockpiled some 200 good band instruments and 100 good orchestra

instruments. The district purchased

these musical instruments with funds

allocated in the budget. Additionally,

four or five instruments are donated

each year. Students are able to rent an

instrument at $75 per year, with the

fee going to the instrument repair budget. According to Jeff Suling, the fine

arts coordinator, “The fee tends to

make the students take better care of

the instruments.” For those who cannot afford the rental fee, the $75 is

waived. Similarly, the $10 fee for

Charlottesville City Schools’ visual arts

program is waived for some students. 

Ethnicity as well as economic

need is a consideration in the school

district, which attempts to pull students

“The World of Oz” and

Other “Great Ideas” in

Charlotte-Mecklenburg

In 1997, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

and the Cultural Education Collaborative

of the Arts & Science Council premiered

“The World of Oz” as a model for the first

collaboration of their new partnership.

This literacy-based program connected

social studies, math, communication, science, and the arts in an integrated

approach to learning at all grade levels

(K-12). Together with sponsors First

Union National Bank (which provided

$100,000 support), the Charlotte City

Center Partners, and 15 cultural, arts,

and science organizations throughout the

community, the Cultural Education

Collaborative designed a year-long series

of classroom activities, a curriculum

guide, instructional plans (delivered via

the Internet), and off-site education programs and performances for all

Charlotte-Mecklenburg students.

School-based “World of Oz” units were

aligned with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg

Schools’ Performance standards. Twelve

instructional activities featured an arts and

science focus connected to other subject

areas, and additional curriculum-based

arts, cultural, and science programs were

brought into the classroom throughout the

year by artists, scientists, and affiliate

organizations. In the local community,

special museum exhibitions and performances were offered, and a “yellow brick

road” wound through Charlotte’s uptown

Cultural District. 

The “Grants for Great Ideas” program

rewards creative curricular thinking

through the granting of funds ($25,000

annually) for new programs and teacher

collaboration such as “The Rainbow

Connection,” which brings together elementary school arts teachers to create

meaningful integrated units. 

Statistics

Schools (Total): 9

Students (Total): 4,292

Per Pupil: $7,857

Arts Teachers (Total): 26

of all groups into the arts programs.

Charlottesville has found that while all

ethnic groups take visual arts and vocal

music, fewer minority students participate in instrumental music. To gain

their interest, teachers will visit music

classes with minority students for a

hands-on introduction to musical

instruments to show their realness

and accessibility. 

In the visual arts, students are

tested in fourth grade using the same

set of criteria the district uses to identify students for its “gifted classes.”

After a thorough judging process,

those who show visual arts skills are

offered the opportunity to participate

in a fifth-grade program called

ArtQuest. Students meet weekly after

school with art teachers and an artist

in residence. They develop goals, critique their own artwork, and maintain

a portfolio. The program focuses on

creating art, learning new techniques,

studying the art and art history of various cultures, and visiting museums

and galleries. The district cites two

practices that have contributed to the

success of this effort: (1) all art teachers are invited to participate, and (2)

students are provided with transportation home. ●

For more than 25 years, the

Chelmsford School District, approximately 50 miles northwest of Boston,

has maintained strong arts education

while struggling against state-level tax

cuts and funding limitations. Faced

with extensive budget cuts a decade

ago, Chelmsford was forced to take a

comprehensive approach toward

rebuilding its arts education programs.

After conducting a survey and reviewing existing programs, the district

leaders developed a five-year, systemwide plan to make curriculum and

schedule changes. 

The district began to:

• reinstate (after a five-year absence)

weekly visual art classes in the elementary schools, in addition to

weekly music and choir classes;

• introduce dance classes for second

graders with the help of an artistin-residence grant from the

Massachusetts Cultural Council;

• form small music groups of fourthgrade beginning students who

meet once a week;

• establish a new graduation requirement for all high school students

to have 15 fine arts credits by the

end of their senior year (beginning

with the class of 2001);

• add a high school-level course in 

theater.

At the middle school level,

Chelmsford faced difficulties with arts

scheduling. To meet this challenge,

block scheduling was instituted with

arts schedules completely restructured

into an arts block. Instead of students

being taken out of classes to go to

music rehearsals, they now have these

classes daily, along with other disciplines. As a result, the middle school

music programs witnessed a 50 percent increase in student participation

and interest. 

The changes have been supported by the community. The Chelmsford

Friends of Music organization, which

has provided consistent financial and

political support for arts education for

many years, sponsors in-school artist

visits and residencies, transportation to

arts venues, scholarship aid, and the

purchase of instruments and band

uniforms. School councils and parentteacher organizations further supplement

arts education needs. A school board

committed to backing arts initiatives

has influenced the opinions of fellow

board members, and both superintendent and principals have teamed to

provide leadership in restructuring

Chelmsford’s arts education. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 43

A Profile:

CHELMSFORD (MA)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

A Cadre of Principals√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 7

Students (Total): 5,512

Per Pupil: $5,500

Arts Teachers (Total): 31

A Profile:

CHITTENDEN SOUTH (VT)

Factors

The Community√

Teachers Who Practice

Their Art√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 6

Students (Total): 4,100

Per Pupil: $7,800

Arts Teachers (Total): 17

“IF YOU BUILD IT . . .” 

“If you build it, they will come” is an axiom that

does not necessarily hold true for an arts center.

All across America well-meaning arts leaders

have built local and regional arts centers only to

wonder where to find audiences to support

them. That, in part, is how many an “education

outreach” program began to help build the next

audience. Then there are communities like

Charlottesville, Virginia. 

Charlottesville has a fine 1,276-seat Performing

Arts Center in Charlottesville High School. This is

not the standard high school auditorium retrofitted for occasional concerts. The Center was built

with a separate entrance to provide the feeling of

a separate performance venue. The school districts’ performing arts groups perform here, to be

sure, but so do local, state, national and international performing arts groups, such as the

Moscow Ballet. 

The school district employs a full-time theater

manager and assistant to run the theater day to

day, separately from other school facilities, and

charges for the use of the hall at different rates

for various groups. Everyone benefits, particularly the students. The school system gains

revenues, the students gain a great space to

perform and display their talents, and the community gains a center for the arts as well as a

tangible manifestation of the link between the

arts and education, school and community,

future artist and future audience.

The school district of Chittenden

South — situated south of

Vermont’s largest city, Burlington —

comprises a number of independent

towns in a largely rural setting. A challenge to the continuity of arts programs and instruction is posed by the

fact that each of the towns within the

district is run by autonomous, separate, and independent school boards.

As a result, although the school district

as a whole is making great strides

toward proficiency in the arts, each

individual town is approaching this

goal at a different rate and through

different methods.

Despite the challenges this complex arrangement presents, Chittenden

South has set the goal of a comprehensive, sequential, and high-quality arts

program for all of its students. Placing

equal emphasis on the value of music,

art, theater, and dance, the district is

working as a whole to see that each discipline is represented fully through a

district-wide standards committee. Arts

educators throughout the district consult

one another on student achievement in

the context of the Vermont Framework

standards document.

Many teachers use the arts in

integrated units, both with and without assistance from arts instructors,

and they collaborate among disciplines

and schools. Music teachers of small

elementary schools meet regularly,

share ideas, and even plan joint concerts. The distance between sites in the

district makes it difficult for students

continued on next page

A Profile:

CLEVELAND (OH)

Factors

The Community√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

to establish relationships and friendships in other schools, so such

opportunities are of special significance. 

Instructors at the Charlotte

Central School — aware that past limitations of planning time with teachers

and contact time with students curtailed diffusion of the arts among

disciplines — are participating in a

multi-year collaboration between a

local pottery artisan/parent and an art

teacher that is designed to integrate art

and social studies. 

Many arts educators in the district have become leaders in the state,

developing rubrics and benchmarks in

a five-year, ongoing development of

assessment techniques. District arts

teachers and students collaboratively

share and critique student work online

with artists and other districts through

a statewide Web project with the

Vermont Arts Council. Student music

compositions are digitized, artwork is

scanned, and portfolios are retained

electronically. Student work is also displayed on school home pages. ●

One of the most financially challenged school districts in the nation,

Cleveland Public Schools, has succeeded

in creating a strong and successful basis

for arts education through the concerted

effort of six local foundations.

According to Dr. Richard Boyd,

who was serving as superintendent —

appointed by the state — in 1995, the

foundations decided to contribute to

the systemic improvement of arts education in the schools rather than

simply continue to help keep local arts

groups viable. The staff at one foundation questioned, for example, the

efficacy of continuing to spend

$50,000 a year to send all of the third

grade children to a performance of the

symphony once a year. “How does

that change kids in the long run?”

they asked themselves. 

To determine how best to use

the foundations’ resources, the six

organizations came together and hired

the Boston-based Wolf Organization to

conduct a comprehensive study. The

consulting group identified and met

with every agency in the county

involved in the arts and ultimately recommended the creation of a committee of school district personnel and

arts group leaders tasked with formulating the approach. 

Meanwhile, with a salary subsidy

from one of the foundations, one individual was hired to work in the school

system and another to work with a

coalition of cultural groups. The objective: to explore how arts groups could

work to meet the needs of the schools.

Visits to Chicago, Milwaukee, and

other large school systems with successful arts/schools collaborations

proved invaluable. As part of this initiative, the Cleveland team established

a link to the Web site of the Chicago

Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE),

and they now exchange lesson plans

and best practices.

The resulting program supported

by the six foundations is known as

ICARE — for “Initiative for Cultural

Arts in Education.” It is administered

by the Cleveland Cultural Coalition,

which also raises funds from businesses and corporations. ICARE’s mission is

to connect “the resources of the Greater

Cleveland cultural community to the

needs of the Cleveland Public Schools

in a way that places arts and culture at

the center of the school curriculum.” 

Of the 119 schools in the

Cleveland system, a dozen are now

engaged in 11 different partnerships

established by this program. The

Cleveland Opera, the Cleveland

Museum of Art, Young Audiences of

Greater Cleveland, and the Cleveland

Orchestra are just a few of the local

groups that have helped create and

integrate lesson plans in the schools.

To participate in the ICARE program, a school or an arts group must

submit a proposal based upon a

school’s needs. The cultural partner

must make a minimum commitment

of five years to the school. Depending

on the school’s needs, ICARE provides

funding for professional development

for arts specialists and classroom teachers, the fees of artist/educators from

outside the school, compensation for

teacher and artist planning time, and

materials for arts education projects.

PAGE 44

ICARE has set forth eight expectations for individual school/cultural

institution partnerships. The partners

are expected to commit to:

1. a long-term relationship

2. joint planning

3. professional development for all

participants

4. identification of specific learning

objectives of all disciplines 

5. development of engaging and participatory activities for students

6. on-site and school-site programming

7. integration of cultural experiences

into the daily school curriculum 

8. accountability through program

evaluation and student assessment

To help partners meet expectations, ICARE supports professional

development of teachers, artists, parents, and administrators. ICARE offers

a summer institute on curriculum

development and a series of at least

six workshops on partnership

mechanics, student assessment, parent

involvement and other areas relevant

to arts education.

After two years of operation, program evaluations conducted by ICARE,

the 12 schools, and the Wolf

Organization showed improved attendance at partnership schools. Test

scores had improved at some sites. And

at one school, which services children

with behavioral problems, both behavior and attendance have improved.

Expansion of the program to

more schools is one clear goal. Such

expansion would require the full

financial participation of the Cleveland school district, as well as the

involvement of cultural institutions,

artists, and parents, to ensure its success and long-term viability. Changes

in the governance of Cleveland Public

Schools — from state control to the

city of Cleveland — are likely to have

an impact. Also, the ICARE administrators note, as the Cleveland school

district moves to site-based management, individual schools will receive

more funds from the district. This new

money could help support arts education at those sites. Given ICARE’s

school staff technical assistance in

assessment, accountability, use of community resources and grant-writing,

the skills should be in place to enable

arts education to remain viable without complete dependency upon ICARE. 

●

Statistics

Schools (Total): 119

Students (Total): 74,026

Per Pupil: $7,151

Arts Teachers (Total): 257
Aresort community overlooking a

lake of the same name, Coeur

d’Alene boomed as a center for logging

and mining during the 1880s. In the

1990s, it has been building a forwardlooking, technology-integrated program

of arts education that is firmly rooted

in a century-old tradition of support.

Coeur d’Alene’s arts programs

have benefited greatly from a remarkable continuity of staffing. Two

typical examples are the current high

school band director — only the third

since the late 1920s — and an instructor in the high school art program

who only recently retired after 26

years of service. Vocal and elementary

music teachers have been added to the

faculty over many years, and the district achieved full-time, elementary

through high school music coverage in

1986. The high quality of instruction

in Coeur d’Alene has been recognized

at the local, state, and national levels

through numerous awards and invitations to staff to participate in special

training opportunities. 

Dr. David Rawls, superintendent,

believes that arts programs must be

available to all children beginning at

an early age. He also supports ongoing

arts education for all, as well as deeper,

broader, and more comprehensive

opportunities for students as their

skills and talents develop.

In Coeur d’Alene, all elementary

students take regularly scheduled art

and music classes, and services are also

provided to pre-school and special

education students. Special choruses

are offered to fourth and fifth graders

who wish to gain additional singing

experience, and all sixth graders are

exposed to music and art in a series of

“exploratory” classes. At the seventhgrade and high school levels, art and

music become elective classes (drama

becomes an elective at the high school

level), while some music classes are

open to any student who registers and

others are open by audition. 

In addition to traditional areas

of the arts curriculum — visual arts,

music, creative writing, theater and

dance — video production and graphic

design are offered at the middle and

high school levels, and specialized

visual arts instruction at the elementary level. Integration of the arts

curriculum into other content areas is

encouraged, particularly at the elementary level, and each school designates a

line item for arts education in its

respective budget. Curriculum guides

were developed to involve not just

staff and administrators in arts education, but also members of the

community. 

Community partnerships are

abundant at both the local (Citizens’

Council for the Arts) and state (Idaho

Commission on the Arts) levels.

Through active advocacy efforts, grants

have been received for artist residencies, innovative programs, musical

instruments, curriculum materials,

choir robes, and technology equipment. Local businesses donate

materials that would otherwise be discarded to the visual arts program:

flooring companies donate discarded

tile; printing companies donate cut

paper, and interior designers give fabric and wallpaper samples. Parent

volunteers assist in the classrooms or

with special projects, and they are

often the initiators of fund raisers and

other awareness-building projects. 

The introduction of technology

provides the district with an opportunity to explore skills necessary for many

arts-based careers. Through partnerships with Adobe and Macromedia,

teachers have learned to use new

resources, expanding their own teaching to include technology. 

This effort has been so successful

that individual Coeur d’Alene instructors have been selected as Northwest

Technology Teacher of the Year.

Teacher Mike Clabby directed an

American history class at Lakes Middle

School through a year-long project culminating in the production of a

CD-ROM. Using the advanced software

Director and SoundEdit 15, he broke

the class into small teams and led students acting as writers, artists, research

directors and project directors to

design segments focusing on topics

ranging from slavery to the U.S. government. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 45

The Clovis Unified School District is

located in a growing suburb of

Fresno, California, where change is

occurring rapidly as new families move

into the district known for its smalltown charm and good schools.

Arts education in Clovis schools

has succeeded because of top-down

support. “My goal is to have every students involved in the arts every day,”

says Dr. Walter L. Buster, superintendent. His interest is to focus on a

student’s need for a well-rounded education of mind, body, and spirit. A

well-rounded education includes study

of the arts. 

One of the district’s schools,

Valley Oak Elementary, is participating

in the Transforming Education Through

the Arts Challenge, supported by the

Getty Education Institute for the Arts

and the Annenberg Foundation. Valley

Oak is one of 36 schools throughout

the country that are participating in the

Challenge. During the first year, teachers at the school learned about the

Discipline-Based Arts Education (DBAE)

method of teaching the arts and have

begun integrating the arts across other

subjects. This one school’s involvement

is helping other schools to learn about

the whole school change model

through district-wide workshops.

Among the many ways the community supports arts in the schools is

the Clovis Arts Docent program, which

sends parents and volunteers to visit

classrooms weekly to discuss and share

history and research about works of

art. The program, in existence for

more than 15 years, involves training

by art teachers, and sometimes participation in DBAE classes. ●

Statistics

Schools (Total): 32

Students (Total): 30,627

Per Pupil: $4,084

Arts Teachers (Total): 359

A Profile:

CLOVIS (CA) 

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 14

Students (Total): 8,770

Per Pupil: $4,121

Arts Teachers (Total): 34

A Profile:

COEUR D’ALENE

271 (ID) 

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√
Columbus, NE, is a small rural town

approximately 70 miles west of

Omaha. The Columbus Public Schools

implemented a Discipline-Based Arts

Education program more than a

decade ago. Ann Masters, Nebraska

Department of Education, recommended the district for this study: 

• Because of Columbus’ involvement 

[with DBAE] on a national level, 

secondary art educator Jean 

Detlefsen has served on the 

National Board of Professional 

Teaching Standards Setting 

Committee and has coordinated 

Nebraska’s K-12 Visual and 

Performing Arts Curriculum Frameworks Project that was funded by 

the U.S. Department of Education, 

Office of Innovation.

• Columbus continues to be interested in excellence in arts education as 

they begin their work to ensure that 

all high school students receive 

visual arts education through integrating the visual arts into history, 

language arts, and foreign language 

classes. This curriculum program is 

supported by an Annenberg-Getty 

Arts Partnership award which provides staff development, technical 

assistance, and materials to 36 

school buildings in the nation.

Columbus Public Schools’ experiences with Discipline-Based Arts

Education are documented in Brent

Wilson’s The Quiet Evolution: Changing

the Face of Arts Education (1997), published by the Getty Education Institute

for the Arts. ●

Even after New York City cut all of its

school arts programs in the early

1970s, Community School District #3

(CSD #3) on Manhattan’s Upper West

Side has succeeded in keeping the arts

alive in its schools. The concerted fund

raising efforts of district parents has

been one major factor. Another is the

building of strong, enduring partnerships with arts organizations and

institutions. 

From its broad and deep experience with partnerships, CSD #3 offers

valuable lessons in how to develop

and manage external arts education

resources. Particularly instructive are

the district’s expectations of both the

schools and the participating

institutions. 

“We demand a great deal more

from these institutions than a short prepackaged residency program that comes

and goes within a period of weeks and

offers little more than an enrichment

experience to our students and their

teachers,” Shelly Alpert, CSD #3 director of cultural arts wrote in the district’s

report for this study. She elaborated:

• CSD #3 insists upon ongoing 

professional development for our 

pedagogical staff; workshops for parents, and an ongoing and long-term 

teaching artist presence in the school 

(20 weeks or more). We expect our 

classroom teachers to become educated in the residency discipline and to 

take responsibility for teaching, planning, program implementation, and 

integration into other subject areas. If 

a classroom teacher is working with a 

performance-based program, s/he is 

also responsible for attendance at performances and exhibits both in school

and at the cultural institution on an 

ongoing basis. We have learned that 

all members of the school community, 

including the principal, who are 

afforded the privilege of working with

a particular institution, must make a 

commitment of time, energy, and willingness to be educated in order for the

program to be effective and to continPAGE 46

ue over time. Moreover, there must be 

a willingness to constantly evaluate 

the goals and outcomes of the program and to work toward positive 

change and program effectiveness.

The challenge for CSD #3, the

district’s leadership points out, is in

institutionalizing these partnerships

and making them part of the fabric of

teaching and learning in this Upper

A Profile:

COLUMBUS (NE)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 10

Students (Total): 3,538

Per Pupil: $4,855

Arts Teachers (Total): 17

A Profile:

CSD #3 (NY, NY)

Factors

The Community√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Continuous

Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 37

Students (Total): 15,000

Per Pupil: $7,863

Arts Teachers (Total): 165

PARTNERS APLENTY

Community School District #3 has

established partnerships with these

institutions and organizations, among

others. Funding for the partnerships

is provided by a range of sources,

including grants obtained by the school

district or by the partnering organization. 

Carnegie Hall (Schools Partnership

LINK-UP! Program) 

CUNY Graduate Center

42nd Street Fund

Lincoln Center Institute

Metropolitan Opera Guild 

(Creating Original Opera Program) 

Museum of Modern Art 

(Visual Thinking Curriculum, or VTC)

Music for the World Foundation 

New York Philharmonic

Studio in a School

Teachers College, Columbia University

(including the Creative Arts

Laboratory, or CAL)

Artists in residencies, which also are 

funded in many different ways, have

included: 

Alvin Ailey Dance Company

American Ballroom Dance Institute

Arts Horizons

Ballet Hispanic

Bloomingdale House of Music

Blue Heron Theater

Chamber Music Society of

Lincoln Center

Children’s Art Carnival

City Center

Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center

L.E.A.P.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Midori Foundation Residencies 

National Dance Institute

New York City Ballet

92nd Street Y Chamber Symphony

Studio Museum in Harlem

Symphony Space C.A.P.

Teachers and Writers Collaborative

Western Wind Vocal Ensemble

Young Audiences of New York 

enhance educators’ efforts to integrate

the arts across the curriculum. Located

in nearby Easton, Binney & Smith

became an active partner in the Resica

project, which resulted in a formal inservice program. 

One good collaboration led to

another, which was launched two

years ago. The second partnership —

between Resica and East Stroudsburg

University — was initiated by

Naudascher and Dr. Patricia Pinciotti, a

professor of education whose grantwriting efforts resulted in funding

from Heinz. This collaboration’s focus

is ongoing staff development to give

the district’s arts specialists and classroom teachers a knowledge base in arts

and integration strategies. 

Additionally, that collaboration

has led a project to build students’

inquiry skills. At the start of the year,

the elementary students from Resica

and college students from East Stroudsburg University visit the Allentown Art

Museum. The purpose of the museum

visit, Greg Naudascher explains, “is for

the students to learn how to really

look at a piece of art, to interpret a

work in a systematic way and respond

in a journal in words and pictures.

Later, we will use this journal to look

at a piece of art and tie what we’ve

observed into curricular themes, say

Turner’s work if the theme is oceans.

In the spring, we plan to return to an

art museum — to the Metropolitan

Museum of Art in New York — which

will give the students an opportunity

to use the inquiry skills they’ve developed over the year.” 

East Stroudsburg Area School

District has a consistent curriculum for

the school system, but each school has

the freedom to determine how to

deliver it. The effects of Resica’s explorations in arts-based learning are

beginning to be seen elsewhere in the

district. Says Naudascher, “We’ve chosen to look at the arts as an important

part of what we do at Resica. We are

seeing a ripple effect elsewhere in the

district. One thing that’s occurring is

that Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is pervading our

schools. So more and more administrators and teachers are seeing how the

arts dovetail with that, and they are

looking at how to make the arts work

in their classrooms and schools.” 

●

The El Dorado School System has a

tradition of excellence in the arts

that spans more than 50 years. 

The music program holds the

record for longevity. A trophy case in

the high school gymnasium displays

awards won by district musical groups

dating back to 1928. El Dorado was

one of the first school systems in the

state to recognize the importance of

having certified music specialists to

teach music classes to elementary students. “Having this very important

foundation,” the district reports, “is

one of the factors in the development

of outstanding programs in the secondary schools.” In addition to its

leadership in hiring, the district was

the first, and for many years the only,

school system in the state to offer

orchestra instruction as part of the curriculum. The string program was

instituted in the late 1950s at about

the same time a community orchestra

was formed. 

El Dorado Schools’ Thespian

Troupe No. 42, granted a charter in

1936, is active today as it draws upon

students in grades 9 - 12 who have the

opportunity to take Drama I, II, III,

and IV. A fully equipped “Little

Theater” on the high school campus

facilitates student-produced theater

works. Each semester the students produce a play which they present to the

district’s elementary and secondary

schools as well as other area high

schools. Students also participate in

individual competitions at the regional

and state level. 

Although much of the art activity at the elementary level is the work

of the classroom teachers, El Dorado

has a certified arts specialist who works

with children in special arts projects.

Classes in the middle and high schools

are taught by certified art teachers. 

The district allocates 3 percent of

its budget to arts education and provides

designated music classrooms in each elementary school, ensemble rehearsal

rooms in each secondary school, arts

rooms in each middle school, and two

art rooms in the high school. 

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 47

A Profile:

EAST STROUDSBURG (PA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

An Elementary Foundation√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 7

Students (Total): 6,164

Per Pupil: $5,096

Arts Teachers (Total): 35

A Profile:

EL DORADO #15 (AR)

Factors

The Community√

Continuity in Leadership√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 9

Students (Total): 4,800

Per Pupil: $4,021

Arts Teachers (Total): 20

West Side community. 

The many arts partnership initiatives of the district are supported by

the school board, which has consistently approved budgets with major

funding for the partnerships, for the

district’s arts-based schools (The

Centre School, Wadleigh Alternative

Arts Middle School, School for Writing

and Publishing, West Side Academy

Middle School, and the Special Music

School of America), and for salaries for

a full-time arts coordinator and arts

staff developer. 

Community Superintendent

Patricia A. Romandetto also supports

the arts education programs and

would like to see the district’s schools

use the arts as a tool for restructuring.

Parents, meanwhile, demonstrate their

support through countless fund raisers

and vigorous advocacy. Alpert points

out that even in New York City, as in

so many districts across the country,

“It is often parental pressure that has

persuaded the district to fund full-time

positions in the arts.” ●

Nestled in the Pocono Mountains,

East Stroudsburg Area School

District provides a sequentially developed foundation in basic arts education at the elementary level and offers

electives and activities in the visual

arts, music, and drama from grades 8

through 12. With this firm base and

the school board’s continuing financial

support of the arts programs, the district is fertile ground for pilot progams

in arts education. 

One such program began six or

seven years ago under the guidance of

Resica Elementary School principal

Greg Naudascher and Becky Gorton,

an early childhood educator at

Northampton Area Community

College. Their schools formed one of

12 core teams in “Arts as a Way of

Learning,” a national training program

developed by Binney & Smith to

continued on next page
Located in New York’s Finger Lakes

region not far from the Pennsylvania

border, Elmira is the state’s 16th largest

school district, serving more than 8,200

students in 13 schools. Although

Elmira’s economy took a downturn in

the 1980s with the loss of manufacturing jobs, the city is making a comeback

with recent employment growth. 

Elmira has a strong history of

fine arts and boasts a program in place

for more than half a century. The

breadth and depth of the district’s fine

arts program are rare among small city

school districts. It provides a wide

range of courses including instrumental and vocal music opportunities and

advanced electives in sculpture, oil

painting, photography, and ceramics.

In a district with 49 percent of its students receiving free or reduced meals,

elective enrollment ranges from 43 to

77 percent of eligible students. 

Elmira’s school leaders seek a

balanced curriculum of academics, aesthetics, and athletics, believing that an

appreciation of culture and the arts is

essential to the education of the whole

person. Their aim is to establish the

arts within a cultural and historical

context that conveys both the distinct

nature of each art form and the interrelationships among art forms.

The district has developed two

arts programs with different purposes: 

(1) core curricular arts education and

(2) arts integration. 

The community, which has supported arts education in the district

through ongoing advocacy and arts

organization partnerships, recently institutionalized its support when a group of

citizens established an educational

endowment. In creating the endowment, which is dedicated to funding

innovative programs beyond the scope

of the district’s financial resources, the

founders stated their belief that the fine

arts are core subjects. ●

PAGE 48

A Profile:

ELMIRA (NY)

Factors

The Community√

Continuity in Leadership√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 13

Students (Total): 8,270

Per Pupil: $4,758

Arts Teachers (Total): 51

A Profile:

FAIRFAX COUNTY (VA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 239

Students (Total): 149,830

Per Pupil: $7,451

Arts Teachers (Total): 771

The purpose of the art and music

“core” is “sequential development of

student art/music knowledge, skills,

and attitudes K-12.” The distinguishing characteristics of this program

include a focus on the production of

art, providing a dedicated classroom

space and time, as well as high expectations in student performance and

production. The “integrated arts” program focuses more on exposure and

opportunity for multidisciplinary learning in a project-focused environment. 

An example of the integratedarts program is the whole-school

program at Coburn Elementary School,

which serves 850 pre-kindergarten to

sixth-grade students. Its integrated

arts program provides classes in grades

2 to 6 with two artists in residence,

one in the fall and one in the spring.

Each artist has expertise in a culture or

time period being studied in the social

studies curriculum of that grade level.

The aim is also to integrate science,

mathematics, and language arts into

the unit. For example, third-grade

students studying Africa with a resident artist over a period of two or

three weeks learn different dances for

planting, weddings, and hunting.

Classroom activities also focus on

learning about African languages, economics, costumes, and government.

Students have an opportunity to

demonstrate their knowledge by

exhibiting their work and performing

in a song-and-dance festival for parents, peers, and community

representatives.

Coburn’s program has received

additional funding from the Arts of

the Southern Finger Lakes and the

New York State Council of the Arts.

The program serves as a model for the

other eight elementary schools in the

district and has been recognized

statewide as an exemplary program.

The Elmira School District also

provides opportunities for students to

participate in summer arts programs.

The Integrated Arts Summer

Experience for third graders serves as

an immersion experience with a special focus on beginning musical

instruments. The children also study

theater, dance, visual arts, and vocal

music in this program, which runs

daily, three hours a day for six weeks.

●

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

serves a sprawling suburban region

of Virginia across the Potomac River

from Washington, D.C. Once a largely

rural area, the county began expanding rapidly in the early 1970s and

1980s as new business and commercial

centers located within its boundaries.

These changes brought increased

wealth and growth to schools and

school programs (including arts education programs). But as the growth

slowed in the late 1980s and early

1990s, school budgets became political

as well as fiscal issues.

The district is in the fortunate

position of having substantial and

well-organized community support for

arts education, as well as a highly

diverse population that generally recognizes the significance of the arts to

education. Fairfax County students

originate from more than 150 countries and speak more than 100

different languages and dialects. Some

93 percent of the district’s graduates go

on to college.

Fairfax County Public Schools’

commitment to the arts began in 1964

when the district implemented band

in grades 5 through 12. String programs in grades 4 through 12 followed,

and choral programs have been in

place since the 1950s. Elementary general music began in the 1960s, and

theater arts came into their own when

separated from English programs in a

self-sustaining department.

Beginning in 1985, a new emphasis was placed on arts education,

resulting in a significant increase in

course offerings, staffing, and student

enrollment. In 1991, the district’s Fine

Arts Office, allying itself with a number

of community leaders, stated the need

for a “clear vision for the arts, a common agenda.” A public-private

partnership — the Fairfax Arts

Coalition for Education (FACE) —was

formed to spearhead an advocacy effort. 

Composed of parents, teachers,

students, business leaders, arts organizations, and other members of the

community, FACE meets regularly to

further a proactive arts agenda for the
schools. The heightened awareness

which the organization promotes was

critical to curtailing cuts to arts budgets when the school system faced

across-the-board cutbacks during 1991-

93. The successes of FACE have been

attributed in part to the fact that the

group has represented a philosophy of

arts education as opposed to individual

programs or instructors. Therefore,

decisions beneficial to the entire community of children have been arrived

at more easily.

The agenda and calendar of FACE

are set to impact the budgetary decisions of both the Fairfax County

School Board and Board of Supervisors,

a strategy that has proved effective on

a regular basis. Each year from 1992

through 1997, the elimination of the

fourth-grade strings program was slotted as a budget reduction. In the wake

of FACE’s campaign of letters, faxes,

e-mails, telephone calls, and public

advocacy appearances, the proposed

cut never took place. Attempts to eliminate or reduce the elementary art

program also met with such resistance

from the organization that the program not only was retained but grew in

number of instructors from 75 to 102.

As a result of its participation in FACE,

the parent-teacher organization of

Fairfax County led the way in promoting a fine arts graduation requirement

separate from the practical arts. ●

Fremont County School District 14

— the only K-12 school district on

the Wind River Indian Reservation

near Ethete, Wyoming — was formed

by community members who held a

vision of educating their children

while incorporating the Native American culture into the curriculum. With

the dual challenge of education and

preservation of culture before them,

Fremont County has relied on the arts

to meet the needs of its students.

Superintendent Lonny Hoffman

believes that “paying attention to the

Fremont County student recently represented the state of Wyoming at the

National History Day Competition. 

Elders of the Arapaho and

Shoshone tribes, who officiate at religious ceremonies, offer advice, and

govern the tribe, are among the community members involved in this

process. Demonstrations of traditional

arts and crafts, singing, drumming and

dancing are regularly presented to the

students by community artists. 

A partnership with the Lander

Valley Medical Center yields a special

annual exhibit of student art, and students from Fremont’s high school

(Wyoming Indian) became the first

and only high school students invited

to exhibit their work in the Main

Gallery of the Wyoming State

Museum. Local businesses present art

scholarships for students attending

and graduating from Wyoming Indian

High School, and a local printer produces calendars illustrated with

student artwork and provides them on

a complimentary basis to the community.

Fremont administrators believe

that “when you, as a district, reach out

to bring the community into your arts

education reform, the collaborations are

as varied as the towns in our county.”

Districts have emphasized this outreach

as the link that makes their education

in the arts relevant. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 49

students as individuals, acknowledging

their culture, building positive selfconcepts, and instilling and

reinforcing a sense of worth through

the application of the arts” has been

key to shaping the Fremont district’s

educational vision. 

This arts-centered philosophy

combines the uniqueness of a traditional culture with the multiple ways

of knowing that the arts encourage.

Native arts experiences are offered at

all levels and to all students and are

embedded in nearly all classes across

the curriculum. Singing, music, dance,

and traditional handcrafts are taught

in combination with lessons on symbolism and nature studies, and special

events such as Native American

Heritage Week and Native American

Day give occasion for district-wide participation in traditional celebrations. 

Fremont County’s curriculum is

designed by a district-wide team composed of board members, education

staff, and members of the community.

Native American language and culture

play an inseparable and integrated role

in the articulation of all Performance

Standards, which exist at the school,

district, and national — but not state —

levels. The county’s curriculum review

process is continual, as administrators

strongly believe that becoming “too

comfortable or satisfied can jeopardize

any successful program or system.”

Illustrated books in native languages are

published by the district for use in

instruction, and Native American language courses are offered alongside other

languages. Cultural immersion programs

at the K-2 level ensure preservation at this

critical stage of development.

Given a community that copes

with unemployment as high as 90 percent, the district seeks outside support

for cross-curricular projects. With the

assistance of the Bureau of Land

Management and the Wyoming State

Historic Preservation Office, an archeology curriculum block was established

that integrates the fields of photography, math, science, and cultural

history. A grant to preserve oral traditions and storytelling provides students

with opportunities to use sound and

video technology to conduct research

and record cultural events while combining the disciplines of English, social

studies, math, communication, music,

art, and photography. The efforts of

students participating in these and similar projects have been recognized at

the state and national levels, and a

A Profile:

FREMONT COUNTY 14

(WY)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 3

Students (Total): 737

Per Pupil: $9,076

Arts Teachers (Total): 11

A Profile:

FULTON COUNTY (GA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

An Elementary Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 63

Students (Total): 64,649

Per Pupil: $5,765

Arts Teachers (Total): 260

Students in Fulton County, Georgia,

begin their arts learning with a

strong elementary visual arts and

music foundation, move to an arts

requirement in sixth through eighth

grades, and, in high school, may

choose from a wide range of arts electives — visual art, music, dance,

theater, television and film production, graphic communications and

design, and arts and technology. The

continued on next page
Fulton district also offers two magnet

high schools: (1) the School of Arts

and Sciences, with courses such as

music theory, history of the arts, composition, conducting, and choreography

and (2) the School for Visual and

Performing Arts, with ballet, jazz band,

sculpture, play production and set

design, ceramics, commercial design,

and graphic art and printing. 

To support these arts-intensive

programs, the district offers staff development courses year-round. To better

serve elementary and middle school

students with special needs, Fulton

County employs three adaptive arts

specialists and three music therapists.

The Music Education Department, Art

Education Department, and Services for

Exceptional Children work cooperatively to schedule and prioritize classes; a

pair of art and music specialists share a

home-base school where they meet

every Friday as well as periodically with

other specialists for sharing and planning. Ultimately, the therapists are able

to achieve goals of special education

and life skills in addition to goals of

the regular elementary and middle

music and art education curriculum.

The community is central to the

success of arts education in the district.

Parents volunteer at school events,

organize and support school fundraising and booster club efforts. They also

volunteer to share their personal expertise with students in the classroom. 

In advocating the importance of

arts education to the community, the

Fulton County district has formed

alliances with many regional businesses, including Georgia Power Company,

Nations Bank, and the Music and Arts

Center. These businesses have provided support by donating venue space

for arts events, providing scholarships

to outstanding arts students, and

assisting with fundraising. 

The school board supports arts

education financially, but this support

goes beyond dollars. Both teachers and

students are frequently recognized for

achievement in the arts. Moreover, the

Fulton County Board of Education has

worked for state support of the arts

through frequent communication and

advocacy with the State Board. For

example, Fulton County’s superintendent, Stephen Dollinger, testified at a

State Board meeting on the need to

include fine arts classes in the formula

for students who hope to graduate from

Georgia high schools with a “College

Preparatory Diploma with Distinction.” 

●

PAGE 50

principal became aware of a growing

student desire for drama courses, the

principal found a neighboring high

school that was willing to provide

interactive distance learning courses

“allowing students at two different

sites to pursue their love of theater.” 

A similar solution led to a film production class.

The Glen Ridge Board of

Education nurtures such creative

thinking and also recognizes achievement and new ideas from teachers

and students at each board meeting’s

“Showcase of Successes.” A teacher of

origami, for instance, taught this art

form in the context of the study of

geometry. He demonstrated his techniques at a board meeting, and, said

Superintendent Conk, “people could

see that the arts are grounded in

many subjects.”

Art teachers also assign a twomonth sculpture homework project

and will visit students at home to

advise them on their sculpturing. The

constant communication among

administrators, parents, students, and

teachers serves to further strengthen

Glen Ridge arts education programs.

●

Glen Ridge Public School District has

a 30-year history of support for the

arts, an engaged community, and a

school board that supports the arts not

only in words but in deeds — hiring a

superintendent, Judith Conk, who was

one of the authors of the State Core

Curriculum Content Standards in the

Arts and president of the Alliance for

Arts Education/New Jersey. Conk speaks

to the importance of:

• supportive administrative leadership

— “When you sit with a board during budget cutting, it is vital to have

articulate spokespersons who can

show how the arts help children succeed in learning”; 

• teachers with vision who “make a difference in making the case for arts

support” because they see this is “not

just the battle of art for art’s sake versus integrating the arts, but about

engaging with the arts as a whole”;

• community involvement and

partnerships to help the district 

maximize resources.

Glen Ridge parents advocate for

their children’s education and roll up

their sleeves to work together in selfsupporting enrichment committees

aimed at providing high quality arts

experiences and artists in the schools.

The Music Parents Association organized a “get out the vote” campaign

that was responsible for passing the

school budget with increased arts

funding. Community members with

special talents find ways to share them

with the children; Chuck Mangione,

for example, rehearsed the jazz band

in one of his compositions. An actor

who had performed in “Jesus Christ

Superstar” helped with the high school

theater’s summer production. The

community also supports innovation

in arts education, among other areas of

the curriculum, by providing seed

money for research and special projects.

There is also ingenuity at work

here: For example, when a high school

A Profile:

GLEN RIDGE (NJ) 

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

A Cadre of Principals√

Parent/Public Relations√

An Elementary Foundation√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 5

Students (Total): 1,408

Per Pupil: $8,716

Arts Teachers (Total): 4

VOTE “YES” FOR THE ARTS BUDGET

Glen Ridge Public Schools arts specialists, classroom teachers, and

department heads recognize that working together to create a budget

maximizes the resources available to

them in order to run their programs. 

The budget process in Glen Ridge

begins with consensus among the educators. Then it moves to administrators

for review — first to the principals of

each school, then to the superintendent, then on to the school board. But

here’s where Glen Ridge departs from

the ordinary. Instead of a vote on the

budget by the Board of Education, the

budget is put before the public for a

vote. This is the point at which community support for arts-based items is

crucial — when competition is high for

the limited resources. Because the

public vote provides an opportunity for

the public’s opinions to be voiced,

community groups such as the Music

Parents Association organize “get out

the vote campaigns” to build support

for the arts. For the past couple of

years, these campaigns have been 

successful: The allocation for arts 

education has increased. Hamilton, located approximately 20

miles from Cincinnati, is home to

one of the nation’s leading efforts to

demonstrate the effectiveness of quality

daily arts experiences in the traditional

neighborhood elementary school. The

success of Hamilton’s experimental 

educational program rests with a 

community — school boards, superintendents, principals, teachers, parents,

artists, local institutions — willing to

take risks and plan and work together.

Under conducive conditions created by increased development of arts

education policy at the national and

state levels, the cities of Hamilton and

neighboring Fairfield resolved during

1990 to map out a Cultural Action Plan

for their schools, beginning at the elementary level. Conducted by Burgard

and Associates of Beaufort, North

Carolina, this plan had two immediate

goals: (1) the construction of a new

arts center in Hamilton and (2) the

institution in the Hamilton and

Fairfield schools of a comprehensive

arts education program supported by

that same arts center. The program

outlined in the plan called SPECTRA+

(Schools, Parents, Educators, Children,

Teachers Rediscover the Arts) was

implemented during the 1991-92

school year. Through an application

process in 1990, one elementary school

in each city (Hamilton and Fairfield)

was selected to become a SPECTRA+

site. After a year of planning, the program was introduced at each school in

1992 and later expanded to add two

additional sites in Hamilton.

SPECTRA+ is a methodology that

places the arts in the daily curriculum

as a basic subject. The program has

five major components:

1. Arts instruction

2. Arts integration

3. Artists in residence

4. Professional development for

teachers

5. Evaluation and advocacy

These components combine into

a curriculum that involves art, music,

dance, drama, literary, and media arts.

Each school must offer arts instruction

in music, visual art, dance, and drama

at least one hour per week, and classroom teachers are trained to deliver

academic subjects through the arts by

teaming and planning with arts teachers and artists.

Teachers are required to schedule

built-in planning time among their

peers and arts specialists to enable arts

integration activities in content areas.

Among the activities yielded by the

collaborative planning are a project

that teaches students to write their

own operas, impromptu “sidewalk concerts” for the community, and the

staging of an evening of dinner theater.

Local artist-in-residence programs

are an integral part of school activities.

Artists become a part of the school culture, sharing their creativity with all

grade levels of students and teachers,

and filling in the gaps in those instances

where certified personnel cannot

instruct in underrepresented art forms.

Residencies are planned in advance sessions to ensure maximum effectiveness.

Follow-up frequently takes the form of

teachers electing to repeat what they

have learned from the artists. 

Parents are a valuable resource to

the SPECTRA+ program and sites, serving as mentors, tutors, and classroom

aides, and supporting school activities

such as “Fine Arts Evenings.” They

also serve on site-based decision-making teams and, joining with members

of the school board, advocate for the

program and basic arts education at the

local and state level. 

As SPECTRA+ school districts

elsewhere have found, student performances before school board members

resulted in record turnouts, surpassing

attendance of these same parents at

parent-teacher conferences. 

A funding arrangement for

SPECTRA+ was created through a partnership between the pair of school

districts and the Hamilton-Fairfield

Arts Association (which became the

Fitton Center for the Creative arts

when it opened in 1992). The arrangement allowed the schools to assume

more funding responsibility as the

Fitton Center gradually pulled back

both financially and programmatically

during the four-year program evaluation period (1991-94). Funding

provisions from the Goals 2000:

Educate America Act and a separate

SPECTRA+ line item (40 percent of

total program funding) in the district’s

annual budget also aided implementation, as well as assistance from Miami

University of Ohio and the Ohio Arts

Council.

The Fitton Center for the

Creative Arts is the principal SPECTRA+

player, providing funding, leadership,

core values, and beliefs upon which to

build the program, as well as the

“ABCDE” (Arts Basic Center for the

Development of Educators) program of

teacher development and training.

Through ABCDE, educators are trained

in why and how to transform school

culture through the arts.

The typical cost of the SPECTRA+

program — including staff professional

development, artists-in-residence, arts

specialists, coordinators, materials and

equipment, — varies depending on

school size and needs, but it begins in

year one at $15,000 to $20,000, increasing to $40,000 to $60,000 by the year

four. Evaluation costs are an additional

average of $2,500 or more annually.

Numerous sources of funding are

tapped: boards of education, state and

local arts councils and agencies, state

education agencies, private and corporate foundations, and individuals. 

Program effectiveness, student

creativity, teacher/student attitudes,

academic and thinking skill improvement, attendance, discipline and 

school atmosphere are among the areas

measured to assess curriculum effectiveness. The effects of SPECTRA+ have

been demonstrated in improved student performance as measured in the

areas of reading, math comprehension,

and creative thinking. 

Self-esteem and attendance rates

were also heightened, and students are

frequent finalists and award winners at

the state and national levels. 

These outcomes have heralded

the expansion of SPECTRA+ in other

school districts across Ohio, in California, and in New York. In the home

district of Fairfield, any school can

become a SPECTRA+ site, but as the

program is not “one size fits all,” each

school uses the tenets of the program’s

plan to design a program that suits that

individual site. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 51

A Profile:

HAMILTON (OH)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

A Cadre of Principals√

An Elementary

Foundation√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous

Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 18

Students (Total): 10,034

Per Pupil: $4,437

Arts Teachers (Total): 40
“Theater at Hattiesburg High School was

always more than just putting on a play. It

involved learning from others and from

observation; through our travels we always

found innovations that we would not have

experienced if we had confined ourselves to

south Mississippi....Most importantly, theater

has taught me more about myself. Through

it, I have learned my own strengths and

weaknesses. I have realized my limitations

and discovered unrecognized possibilities.”

— Kyle Robert Jefcoat, alumnus; Graduate

Student, Duke University Law School;

Former President, Yale Dramatic

Association 

I

magine developing a district-wide

arts education program that:

• ensures sequential music instruction

by certified music specialists for every

student K-6, followed in middle and

high school by opportunities to

progress to bands, choral groups,

orchestras, and a percussion ensemble;

• provides drama instruction in 40 percent of its schools;

• offers dance courses in middle and

high school and forms a dance

“team” that competes; 

• expands secondary school visual arts

instruction to include ceramics, textile design, video arts, and

photography. 

Now imagine developing that

program in a community that must

meet the unique needs of a culturally

diverse student population and in a

state where state-level funding for arts

education is virtually nonexistent. 

How would you meet those 

challenges? According to Penny Wallin,

director of secondary education,

Hattiesburg Public School District began

to address them in the process of developing a comprehensive strategic plan in

1994. In that process, Wallin explains,

“the community-wide commitment to

arts education was ‘reinvented.’” 

Funding today comes from a

variety of sources: partnerships with

local arts councils, local business support, the Mississippi State University,

and parents. 

“Parents, no matter their socioeconomic status, love to see their

children succeed and perform,” says

Wallin. “Even if funding is harder to

achieve, it takes very little money to

hang up a child’s art work or highlight

their achievements at a PTA meeting.

Arts don’t take formalized systems to

get going. It’s all because parents care

for their children.”

Hattiesburg Public School

District also finds that access to the

latest research linking the arts to learning and brain development is essential

for educating administrators and

teachers about the arts. Therefore, the

district holds monthly meetings of

principals and six meetings of fine arts

teachers each year to meet that objective. In addition, Hattiesburg turns to

the local university for help in providing staff development for established

teachers. 

Three important things are happening in Hattiesburg due in part to

these communications efforts and a

high level of community support:

1. The district allocation for arts

education is continuing to

increase annually.

2. The arts were not singled out for

reductions during the last budget

crisis.

3. A line item has been added to the

district budget for visual arts supplies, augmenting site-based

funding for the arts. 

●

PAGE 52

A Profile:

HATTIESBURG (MS)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

A Cadre of Principals√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 9

Students (Total): 5,275

Per Pupil: $5,170

Arts Teachers (Total): 30

A Profile:

HENRICO COUNTY (VA) 

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

An Elementary Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 56

Students (Total): 39,000

Per Pupil: $5,672

Arts Teachers (Total): 143

THE SUPERINTENDENT: APPLYING

LIFE’S LESSONS IN THE ARTS

“The status of the arts in Hattiesburg Public

Schools is...a direct reflection of the leadership of the superintendent and his

commitment to educating all children,”

Penny Wallin, district director of secondary

education, wrote. “The fact is, in a state that

falls woefully short in its support for formal

arts education, any focus on the arts has to

have leadership and commitment at the

local level to exist and thrive.”

Dr. Gordon Walker, Hattiesburg’s superintendent, has a clear vision for arts education

based upon personal conviction. That conviction stems from a childhood incident: An

art teacher criticized his picture of an eagle

and discouraged him from drawing. Today, a

similar picture of an eagle drawn by his son

now hangs in his office as a reminder of that

childhood experience. Walker recognizes

that not all children are the same when it

comes to artistic ability, yet it is the school’s

responsibility to see that “all students’ lives

are enriched and enhanced through academic achievement in the arts.” 

The best evidence of support for arts

education in Henrico County (VA)

Public Schools is the district’s curriculum, K-12. Elementary students take

classes from art and music specialists

who serve all 39 elementary schools.

Middle school and high school students

may study in the fields of music, visual

arts, theater, and creative writing, and

they may choose among a wide range

of courses, including barbershop quartets, music theory, computer graphics,

art history, speech communication, and

journalism. Students from the eight

high schools also may elect to participate in arts classes held at Henrico High

School’s Center for the Arts. This program offers double periods devoted to

the visual arts, dance, musical theater,

and drama.

An additional outlet for student

artistic expression is the Henrico Public

Schools-run cable station, Channel 36,

which features a variety of programs

highlighting the arts in the area. 

Support for arts education comes

from several key constituencies, including the superintendent, school board

members, teachers, business leaders,

and parents, who have come to have

high expectations of the district. (Both

Henrico’s Tuckahoe Middle School and

Douglas S. Freeman High School have

been selected as Blue Ribbon Schools

by the U.S. Department of Education). 

●

I

n 1973, Hillsborough County –

Tampa – had no art museum, no performing arts center, and just one visual

arts elementary teacher. Today, the

community is home to an art museum,

a performing arts center, and a school

system with nearly 600 certified visual

arts and music teachers, visiting artists,

and professional development program

for teachers of the arts conducted

through the partnering state university.

The sea change didn't just 

happen. “It took many people who

had the same thoughts,” said the first

visual arts teacher, Joe Testasecca. “Our

attitude was ‘We're going to do it!’”

Change was first felt in the wind

in the early 1970s, around the time

Testasecca was hired and began looking for ways to put the arts into the

schools. The visual arts instructor

learned of a model in Boston for an

artists-in-schools program administered in conjunction with a local arts

council. Fortunately, Tampa had a

small, young arts council, and the

community was beginning to take

steps toward the establishment of a

museum and a performing arts center. 

So Testasecca went to the school

board, explaining the program he wanted to launch, and was granted $15,000

in seed money. The resulting program

– Artists-in-the-Schools – continues to

be funded by the school board and

jointly sponsored by the school board

and the county arts council. It has

grown to include performances, workshops and field trips for children,

teacher training, curriculum and

resource development. One important

factor in maintaining the financial support, Testasecca points out, is regular

reports to the school board. 

By 1989, with the arts center up

and running and community support

for the arts in the schools growing, the

school board voted to put visual arts

programs in the elementary schools.

Within four months, the former lone

arts teacher was directing the recruitment and training of more than 70

visual arts specialists. Soon thereafter,

a team of university professors, members of the Tampa Museum of Art and

Arts Council staffs, and school district

employees developed an elementary

arts curriculum that is still in place

throughout the system. Today,

through a collaboration with the

Tampa Museum of Art, Hillsborough

County's arts specialists and regular

classroom teachers readily access curriculum-integrated materials in a

Media Resource Center. 

Art specialists have tended to

stay with the county schools over the

years. They are constantly motivated

to grow: Twice a year there are professional study days in each arts

discipline, and there are frequent

opportunities to participate in professional development seminars and

workshops. The district's schoolchildren, of course, benefit from the

consistency and years of experience.

Educational administrators at all

levels of the system make sure that

when funding cuts are necessary, all

departments take equal cuts. The support the arts now receive is due to

solid partnerships throughout the

community and consistent advocacy

by both district and arts council staffs.

●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 53

A Profile:

HILLSBOROUGH

COUNTY (FL)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

Continuity in Leadership√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 174

Students (Total): 146,389

Per Pupil: $3,505

Arts Teachers (Total): 587

A Profile:

HOWARD COUNTY (MD)

Factors

The Community√

Parent/Public Relations√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 61

Students (Total): 40,275

Per Pupil: $6,100

Arts Teachers (Total): 232

Based largely on the district's and

community's belief that the arts are

an integral part of a child's learning, the

Howard County Public Schools' budget

for the arts has been increasing since

1991 at a rate that surpasses the amount

needed to cover basic costs. As a result,

Howard County Schools now have:

• arts courses that are a standard part

of the K-12 curriculum;

• visual and musical arts requirements

for middle school students in grades

6 - 8, plus the options of chorus,

piano, and band (45 percent of the

total school population opts to participate in band);

• a requirement for high school students

to complete at least one fine arts course

THE JAMES ROUSE THEATER AT

WILDE LAKE HIGH SCHOOL

Redefining its mission in the early

1990s, the Howard County Arts

Council wanted to strengthen its dedication to the schools in Howard

County. With the district's acceptance,

the two groups sat down to figure out

a way to reach the students as well as

the community. The solution was to

renovate the auditorium at Wilde Lake

High School into a state of the art

teaching facility that also could serve

as a community theater. 

Home to more than a million people,

Howard County is situated between

Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The

council hoped the renovated auditorium would appeal to performing arts

groups that often did not have the

financial means to rent theater space

in Baltimore or Washington. The

schools, meanwhile, would acquire an

impeccable arts learning facility and

direct access to the performing artists.

In further discussions, the school district and the arts council identified a

need to form a governing committee

"to guarantee an appropriate sharing

arrangement among the parties and to

maintain the quality of the performing

arts space." The committee would be

made up of representatives of the

community, the arts, and the Maryland

Department of Education. It also was

determined that "priority will be given

to arts and educational objectives of

the Department of Education" followed by Howard County arts and

sponsoring organizations. However,

an outside management team would

oversee the day-to-day operations of

the theater, such as contracts, box

office, scheduling, and publicity.

After studying the costs of constructing a new facility, the two groups

decided it would be far more cost-efficient to renovate the Wilde Lake High

School's theater for a tenth of the cost

of a new facility. In order to pay for the

renovation, the groups relied on a

public/private partnership. The public

partners included Howard County, the

State of Maryland, and the National

Endowment for the Arts through a

grant to the Howard County Arts

Council. The private supporters, both

individuals and corporations, include

James Rouse and his firm, the Rouse

Company, developer of Baltimore's

Inner Harbor, Boston's Fanueil Hall,

and Columbia, MD. Rouse personally

donated $100,000, although he asked

that his gift be kept anonymous until

the opening of the facility, which he

attended with his grandson, actor

Edward Norton.

continued on next page

them in the arts through the

resources of local arts institutions;

■ Bingham Fine Arts Academy and

the Music Arts Institute - providing

selected students with individualized instruction;

■ Multiple Piano Concert - featuring

120 piano players in concert, many

of them from the Independence

school district;

■ Telecommunity Center - giving students access to two computer labs

at Southwestern Bell's community

center;

■ The Mayor's Christmas Concert and

the Truman Concert - offering performance opportunities for students.

With nearly 350 musical performances a year and frequent requests

of local festivals, foundations, and

community sites to feature student

work at exhibitions, festivals, and

fund raisers, the students of

Independence's schools are a visible

and active reminder to the community of the value of the district's arts

program.

• Student Achievement: Appreciation

and performance both count in

Independence. 

Many students demonstrate exceptional talent in the arts, and the

district strives to showcase that talent

for the benefit primarily of the student but also for the district. Given

the high level of free or reduced

lunch participation (the elementary

average is 41 percent) and the high

number of adults in the community

without a high school diploma or a

GED (10,000), showcase and award

opportunities enable many students

to pursue their talents beyond the

high school setting. Many of the students afforded these opportunities

now work professionally in the arts.

Student appreciation of the arts is

another aspect considered crucial to

the overall development of young

people. By providing all students

with a wide range of arts experiences

through such programs as Arts

Partners and the Mayor's Christmas

Concert, students learn teamwork

and audience skills and gain an

increased understanding of the arts.

The district also believes that art

experiences add to overall academic

achievement levels.

In addition to these critical factors, Independence has the active

involvement of its superintendent, Dr.

Robert Watkins who, following in the

arts-committed steps of his predecessor,

has established an academy to further

enhance arts education in the district. 

●

PAGE 54

I

ndependence, Missouri, best known

as the hometown of President

Harry S Truman, is also recognized

today for its district-wide arts education program. According to Assistant

Superintendent Marcia Haskin, there

are three key factors at work:

• Sustained support: A comprehensive 

written curriculum and a commitment to coordinators, department

chairs, and certified art teachers (K12) allow the district to have a

coordinated arts program that focuses

on student achievement and develops community involvement.

Teachers have the freedom to pursue

innovative grants that link other

partners, bring additional resources,

and integrate with more traditional

academic areas. 

• Community Involvement: Artists,

arts organizations, public audiences,

local businesses, and funders partner

with the district's teachers and students for program development as

well as performances. This involvement is seen in: 

■ Arts Partners - sequentially introducing students to and involving

– theater, dance, music, and visual art

are all offered – for graduation;

• additional arts specialists on staff, with

the visual arts staff alone growing from

32 to more than 80 in 10 years.

Howard County has sought support from the community as it has

grown its arts education program. The

school district publishes a yearly 

calendar highlighting student artwork

as part of its community outreach

efforts. Most fruitful has been its partnership with the Howard County Arts

Council. The arts council has assisted

the district with fund raising and the

building of a community theater facility within the district's Wilde Lake

High School (see sidebar.)

●

A Profile:

INDEPENDENCE (MO)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 19

Students (Total): 11,539

Per Pupil: $4,100

Arts Teachers (Total): 48

A Profile:

IOWA CITY (IA) 

Factors

National, State,

Other Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 22

Students (Total): 10,445

Per Pupil: $3,763

Arts Teachers (Total): 66

The Iowa City Community School

District has found that the following comprehensive curriculum review

process has helped the district to meet

state mandates. It also helps school

district leaders keep tab on its progress

in arts education. The district shares it

here for the use of other school districts: 

Iowa City Community School District

Comprehensive Curriculum Review

Process

YEAR ONE

• Establish the self-study committee;

chairperson is curricular area 

coordinator.

• Select committee members.

• Develop a budget and timeline for

Years 1 - 3 that includes funding,

release time, inservice, and textbook/materials purchase.

• Appoint program subcommittees.

• Establish program intent.

• Document district goals, program

mission statement, program goals,

learner outcomes, sequential grade

level/course curriculum guides.

• Survey appropriate populations to

determine special program issues.

• Collect evidence and analyze 

program effectiveness.

• Secure state guidelines, national

and state trends/standards, current

research, available curriculum materials and alternative curriculum

framework.

• Develop a list of key questions that

need to be addressed to determine

program effectiveness.

• Submit questions to the curriculum

council, administrative council, directors of instruction, building faculties.

• Revise and edit list of questions.
• Develop a plan for collection of data

necessary to answer key questions.

• Identify the kinds of information

needed to address key questions.

• Identify appropriate sources of 

information.

• Specify methods, procedures, and/or

instruments to collect information,

and to the extent possible, procedures

for studying and analyzing the

information (consider: data base information, student/teacher/others surveys,

interviews, inventories, summaries).

• Develop ways to store information.

• Conduct data analysis.

• Complete findings summary.

• Interpret findings and draw conclusions regarding program strengths,

program weaknesses, recommendations for action.

YEAR TWO: ANALYZE EVIDENCE

AND CONDUCT AUDIT

• Submit completed study (intent, 

evidence, analysis and findings) to

the curriculum council, administrative council, superintendent, and

board of directors.

• Prepare and conduct audit.

• Arrange audit date and team members with state NCA office.

• Plan audit schedules and other 

activities.

• Disseminate study and audit 

information to faculty.

• Participate in audit.

• Participate in preliminary audit report.

• Review and accept final audit report.

• Present final audit report to curriculum

council, administrative council, superintendent, and board of directors.

• Develop implementation plans.

• Revise self-study and audit findings.

• Develop proposal for implementation of recommendations to be

presented to curriculum council,

administrative council, superintendent, and board of directors; proposal

to include curriculum writing, staff

development, textbook adoption,

timelines, materials adoption, assessment methods.

• Present implementation plan to curriculum council, administrative

council, superintendent for review.

• Present implementation plan to

board of directors.

• Begin implementation.

• Prioritize curriculum writing and

evaluation needs for the summer.

• Begin textbook and materials 

adoption process.

YEAR THREE: IMPLEMENTATION

• Continue implementation.

• Complete curriculum writing.

• Finalize textbook selection process.

• Develop individual building plans

framework.

• Schedule and conduct inservice at

district and building level.

YEAR FOUR: IMPLEMENTATION

AND MONITORING

• Continue staff development at

district and building levels.

• Monitor implementation.

• Determine additional curriculum

writing needs.

YEARS FIVE TO SEVEN:

FORMATIVE EVALUATION AND

MONITORING

• Continue staff development support

as needed.

• Identify corrective actions.

●

Through this collaboration, the district's Arts-In-Education budget has

mushroomed from $10,000 to

$100,000. Among the many projects

the funds support are artist residencies,

a film series, a fully integrated dance

program for elementary students, and

guest artists' workshops. 

Its most recent effort is an integrated videography class at the high

school. This project brings together

Jamestown High School, the Arts

Council, Time-Warner Cable, the

Education Video Center in New York

City, and a local videographer in an

effort to expand arts offerings and

impact the larger system of the high

school with a more product-based

approach to teaching and learning. 

In this semester-long course, students work for two hours each day

with a team of teachers and community resource people to produce video to

be shown on the local cable channel.

While it is just in the pilot stages,

Guild notes, “the program has real

potential for showing a variety of

expansion opportunities for the arts.”

●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 55

A Profile:

JAMESTOWN (NY)

Factors

The Community√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 10

Students (Total): 5,662

Per Pupil: $7,522

Arts Teachers (Total): 34

A Profile:

JEFFERSON COUNTY (KY)

Factors

The Community√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 151

Students (Total): 96,594

Per Pupil: $5,501

Arts Teachers (Total): 0

Located in Chautauqua County, 

New York, home of the famous

Chautauqua Institution, Jamestown

and the surrounding region come alive

for eight weeks each summer with 

student workshops and wonderful

opportunities to work and learn with

world-renowned visiting artists and

performers. As Judy Guild, the district's director of professional

development, says, “Our community

lives, breathes, flourishes, and

responds to the arts in such a way as

to make you wonder where school and

community divide.”

That coming together of school

and community now extends into the

school year. Six years ago, the school

district of Jamestown — a relatively

poor, small city rich in foundation dollars — and the local arts council joined

forces and began pooling district funds

and funds raised by the council from

foundations and corporations.

The Jefferson County Public Schools

district, which includes the city of

Louisville, benefits tremendously from

its involvement with an organization

known as the Kentucky Cultural

Consortium. Self-described as “a group

of cultural resource representatives and

educators who meet to create, promote, and review cultural resource

programs for Kentuckian students,”

the Kentucky Cultural Consortium was

established in 1979 in the hope of

bringing together organizations and

gaining new ideas to benefit students

and the entire community. Since

then, its membership has swelled to

more than 50 organizations, and participation continues to increase.

According to Superintendent

Stephen Daeschner, the Cultural

Consortium provides “educators with

cultural 'recipes’ for creating student

continued on next page
activities. [The partnership] enables

our students to sample a wide array of

programs and activities.” Because such

a large proportion of the artistic

resources of the community have consolidated into one easily accessible

organization, the students of Jefferson

County are introduced to theater, ballet, chamber music, opera, and visual

art. Some partner organizations create

activities to supplement the standard

curriculum. For example, the A.P.P.L.E.,

Inc. group, a musical theater production company, provides teachers with

lesson plans that coordinate with

every show they present. Many other

groups provide similar tools— study

guides, workbooks, etc. – to integrate

their particular programs into the

classroom experience. ●

PAGE 56

learning experiences. In Part III, the

district launched a “First Class” Art

Resource Library (1997-98) to put key

components from the Arts Resource

Collection on the district's “First Class”

computer-networked mail service. The

“First Class” Art Resource Bank is

intended to serve as an easily accessible source of research-supported

materials for art teachers K-12. 

Teachers are further educated

through a nine-year-old mentoring

collaboration designed by the administration and the teachers' union. All

new teachers hired in this school system are provided with a full-time

mentor teacher for the purpose of

introducing them to the Kenmore

school culture. The mentor and

teacher work together for a half day

per week throughout the school year

on performance criteria: use of effective instructional techniques and

strategies, knowledge of subject matter,

classroom management, and professional skills and responsibilities. In the

period from 1995 to 1998, nearly a

dozen new art teachers were mentored

by a full-time art mentor. ●

Comprising the communities of

Kenmore and the Town of

Tonawanda, just north of Buffalo, this

district along the shores of Lake Erie

launched a multi-part project in 1996 to

assist art teachers in the development of

curriculum and sharing of ideas. 

In Part I of the project, Kenmore

undertook the creation of a visual arts

resource collection that includes current theories and issues in the field of

art education, research, lessons, articles, videos, and other curricular

materials to serve as a resource bank

for art teachers K-12. The collection

has given art teachers access to new

practices, ideas for implementing arts

education theories, and increased

knowledge of the use of technology in

arts education. The resource collection

is organized into such topic areas as

portfolio assessment, aesthetics, multiple intelligences, Arts Propel,

multiculturalism, art journals and 

writing in the arts, arts advocacy, interdisciplinary learning, critical thinking,

art history, art criticism. 

In Part II of the project, the district conducted a half-day retreat for

all art teachers to explore new

resources and participate in interactive

A Profile:

KENMORE - TOWN OF

TONAWANDA (NY) 

Factors

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 13

Students (Total): 7,358

Per Pupil: $9,191

Arts Teachers (Total): 23

A Profile:

KETTLE MORAINE

(WALES, WI)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 6

Students (Total): 4,100

Per Pupil: $6,668

Arts Teachers (Total): 31

The school district of Kettle Moraine

was created in 1967 amidst the

farms, lakes and rolling hills of western Waukesha County, Wisconsin,

nearly 25 miles outside of Milwaukee.

In a bold and unique initiative, the

School District of Kettle Moraine

decided to undergird its commitment

to arts education by funding research.

The research was set in motion

when Kettle Moraine district educators

decided to participate in a study that, in

the end, persuaded them that keyboard

instruction not only would enrich their

children's souls but also would improve

their brains and their achievement in

reading, math, and writing.

Intrigued by the early music

learning and brain development

research of Dr. Frances Rauscher, who

had accepted a post at the nearby

University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh,

the district approached her with a proposal: The Kettle Moraine school

district would commit its resources and

the participation of two of its kindergarten classes to her ongoing study. 

THE RESEARCH

Morning kindergarten children

were introduced to the keyboard

through a weekly class and regular

access to the instrument during free

time. Afternoon kindergarten children

experienced no change in their program, which did not include music. 

The morning children were

divided into two groups of 10. The

music teacher worked with one group

of 10 children on keyboards, the classroom teacher worked with the other

on journal writing. 

Both morning and afternoon

children were tested before the keyboarding classes began and again at

the end of the year.

THE RESEARCH RESULTS

The morning children tested 45

percent higher (measuring speed, accuracy) on tests involving the completion

of puzzles and the replication of a

three-dimensional pyramid structure. 

THE OUTCOME FOR KETTLE MORAINE

ARTS EDUCATION

After seeing encouraging results

from the students in the pilot program,

Kettle Moraine recently made piano

lessons a requirement for all 1,800 K-6

pupils for the 1998-99 school year. The

program – 90 minutes per week per student – is made possible by private

funding from the community, which

has given the program strong support. 

Rauscher believes more research

is still needed but notes that piano

lessons “certainly will not do any

harm.” As Kettle Moraine

Superintendent Sarah Jerome told

Education Week, “The worst that can

happen is that kids will learn to play

the piano,” adding, “It's not the only

thing that we do...but this program

has been nothing but positive.” 

Not including the teacher's salary,

the cost is $2,500 for 10 keyboards,

including accessories, per classroom;

texts are $20. Schools also need adequate space for dividing classes and

housing keyboard study, so that sound

will not carry to other classrooms. To

learn more about the research, the

lessons, the methods, see this study's

Web site for contact information.

Kettle Moraine's decision to pursue the Rauscher research project was
based upon a solid foundation of public confidence built of 60 years of

quality and attention to student

achievement, sound fiscal management, and a comprehensive

educational program. Two elementary

schools in Wisconsin won national

Blue Ribbon School awards in 1997.

Both schools are in Kettle Moraine.

Each of the four elementary schools

has at least one music teacher and an

art teacher assigned to provide 90 

minutes per week of instruction to students in both music and art in first

through fifth grades. All sixth-grade

students are enrolled in art and music

as are three-quarters of the seventhand eighth-grade students. 

The Kettle Moraine school board

is intent on providing a high quality

arts education to help prepare students

for “meaningful, fulfilling, productive

lives in an increasingly complex world.”

●

The city's hospitals, corporations, the

Renaissance Center, and City Hall consistently display student artwork in

their public spaces. A summer “Fun

Fest” brings the whole community

together in celebration of the arts.

Kingsport City Schools’ curricular emphases have long been placed on

the visual arts, its full orchestra program, and, for the past 20 years, its

theater program. In the last three

years, the district has conducted a curriculum project that makes the arts,

notes Davis, “an integral part of our

curriculum — as important as every

other subject.”

Both Kingsport teachers and students have received local, state, and

national recognition in a variety of

artistic disciplines, including major

honors for the high school band and

for its computer art program. Kingsport

has produced state and regional art

educators of the year and student winners in the Pentel Exhibit hosted by

teacher Betty Hyder. 

The school system benefits, too,

by encouraging its teachers to continue to develop their talents as artists.

One recent exhibit highlighted the

artwork of four teachers and four

artists: “Four by Four” represented an

array of visual artwork for the whole

community of Kingsport. ●

vital, it is crucial for the district to

keep pace with the explosive enrollments that have led to continuous

new school construction. The district

has numerous challenges to face,

including finding adequate physical

space, certified and well-trained teachers, and the slow pace of funding

allocations for specific programs.

However, the district's administration has made a commitment to

strong arts programs and has found

ways to find the appropriate staff and

materials to sustain this high level of

programming. This commitment is

exemplified by the district's recent

infusion of more than $400,000 to support visual arts instruction for every

student from kindergarten to eighth

grade. The district has also been successful in receiving grants from the

Arizona Commission on the Arts,

Tempe Council on the Arts, and Parent

Teacher Group Fund Raising Activities.

●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 57

A Profile:

KINGSPORT (TN) 

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

Continuity in Leadership√

Teachers Who Practice

Their Art√

Parent/Public Relations√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 10

Students (Total): 6,196

Per Pupil: $6,362

Arts Teachers (Total): 36

A Profile:

KYRENE 28 

(TEMPE, AZ)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 23

Students (Total): 19,184

Per Pupil: $4,524

Arts Teachers (Total): 78

A Profile:

LARIMER COUNTY- THOMPSON R-2J (CO)

Factors

The Community√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

Parent/Public Relations√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other Outside

Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 26

Students (Total): 13,789

Per Pupil: $4,845

Arts Teachers (Total): 64

For more than 50 years, the

Kingsport school district, which

serves more than 6,000 students in

this city in northeastern Tennessee,

has supported an arts program for

every educational level, K-12.

“Everyone believes in the arts as

part of a balanced education,” says

Ruth Davis, the district's community

relations coordinator. The Board of

Education has supported schooling in

the arts for decades. Teachers in the

district have consistently affirmed the

key role of the arts in education and

passed that appreciation on to new

teachers. “We have one current middle

school teacher,” Davis adds, “who was

one of the first students to take orchestra as a subject when she was here.

And her teacher is still in the school.”

There also has been continuity

in the support and participation of

parents and the community at large.

Many parents start their children with

private tutors in music at a young age.

Located in Tempe, Arizona, the

Kyrene Elementary School District 28

is a K-8 system that feeds into a unified

regional high school district. Kyrene's

arts education program went through a

series of cutbacks in the 1980s. Over

the past six years, funding support has

increased enough to reintroduce innovative arts programs, including a strings

program for students in grades 6 - 8 and

pilot dance programs in an elementary

school and middle school. 

Much of the funding increase is

due to “sudden growth” monies that

are connected to increasing enrollments. Though the funding support is

Larimer County and the Thompson

Valley around Loveland, Colorado,

are home to a school district that over

three decades has developed a strong

K-12 arts education program with the

help of an active, financially supportive community. At the same time, the

district has distinguished itself with

outstanding student performance and

leadership in the development of standards for visual arts and music at the

local and state levels.

Although Larimer County is one

of the poorer large districts in Colorado,

it nonetheless has managed to keep

staffing steady and arts programs budgeted with their own line items. (Additional

resources obtained from the district's

many partnerships and communitybased programs are treated as extra, not

essential, arts funding.) For years, the

continued on next page
district has included an art and/or music

curriculum specialist on every major

administrative committee. With a seat at

the table, so to speak, the arts are taken

into account when the district considers

staffing, funding, space, new buildings,

graduation requirements, and school-tocareer opportunities. 

In Larimer County, the arts have

made strides in many of these areas.

All elementary schools now have an

art teacher and music teacher on an

approximately half-time basis. (One

school had been allowed to pilot a

music-and-physical-education-only

program added visual art last year after

pressure from parent groups and the

school board.) District educators, who

have been schooled in curriculum

mapping, are aligning visual arts curriculum with other subjects in every

elementary school. 

Meanwhile, at the high school

level, the district has developed partnerships with various community groups.

Frequent exhibitions and exchange programs as well as financial support from

annual events and a trust fund help

provide students with opportunities to

develop competencies in a wide variety

of arts-related careers. Hewlett-Packard

Company's major donation of both

computer equipment and training has

made it possible for students to learn

computer-based graphic design, music

composition, video production, and

television broadcasting. High school art

students also may explore teaching by

leading art classes for elementary children at a local art gallery – a program

established with funds from a grant

written by a student artist. The nearby

state university supports these “studentteachers” by giving them advice and

opportunities to attend arts education

methods courses on its campus. ●

work with the Galef Institute and pilot

“Different Ways of Knowing” (DWoK)

– a research-based professional development initiative for teachers and

administrators with a content-rich

interdisciplinary history and social

studies curriculum that integrates the

visual, literary, and media arts as well as

drama, music, dance, math, and science.

An urban district of six elementary schools, one middle school, and 

a second middle school in planning,

Lawndale serves some 5,500 students,

80 percent of whom qualify for free

and reduced lunch. More than 84 percent of the students are minority,

including 51 percent Hispanic, and

more than a third have limited

English. More than 21 languages are

spoken by the students. 

The district provided an ideal

laboratory for testing the power of the

arts as everyday learning tools as well

as subjects of learning. The specific

joint mission of the Lawndale district

and the Galef Institute was to explore

how the visual and performing arts

might lead to changes in teaching

strategies that, in turn, would lead to

increased student achievement of all

children in a classroom. 

An evaluation study was coordinated by faculty at the UCLA Graduate

School of Education and Information

Studies. In 1995, the University of

California at Los Angeles published the

results of a three-year comparison

study that documented:

• significant gains in vocabulary, comprehension, and other measures of

language arts - about 8 percentile

points higher on standardized tests

for each year of participation;

• higher student scores on written

tests of social studies content

knowledge;

• higher student grades by about 

one-half grade point for DWoK 

participants in comparison to 

nonparticipants;

• positive correlation between participation in Different Ways of

Knowing and increased cognitive

engagement and intrinsic interest

in the humanities

The continuously rising academic achievement of Lawndale students

has been recognized at state and federal levels. Two years ago, Anderson

Elementary School was named a Title I

California Achieving Elementary

School, and last year Lawndale's Mark

Twain Elementary School was selected

as a California Distinguished School.

Teachers also were studied over

the three years and were observed to be

increasing their use of the visual arts,

drama, music, and movement to promote learning. They spent more time

facilitating learning, and they increased

the time students were engaged in complex creative thinking activities. In fact,

in a real world instance of Dr. Arthur

Greenberg's “Tom Sawyer's fence” theory (see profile of New York's CSD #25),

when other teachers saw how enthusiastic pilot teachers at Anderson School

were about the response of their students to DWoK and the impact of the

professional development initiative on

their own teaching, they wanted to participate, too. 

Meanwhile, as participants in

Galef's leadership training seminars,

many Lawndale teachers have progressed to leadership roles and are

working both outside and inside the

district to help more teachers change

their teaching practices. As a result,

Lawndale is now formulating strategies

for creating a professional development center to provide a more formal

way to incorporate the arts into its

year-round curriculum. District leadership sees such strategies positioning

the arts in the center of students'

emerging literacy and intellectual

growth as well as disciplines of study

in their own right.

During the first years of the initiative, grants from the Ahmanson

Foundation provided a significant

amount of financial support (about 80

percent). The purpose of these grants

was to enable Lawndale to develop an

infrastructure to sustain Different

Ways of Knowing internally. With this

goal met, the district and schools are

now responsible for DWoK's implementation.

“The early long-term funding

support of the Ahmanson Foundation

and the Galef Institute,” wrote

Superintendent Joe Condon and

Assistant Superintendent David

Moorhouse of their arts education initiative, “allowed us to put our toes into

waters we might never have explored

with our own limited resources; our

explorations convinced us through our

collaborative work with the Galef

Institute that we could achieve the academic goals of our district, particularly

literacy for a large population of second language learners. We could build

an interdisciplinary team of leaders

from our schools and district office

who would build an infrastructure for

PAGE 58

Lawndale School District, located in

Los Angeles' South Bay area, began

its journey into the world of the arts,

school reform, and higher student

achievement in 1990 when six teachers at Anderson Elementary agreed to

A Profile:

LAWNDALE (CA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 7

Students (Total): 5,489

Per Pupil: $3,753

Arts Teachers (Total): 1
continuous learning and growth within

our district.”

Arts education in Lawndale

Elementary School District has been

and continues to be championed by

the board of education, the superintendent and other district-level

administrators, principals and teachers,

partners from the Galef Institute, the

local Optimist Club (which provides

musical instruments), and parents,

who participate in the curriculum with

their children.

Meanwhile, the Lawndale School

District has joined the South Bay

Technology Consortium of districts

and is using technology as a powerful

tool for expression through the arts.

●

more time for the visual arts at the elementary level than the state requires.

All middle school students take visual

arts classes each year, which reflects 

the district's as well as state and national standards. According to Marra, the

district looks in particular for ways to

integrate the arts into the curriculum.

Dr. William Torok, superintendent, joins Marra in supporting a 

vision of integrated curriculum, which

they are implementing through a 

three-stage curriculum development

process. It is their belief that the arts

should be an integral part of every curriculum area K-12.

Within this art- and college-oriented community, the school district

gives back to the community by participating in civic activities such as the

annual Lewisburg Festival of the Arts -

“You have to make the arts into a civic

project as well as a school project,”

counsels Marra. ●

The Friends group subsidizes the

operating budget with volunteer work

(ushering, chaperoning) and some

small financial grants. The arts are also

supported through grants from the

Lexington Educational Foundation. 

Funds raised by the Friends of

Lexington Music, Art, and Drama

Students are not intended to replace

school budgets but to assist with such

one-time expenses as choral risers and

airbrush compressors at the high school. 

●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 59

“A strong arts program has flourished

here for more than two decades,” says

the assistant superintendent of

Lewisburg Area School District, Dr.

Patsy Marra. “You don't have to have

money to get started. Interest and motivation within the school community are

what count.” 

Lewisburg, a rural town 55 miles

north of the Pennsylvania state

capital of Harrisburg, has had professional musicians in the central office

of the school district for more than 40

years. Marra herself sings with the

Buffalo Valley Chorus, directs her

church choir, and plays clarinet for

local organizations. “Some of our

teachers,” she adds, “played with

Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, and

several are now playing in groups all

over the region. A superintendent in

the 1960s had formed our high school

band 20 years earlier; he also had

played the oboe in the Bucknell

University music department. “And,”

she says with pride, “our [visual] arts

teaching staff members have even better credentials. We now have the best

artists, musicians, drama coaches, and

storytellers in the region.” 

The Lewisburg board of education demonstrates its support for the

arts in substantive ways. For example,

the Lewisburg school board allows

A Profile:

LEWISBURG (PA)

Factors

The Community√

Continuity in Leadership√

Teachers Who Practice

Their Art√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 4

Students (Total): 1,847

Per Pupil: $8,591

Arts Teachers (Total): 18 A Profile:

LEXINGTON (MA)

Factors

The Community√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 9

Students (Total): 5,556

Per Pupil: $6,727

Arts Teachers (Total): 35

A Profile:

LIMA (OH)

Factors

The Community√

Continuity in Leadership√

Continuous

Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 14

Students (Total): 5,992

Per Pupil: $4,570

Arts Teachers (Total): 34

Lexington Public Schools views the

arts as an integral part of every student's basic curriculum. The music

curriculum, for example, gives every

student the opportunity to experience

music through a comprehensive,

sequential, longitudinal curriculum

taught by music specialists. Students in

grades K-4 receive musical instruction

with a music specialist for 60 minutes

per week. Students in grade 5 receive a

45-minute session of instruction and

participate in a fifth-grade chorus

rehearsal for 45 minutes each week. 

Two major community/parent

organizations help keep the Lexington

Fine and Performing Arts Department

strong. The Citizen Advisory

Committee is comprised of members

of the community who assist the district arts coordinator with political and

curriculum issues. The Friends of

Lexington Music, Art, and Drama

Students (FOLMADS) is a tax-exempt,

nonprofit organization designed to

involve Lexington students and their

families in all aspects of the fine and

performing arts at all grade levels in

the Lexington public schools. 

Like most other school systems in

Ohio, the Lima City Schools district

has provided art and music in some

form since its inception. But it was not

until the mid- to late-1950s, when this

urban district consolidated its high

school, that art, music, and drama

were established as separate programs,

each with a departmental chair. In the

intervening years, Lima's student population swelled through the 1960s, then

began shrinking in the 1970s and 1980s.

Arts programming, however, continued to flourish with the support of

the community and school board.

Quietly, Lima City Schools moved into

the vanguard of arts curriculum innovation, creating a Balanced Comprehensive

Art Curriculum based upon the principles of Discipline-Based Arts Education,

moving toward standards in advance of

the state and national efforts, providing

professional development opportunities

for faculty.

Lima City Schools offers many

lessons in strong system-wide arts education, Three in particular stand out in

the program description written by

Mike Huffman, head of the arts/arts

magnet programs: 

(1) ON TEACHERS WHO PRACTICE

THEIR ART: 

The Lima City School district has

never backed away from hiring professionals with postgraduate degrees

and experience. However, I think the

finer level of quality in our faculty

would be their continued involvecontinued on next page
ment and practice in their disciplines. Our music faculty are

members of the Lima Symphony

Orchestra, the Lima Concert Band.

They conduct various choral ensembles and play in a variety of smaller

instrumental ensembles. Art faculty,

by and large, continue to exhibit

works in area and regional exhibitions. Our theater arts faculty, as 

well as many of our music and art

faculty, are players in Lima's Encore

Theatre and various regional theater

productions. Our dance faculty continue to “take class” in areas of

interest and choreograph for community performing groups. A number of our arts faculty also sit on

boards and standing committees for 

a variety of community arts organizations, including the Council for the

Arts of Greater Lima. 

(2) ON COMMUNITY AND

“DOING MORE WITH LESS”:

The Lima City Schools is a dollarpoor district. We are, however, 

blessed in terms of proximity to businesses, industry, and proactive arts

faculty. In fact, it is a constant tuning

to do more with less and innovate

programming that keeps our curriculum and instruction energized. We

not only tap the community for relevance but have become players in 

the arts framework of Lima, Ohio. 

Our students are accepted on par 

with adult artists in the community.

Innovative programming in the area

of theater arts puts our students 

backstage and on stage in regional

theater productions. Outreach programming puts our instrumental

ensembles at events for and with the

Symphony. Constant work to connect with the Area Council for the

Arts and Art Space/Lima lets us 

stretch our funding by working

“matches” for residency work and

artists' presentations. Our faculty and

students work and participate in arts

activities in the community at a high

level often as colleagues. 

Example: A current art experience

involves the creation of a “Children’s

Garden” in midtown. The Ohio State

University Extension Service, Art

Space/Lima, the Allen County

Museum, the Lima Public Library, 

and visual artists from the Lima City

Schools form the consortium for this

project. It has allowed a fifth-grade

class the opportunity to study sculpture as a form, work with a professional artist/sculptor and create large-scale

works of art. It is currently allowing

middle school artists the opportunity

to develop components for the garden that reflect the history of the

area in visual form. Our financial

outlay here was about $500. 

As noted earlier, our students are

constantly involved in projects that

provide amplified arts experiences by

tapping the Lima community. This is

done not by chance but by design

from all facets of the program. It is

innovation aimed at relevance for

students and survival of programs.

For us, community has direct linkage

to the area of innovation and programming. How we garner this

support, these partnerships is by

being producers, “good arts earners”

in the scheme of community arts. As

a director, I spend a good amount of

time on boards, committees, etc.,

with all arts entities in Lima. We

trade expertise, direction, organizational time and effort for access to

the arts for our students. 

I would reiterate that much of our

arts faculty are participants, volunteers and paid, in the arts in the

community. The community

embraces the arts in the district and

is proud of students and groups who

exhibit, play, act and dance, whether

it is at the local Civic Center or

Carnegie Hall. I think that many

school systems could point to a

financial infusion or giving from the

community for a specific arts course.

We could talk about raising $80,000

to send the Concert Choir to

Carnegie Hall or raising $100,000 for

the Marching Band to present themselves in the Inaugural New Year's

Day Parade and Concert Series in

London, England. 

However, I don't feel that events are

the real crux of the strength our programming gets from our “arts

partnerships.” It's the expanding

and relevance-enhancing of the daily

approach to our arts teaching that

makes the effort to reach out for

community support worthwhile.

(3) ON CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT:

Our challenge immediately and

beyond is, I feel, the same for all arts

entities, whether in schools or elsewhere: to survive in this age of rapid

change and assimilation. Our survival depends on our ability to keep

pace with educational change and

redefine ourselves, constantly shooting for continual improvement. 

●

PAGE 60

The Liverpool Central School

District (LCSD) encompasses the

village of Liverpool and portions of the

towns of Clay and Salina just northwest of Syracuse. Like many a school

district with a solid arts program and

base of community support, Liverpool

nonetheless faced financial problems

in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

“It wasn’t too long ago,” recalls

Daniel D’Agostino, coordinator of fine

arts, “that the arts programs were

severely impacted by budgetary and

staff cuts. It was this board of 

education that made the leap of faith

to reinstate these programs along with

the additional staff to implement

them. In three years, a district coordinator of fine arts was added, additional

staff was hired to teach vocal, instrumental, general music, and visual arts.

Programs such as Performing Arts I and

II, Advanced Placement Music Theory,

Summer School for the Arts, and

artists/authors in residence have been

included in the curriculum. Professional

performances were brought to the students, and students were brought to

professional arts experiences.”

In addition, the board of 

education also embraced school 

reform and took a leadership role in

addressing the challenges presented by

new standards.

Beginning in 1995, the district

provided summer curriculum development for the visual arts staff to develop

a K-12 curriculum that would address

Goals 2000, the National Standards for

Arts Education, and the New York State

Learning Standards for the Arts. The

visual arts team, with the enthusiastic

support of the board of education, was

the first curricular group in the district

to develop a standards-based curriculum. The following year, again with

school board leadership, the educators

began work on instrumental and vocal

music scope and sequence, also driven

by the goals and standards. 

“The board not only directs policy,

procedures, and supports the arts with

a strong budget,” D’Agostino added,

“they also make it a part of their own

lives to be ever-present at concerts, art

exhibits, and performances.” ●

A Profile:

LIVERPOOL (NY)

Factors

The School Board√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Continuous

Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 15

Students (Total): 9,030

Per Pupil: $8,333

Arts Teachers (Total): 58
“We are as serious about building the

imagination as we are about nurturing

the intellect,” Maine Township High

School leaders affirmed in the district's

self-assessment for this study.

Maine Township District 207's history bears out that statement:

Founded in 1902, the high school –

now on three campuses – began in a

modest enough building, but still, it

had facilities and staff to provide for a

comprehensive arts program. Maine

Township's music program was the first

of its arts programs to gain national

fame as its music chairman, Alexander

M. Harley, and his wife, Frances,

founded the Modern Music Masters

(Tri-M) in 1936, now, an international

organization of high school musicians.

The records on the National

Forensic League indicate a strong program at Maine Township as early as

the 1940s. The visual art program

began to develop in the 1950s, along

with the drama curriculum. In 1959,

the district launched a radio station –

WMTH 90.5 FM, which is probably the

oldest continually broadcasting high

school radio station in Illinois. 

Every year since 1962, beginning

with The King and I, each school in

Maine Township has produced a fullscale Broadway-style musical. By the

mid-1970s, based upon its success in

broadcast education, the district had

installed color television studios in all

buildings.

In 1982, the administrative

approach to arts education took a turn

towards integration of the arts with

the creation of the fine arts department in each of the three existing

buildings. One administrator would

supervise the work of art, broadcasting,

dance, drama, music, photography,

and speech. This concept has been

copied throughout the State of Illinois

as a model approach to arts education.

Maine Township's curriculum is

particularly strong in the area of

speech/drama. These courses, Maine's

Fine Arts Curriculum Guide notes,

“teach students where to look and

what to look for in gathering support

for an idea. They also help students

learn to give, to accept, and to follow

constructive criticism; listen courteously and critically as others speak;

become more logical, more direct, and

more creative in organizing thoughts

for presentation; learn to control the

fear of speaking or performing before

an audience, and, as a result, become a

more confident person.”

Alumni, whose ranks include

actor Harrison Ford and First Lady

Hillary Rodham Clinton, are passionate

about their arts education at Maine

Township and what it has meant to

their lives. Ken Rice, news anchor for

KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, says he learned

how to “overcome shyness and be a

confident public speaker by participating in forensics at Maine. Every

Saturday morning, with arts and drama

teachers coaching, our 'speech team'

would compete with students from

other districts in categories such as original oratory, extemporaneous speaking,

and dramatic interpretation. It was an

incredibly fun, exciting way to learn.”

Douglas Irvine, assistant curator

of Spertus Museum's Artifact Center in

Chicago, adds, “The arts in education

are a daily component of my professional career. The educational

foundation I formed at Maine South

gave me the inspiration, confidence,

and self-awareness to use the arts as a

fundamental way to educate hundreds

of children and families each month.” 

Maine Township offers more

than 40 different classes in art, music,

speech/drama/broadcasting, dance,

and creative writing, and extensive cocurricular offerings giving students

opportunities to develop skills and utilize knowledge that is gained in the

curricular program. All courses have

written goals, course outlines, specific

activities, and evaluation plans

designed to give students an understanding of production, history,

criticism, and aesthetic relevance of

each area of study. The district's cocurricular program offers students

dozens of opportunities for performance and participation across the

arts. Although the majority of students

who participate are enrolled in the arts

and humanities, the co-curricular program provides an avenue to educate

students who are unable to fit arts

classes into their schedules.

Beyond the classroom walls and

school campuses of District 207 is

Chicago, internationally known for its

world-class symphony, opera, and arts

museums. Its spectacular skyline is

itself an outdoor museum of architectural landmarks. Maine students

frequently take advantage of all of

these resources through numerous field

trips. In addition, because the three

schools of the district have excellent

performance spaces available for rental,

many of the community's artists are

frequently found in the schools,

rehearsing or performing.

Parents support the many arts programs in the district through fine arts

booster groups that they have formed

for each campus. They provide both

funding and hands-on assistance. They

help produce the annual school musical,

assist on occasion with major equipment

purchases, support arts awareness programs, and work with faculty and

students in building sets, making costumes, editing and printing program

books, doing publicity, and ushering.

The administration and school

board, meanwhile, show their support

of the fine arts programs by providing

facilities, budgets, and extra stipends for

co-curricular activities. Every department in District 207 has its own budget

page with individual budget lines,

including the art, music, and

speech/drama budget. Creative writing

is included in the English department

budget, and dance is in the physical

education budget. 

Local property taxes provide the

base of revenue for the school district,

even though there is some funding

from the State of Illinois and various

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 61

A Profile:

MAINE TOWNSHIP 207 

(PARK RIDGE, IL)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 3

Students (Total): 6,155

Per Pupil: $12,664

Arts Teachers (Total): 61

MAINE TOWNSHIP:

TESTING ARTS EDUCATION

As a measure of the value Maine

Township puts on arts education, all

seniors are tested in the areas of

dance, music, theater, and visual

arts to gain a sense of their competency and familiarity with the arts.

More than 85 percent of the students

tested annually meet or exceed the

standards set forth by the district

fine arts staff. 

continued on next page

"Alumni, whose ranks

include Harrison Ford

and the First Lady,

are passionate about

their arts education

at Maine Township..."
grants. Maine Township does not have

any financial partners in the artistic

community, but its staff members are

active members of local community

arts groups. 

Like virtually every other school

district participating in this study,

Maine Township struggles to maintain

or improve its current arts program in

the face of competition from other

quarters of the curriculum. Fortunately

for this community, the philosophy of

the school board and superintendent is

that to be culturally literate is to possess

the basic information needed to thrive

in the modern world. The district seeks

to celebrate architecture, design, drama,

instrumental and choral music, art,

photography and performance. Further

development, refinement, and extension of this curriculum is afforded

through the board of education's strategic plan that emphasizes curriculum

and staff development.

●

I

n Masconomet Regional School

District, which serves Essex County

some 25 miles northeast of Boston,

arts educators have found two key

strategies for strengthening arts programs:

1. visibility for your arts education

program;

2. patience and persistence in

effecting change.

“When you are seeking public

support,” said Walter M. Meinelt,

chairman of the arts department of

Masconomet Regional Junior-Senior

High School, “it is essential to be seen

in the community. Work at fostering

business and school partnerships; volunteer to paint faces at community

fairs and festivals; display work in the

town hall, in the public library, and in

the local malls; participate in art contests (and when the results are positive

make sure that they are publicized);

apply for grants that bring artists into

the schools and invite the public to

come hear or see them as well. In other

tions/arrangements are similar in

“parts-to-whole” structuring;

• unifying the arts disciplines at the

school level to create interdisciplinary projects – where art students

create the sets and props, the music

students create and perform the

music, theater students develop characterization, creative writing students

write the script, the dance students

create the choreography, and the

technical theater students are in

charge of the sound and lighting;

• introducing students to both applied

art careers as well as fine art careers.

Today, the Memphis City

Schools system's strong commitment

to the arts is evidenced in staffing,

course offerings at the secondary level,

funding for equipment and materials,

technology-based programs, innovative enrichment and special programs,

and district-level leadership. The availability of the arts to all children is

attributed to the strong leadership of

the superintendent, who believes that

the arts are essential to the development of every child. While other

major school districts across the nation

were cutting funding for the arts, Dr.

N. Gerry House was supporting the

advancement of arts education. 

All 103 K-6 schools have either

Orff music or art specialists (10 schools

have both). The district's goal is to

have a music specialist and an art specialist for every 525 students by the

year 2000. All 20 middle/junior high

schools have art and music (vocal and

instrumental) programs, and three

middle schools have theater programs.

All 29 high schools have visual art,

vocal music, instrumental music, and

theater programs. Four schools have

dance programs, which have recently

been moved to the arts from physical

education. 

Professional staff development

for the 400-plus arts specialists is provided by the district each year to

update strategies for implementing arts

standards. Additional training is

offered at the Teaching and Learning

Academy for elementary classroom

teachers in arts integration practices.

Under the auspices of the academy,

Bruce Elementary School is serving as a

model arts integration school in which

all regular teachers have been trained

by the Memphis Arts Council's

Aesthetic Institute program. Further,

the school is being heavily evaluated

in ways very few schools are in any

curriculum area. 

PAGE 62

words get the word out that you have

an active and involved department,” he

advised. “The students, parents, administration, and school committee take

great pride in positive press.

“It is also important to be

patient,” Meinelt added, echoing

school leaders in many other districts

that participated in this study.

“Positive change takes time. When

building a program, it has to be done

slowly and steadily over time. We try

to work with a set of departmental

goals that are first established in the

spring and then refined in the fall of

each new school year. This is followed

with checkpoints throughout the year.

Our experience has shown us that

when we set realistic but forwardthinking goals and then publicize our

successes, we have been able to earn

the respect of both the school personnel and the community.”

●

A Profile:

MASCONOMET (MA) 

Factors

The Community√

Parent/Public Relations√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 2

Students (Total): 1,581

Per Pupil: $6,244

Arts Teachers (Total): 9

A Profile:

MEMPHIS (TN)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

Opportunities for Higher

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Continuous

Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 161

Students (Total): 110,000

Per Pupil: $4,805

Arts Teachers (Total): 375

When the entire country was

deciding what to do about the

downslide of student achievement in

the early 1980s, Memphis City Schools

(MCS) adopted the Discipline-Based

Arts Education (DBAE) philosophy

which inspired notable changes within

the individual arts disciplines (dance,

theater, music, and visual arts). Those

changes occurring across the arts disciplines resulted in Memphis City

Schools placing greater emphasis on:

• spiraling essential knowledge and

skills across K-12 grade levels;

• establishing higher expectations and

the importance of “quality” relating

to student production/performance;

• educating every child to be a knowledgeable producer and consumer of

all of the arts;

• identifying the interrelationships

among all of the arts, especially in 

understanding that all art composi-
This extensive arts training, as

well as arts standards implementation

and curriculum design, is provided

through the district's three arts administrators. The music and dance and the

art and theater specialists are part of

the Office of Student Standards. The

special skills coordinator (Orff music,

elementary strings, class piano, and

elementary movement) is in the Office

of Instructional Support. 

Their combined allegiance in

promoting all of the arts has provided

a recognizable strength in the

Memphis community. 

The arts are part of both budget

and building planning in Memphis. The

MCS school board has increased overall

allocations to the arts as well as providing five full-time musical instrument

repair technicians to maintain the district's $9 million-plus musical

equipment inventory. Most funding is

site-based to the local schools, but protection for the arts has been encouraged

by the district office. The three arts

administrators are included on the

architectural design teams for new constructions and renovations to ensure

proper and adequate space for the arts.

Meanwhile, the district considers

technology in planning for both curriculum and building. Two high

schools have recording studios and

classes in commercial music. Students

in eight elementary and one high

school are involved in a special “Kids

'N' Blues” program (see sidebar) in

which they rely on technology to

research, interact with other students

and experts worldwide, and develop

original blues. Three high schools offer

classes and studio experiences in television and video production. Students

at Overton Creative and Performing

Arts High School are engaging in digital studio music and designing

architectural structures and fashions

on computers. Overton has received

Goals 2000 funds to support the

Digital Art and Design (DAD) program. 

To give all children opportunities

in interdisciplinary arts practices, the

district offers enrichment programs

tuition-free to students, including:

after-school playwriting and producing,

a summer arts camp, a blues camp, a

music technology camp, and more.

Underlying all the programs and

initiatives is the rich heritage of

Memphis as a “hometown” for many

great arts talents and as the “birthplace

of blues and rock 'n' roll.” Community

support for arts education formed

through student achievements and

partnerships is an essential part of the

success of the district's arts programs. 

MCS originated the Adopt-aSchool program in which local

businesses have the opportunity to

adopt a school. The Orpheum Theatre

has adopted all of the arts programs in

the district, providing discount or free

tickets for teachers or students, schoolto-work opportunities, and student

workshops. Last year, the Orpheum

offered the first enrichment summer

program for students interested in

learning the business and management

aspects of theater production.

Nationally recognized for its

innovative programs in the district, the

Memphis Arts Council's Center for Arts

Education provides the Lincoln Center

aesthetic education teacher training

and classroom follow-up program for

300 teachers each year, the Wolf Trap

Early Learning Through the Arts childhood program in 19 Head Start centers,

a six-part Family Arts Series, an afterschool program in eight schools, and

the Artists Residency program currently

in 70 schools. The Center for Arts

Education is funded primarily by grants

and local benefactors. 

The National Academy of

Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS),

Memphis Chapter, offers its Grammy

in the Schools performance program,

lecture/demonstration concerts in the

schools, mentorship/advisory bureau,

and periodic seminars. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 63

QAULITY COUNTS

“When students see where they are

going, they’re more in tune with organizing the essential components which

contribute to an exemplary product.

They are less likely to complain about

the time necessary to accomplish the

desired results, and they are more likely to complete their work – no matter

how difficult the task. In the arts there 

is always the presence of 'quality,'

which actually drives dedication to

practice and refinement of skills to produce the best possible product. How

similar is this description to the application of knowledge and skills in the

general everyday workplace?”

—James Holcomb 

Arts Administrator 

Music and Dance 

Memphis City Schools

MEMPHIS SINGS OF

“KIDS 'N' BLUES”

Kids 'N' Blues is a cross-curricular

learning activity, now in its third year,

which brings together some 700 students from eight Memphis elementary

schools and one high school. The project engages the students in learning

about the blues as an art form, how it

has influenced history (and vice versa),

how arts forms relate to society, technology, demography, and the

economics of regions. 

While its culminating project, a student-produced CD, has received

nationwide attention, the project may

be most remarkable for its impact on

students who, with little or no background in the arts, studied in depth the

power the arts have in society and

thus the importance of sustaining,

teaching, and making art. Kids 'N'

Blues successfully integrates art into

the mainstream classroom curriculum

and helps to break down the divisions

between art and other subject areas. 

Perhaps most important, however, has

been the involvement of parents,

grandparents, and community members in the students' research

interviews. These activities reinforce

interaction between the student's

school activities and those occurring

at home and in the community. They

involve the students in spoken and

sung language, much like the evolution

of the art form itself. And even though

a large number of students' families

are at or below the poverty level, they

have supported the students with

regard to attendance, performances,

recording sessions after regular school

hours, transportation and chaperones. 

Fine-tuned for the Memphis City

Schools district by a team that included Superintendent House, the program

was designed and developed by David

Reider of BBN Systems &

Technologies in Cambridge,

Massachusetts, whose Co-NECT

School Design incorporates collaborative and project-based learning and

multi-age clusters. BellSouth

Foundation provided the funding. 

More than 100 miles from the

North Dakota state capital of

Bismarck, Minot City is a primarily

Scandinavian/German community

that also is home to a large number of

Native Americans and personnel at the

Minot Air Force Base. It is a community that supports the arts, as is evident

from its two local ballet companies,

numerous musical groups, the Western

Plains Children's Opera, the Mouse

River Children's Theater, and the

annual Norsk Hostefest celebration.

It is also a community that has

provided music and visual arts at the

middle and high school levels and

music taught by specialists in elementary school for many years. But drastic

cuts at the state level have prohibited

the hiring of elementary-level visual

arts specialists. From the district's 

five-year planning project, begun in

1988-89, an interim solution surfaced

in the form of a series of workshops

on arts education for Minot administrators and educators.

These staff development workshops have become an ongoing

priority for the volunteer committee of

educators and community leaders

called Minot Public Schools Arts

Resource for Teachers and Students

(MPS ARTS). Collaborating with the

Minot Area Council on the Arts, MPS

ARTS offers a special staff development

workshop in dance for community

and public schools educators. The

MPS ARTS education curriculum,

which follows the guidelines of the

North Dakota Department of Public

Instruction and the National Standards

for Arts Education, also has become a

vital component of an Interactive

Television (ITV) curriculum to enhance

learning opportunities for students in

the sparsely populated surrounding

area. An annual Creative Arts Camp

developed and run by MPS ARTS provides an integrated summer arts

experience for students in grades K-2. 

Minot Public Schools also works

with Minot State University on a

“College for Kids” program. Students

who wish to pursue additional arts

instruction begins in the fifth grade. In

middle school, students study music

every day for each of three years. It is

not unusual for music teachers to see

300 to 400 children during a day. On

the one hand, Ritter points out, that is

a large number of children for instructional purposes. On the other hand, he

adds, “That’s a tremendous parent base.” 

That parent base proved critical

to Missoula arts education in the mid1990s when a budget crisis developed

over an enrollment-driven formula

devised by the state legislature for

allocating funds to school districts. In

Missoula, fifth-grade instrumental

music, elementary visual art, middle

school general music, and the K-8

fine arts coordinator were slated for

elimination. 

A coalition of groups of parents,

community leaders, and arts educators

spoke strongly in support of arts education. Letters, board meeting

attendance, university and alumni

spokespeople, and a volunteer economic analysis of the impact all

helped reverse the momentum to cut

arts education. The school board and

the administration chose to keep the

existing programs intact. In fact, with

the community value of the arts firmly

established, the administration chose

to invest in arts education infrastructure and expanded the fine arts

coordinator position from K-8 to K-12.

Meanwhile, in the last few years,

the State of Montana has put a fine arts

graduation requirement in place which,

says Ritter, “has increased participation

significantly in all arts classes.”

Missoula County Public Schools has

revised or is revising all of its arts curricula to reflect the National Standards for

Arts Education. As a result, music offers

both performance-based study – with

band, choir, and orchestra electives – as

well as general music in middle school

and theory in high school, which

emphasizes the basic skills needed to

understand music.

But with Missoula’s enrollment

still declining, all of education –

including the arts – is expected to

experience some cutbacks. The visual

arts education specialists in the elementary schools do not provide

planning release time for classroom

teachers, so their positions may be vulnerable. Still, a value precedent has

been set for arts education that continues to carry over into the classrooms

of Missoula. 

●

PAGE 64

Missoula is a university community,

manufacturing center, and distribution hub for western Montana. It

has a vibrant arts community nurtured

by the 11,000 students at the

University of Montana and its schools

of music, art, dance and drama, and

English. Not only the university but

also four galleries, practicing artists

and musicians, the Missoula Cultural

Council, a children’s theater, a symphony and symphony choir, and

Young Artists of Montana provide a

base of cultural value. “It is from this

community that Missoula County

Public Schools draws such outstanding

support,” explains Paul Ritter, Missoula

fine arts supervisor.

While music is viewed as the

strongest segment of the arts in the

public schools, significant staffing and

time also is given to the visual arts,

especially in the middle and high

schools. Visual arts teachers see every

middle school student through nineweek wheels. Also found in middle

school wheels are courses in drama

and video production. Music, visual

arts, and drama are offered at the high

school level. Creative writing sections

are offered at the urban high schools.

Music is viewed as the strongest

arts program in the Missoula public

schools. All elementary students study

general music twice a week with a

music specialist, and instrumental

studies after school, on weekends, and

during the summer can take courses in

the visual arts, puppetry, music, storytelling, writing, and dance, all taught

by local arts specialists. 

To fill in gaps in funding, the

school district seeks donations and

works with the arts council. “Funding

does not come easily,” says Arlyn

Marquardt, curriculum coordinator for

the district. “Perseverance – like constantly writing grants and thinking of

new ways to fund raise – all helps.” ●

A Profile:

MINOT (ND)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Planning√

Continuous

Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 18

Students (Total): 7,692

Per Pupil: $4,095

Arts Teachers (Total): N/A

A Profile:

MISSOULA

COUNTY (MT) 

Factors

The Community√

Parent/Public Relations√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 20

Students (Total): 9,430

Per Pupil: $4,245

Arts Teachers (Total): 56
Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 65

Camden-Rockport’s Maine School

Administrative District #28 reports

a “longstanding and growing commitment to the arts over the past 25 years.”

The milestones cited by the district

closely parallel those of many districts

included in this report. In a brief list,

they highlight the links of communitysuperintendent-school board that 

build consensus and support for arts

education: 

• 1972 - The “Youth Arts Program”

was incorporated. This communitybased program provides arts

enrichment throughout the district,

has supported residencies at all 

levels in dance, poetry, painting,

crafts, architecture, composition,

cartooning, drama, storytelling,

and folk art.

• 1979 - The high school was

expanded to include rehearsal, 

performance, and art spaces. 

• 1980s - Through the decade, focus

on arts education continued,

including a commitment to hiring

art educators who were both teachers and artists/performers.

The school board and administration demonstrate support for arts

programs by regularly allocating funds

to them as well as hiring new staff. As

the district has built its arts education

program, time and materials allocated

to arts education have consistently

increased. For example, plans for a

new high school with expanded arts

facilities have been strongly endorsed

by both the board and administration

as a high priority. Budget decisions are

made first by teachers, then approved

at the administrative level, followed by

board and then voter approval. 

The district reports that the

departments that are the most well

equipped – music and visual art – are

“close to reflecting the national voluntary standards developed in response

to the Goals 2000 legislation.” With

the construction of a new high school

facility, MSAD #28 anticipates that

“the drama and dance programs will

be designed to match these standards.”

Shortly after he joined the district as superintendent in 1997,

William R. Doughty stated his intention to continue the administration’s

support of arts education:

“My five-year plan for this school district...begins with my wholehearted

enjoyment of the level of commitment, skill, and participation in our

outstanding programs and of community support of arts in our schools.

In the first school budget I saw

passed, the community supported the

funding of several new positions in

the arts as well as a new arts program

which will include many more visiting artists in the elementary school

and drama and visual arts programs

in the middle school. Thus the vision

is not simply my vision, but is molded and worked on by the whole

community. Our continual efforts

over sustained years will help this to

blossom for our students so that each

of us will be able to recognize the

artist within them and within us.”

A Profile:

MONTELLO (WI)

Factors

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 2

Students (Total): 900

Per Pupil: $7,589

Arts Teachers (Total): 10

A Profile:

MSAD #28 (CAMDEN- ROCKPORT, ME)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 3

Students (Total): 1,440

Per Pupil: $6,230

Arts Teachers (Total): 25

A Profile:

MSAD #40

(WALDOBORO, ME)

Factors

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 9

Students (Total): 2,425

Per Pupil: $4,036

Arts Teachers (Total): 14

The unique feature of the longestablished arts program in the

School District of Montello, district

administrator Robert Klug suggests, is

the collaboration among the various

arts disciplines. 

“There is a lot of crossover: Art

teachers and art students, for example,

work with drama teachers and students,” he says. “This interaction

allows projects to be integrated into a

system and theme. Visual art, speech,

and drama are all integrated, which is

what education is all about.” 

This integrated curriculum operates at several levels within each

Montello class, even in the elementary

school. In this way, all students,

including special needs students, can

interact in one class. The junior high

program includes traditional arts and

emphasis on performing arts, including film and theater using puppets,

marionettes and shadow puppets.

Students participate at their own level

of interest and ability. 

“We encourage every student to

explore his or her ability,” says Klug,

“and see if they want to proceed to the

next level in that particular field.

There should be an opportunity for

every child to try out his or her talents

and interests.”

Drama, reading, and creative

writing all have long histories in

Montello and are enthusiastically supported by staff, school board, and

superintendent, who is chairman of

the Wisconsin Forensics Association.

Klug sees these activities as enormously effective ways to explore individual

creativity: “Drama gives students a

chance to develop, express themselves,

and gain the confidence to achieve.”

●

Waldoboro, Maine, and the neighboring rural communities of

Friendship, Union, Warren, and

Washington, began to witness changes

in the arts education of their school

district in 1978, the year David R. Gaul

became superintendent of Maine

School Administrative District #40. 

The instrumental and vocal

music programs, which had been in

existence since the early 1950s, had

consistently provided challenging curriculum for the students of MSAD #40

(as the district is usually abbreviated).

Where attention was most needed was

in the visual arts, and attention was

paid there with great success. 

In the past dozen years, with the

support of the school board, districtand building-level administrators, and

the community, the school system has

developed an elementary art program,

continued on next page
area in which we hire, and they must

meet criteria to verify their abilities to

teach and demonstrate.”

The overall arts program has been

carefully articulated in a process that

engaged all of the district’s fine and performing arts teachers. According to

Clinton, “We studied a variety of standards, including the National Standards

for Arts Education, different state-level

curriculum guides, lesson plans and goals

from our teachers, textbooks on the arts,

and fine and performing arts education

courses at universities. The committees

of arts teachers developed articulation

charts and curriculum guides, which they

presented with the fine arts director to

the director of curriculum for the district,

to the assistant superintendent for educational services, to the superintendent of

schools, and to the principal at each

school. Opportunity was given to each of

these administrators to suggest changes.

After changes were made, a final presentation was made to the board of

education. Opportunity was again provided for suggested changes. A 

final copy was then sent to all teachers,

administrators, and school board members.” 

The curriculum guides are now

reviewed every two years to allow for

expansion and corrections. “It is the

only way we believe these documents

will remain viable in helping our

teachers complete their tasks,” he says.

Standing behind Norman’s

intensive work on curriculum, stanNorman, Oklahoma, is largely a 

middle-class, reasonably affluent

community that is home to the

University of Oklahoma. However, its

low property taxes and lack of industry

make the Norman Public Schools system

one of the poorer districts in the state. 

“We have to optimize every situation for the benefit of our students’

education and to support our community’s desire for high standards and

achievement,” says Dr. John Clinton,

who directs the district’s arts programs.

In Norman, all areas of the arts

are taught by specialists in the field

with the exception of visual art at the

elementary level, which is taught by

classroom teachers (some certified in

visual arts). Additionally, all of the

teachers are full-time certified teachers,

with the exception of the teachers for

modern dance, music theory, and secondary general music. 

While the district saw a significant need for those classes, Norman

did not have the funds to hire certified

instructors. “So,” Clinton explained, “I

looked through the state department

of education rules to discover that we

could, in fact, hire ‘adjunct’ teachers.

Adjuncts are hired on an hourly contract basis. The number of hours they

can teach is limited, but hiring them

allows us to meet the needs of a limited number of students within our

budget constraints. The adjuncts must

have an undergraduate degree in the

PAGE 66

created positions for three arts teachers,

and added one arts teacher each to the

middle and high school levels. Along

with the teaching staff came development of a comprehensive visual arts

curriculum similar to a Discipline-Based

Art Education model for grades K-12.

Interdisciplinary teaching in

MSAD #40 is strongest at the middle

school level. Around 1985, D.R. Gaul

Middle School, then called Union

Junior High, began its transition from

a junior high to a middle school.

Instead of scheduling art as an “allied

arts” course separate from the core

classes, the art teacher advocated – and

the “core” teachers supported – the

inclusion of art as a core subject. This

one small step for a Maine school district took place at least five years prior

to the inclusion of the arts in Goals

2000’s “core curriculum.” 

As a result, visual art classes

began meeting the same number of

times per week as other subjects.

Consequently, students began to have

higher regard for art as a subject. The

art curriculum has since evolved into

an integral part of many interdisciplinary units, such as the eighth-grade

unit on Ancient Greece. 

MSAD #40, which has used the

National Standards for Arts Education

and Maine’s Learning Results as guidelines, has taken the lead in Maine with

district-wide arts assessment. Currently,

the district has established benchmarks

in the visual arts for students in grades

3, 6, 8, and 12. Performance assessments have been developed for grades

3, 6, and 8; they are being field tested.

The assessments combine a range of

activities that ask the students to draw

images and answer questions about

their choices, identify well-known

artists’ work and the work of others,

and answer questions about the art of

other cultures. 

The arts educators of MSAD #40

anticipated change with the 1996

retirement of Superintendent Gaul and

the arrival of Dr. Roger Spugnardi as

well as several new administrators and

school board members. According to

the arts educator Argera (Argy) Nestor,

who is a recent Maine Teacher of the

Year, “In the spring of 1997, when the

budget was being scrutinized by newer

school board members, community

support was clear. A suggestion was

made to eliminate the instrumental

music program at the elementary and

middle school levels. This information

appeared in the newspapers, and at the

next board meeting 150 taxpayers

were in attendance. These people were

there to send a clear message that this

program should continue.” 

The challenge over the next five

years, Nestor observed, will be one of

developing working relationships and

explaining the importance of arts education. “Once this is established,” she

said, “we need to continue with our

important curriculum work, moving

forward with our assessment components and working to achieve the

highest standards for all students in

visual and performing arts.” ●

A Profile:

NORMAN (OK) 

Factors

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

Parent/Public Relations√

National, State, Other Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 22

Students (Total): 12,435

Per Pupil: $3,960

Arts Teachers (Total): 71

"Team Teaching" Music

For the past 35 years, the Norman Public

Schools' band and orchestra faculty has

been "team teaching." The secondary

vocal music faculty also has been team

teaching on a limited basis for 15 years.

"'Team teaching' is defined in our case as

placing two teachers in one class in order

to divide the class into smaller groups and

to provide peer coaching. This tactic gives

students who perform on different instruments or who have different vocal ranges

the opportunity to study with experts who

can 'model' the sound and techniques of

that instrument or voice," explains John

Clinton, district arts coordinator.

The program is structured to create an

added benefit: teacher development.

Upper level teachers are required to team

teach at the beginning and intermediate

levels; those with primary responsibilities

at the beginning and intermediate stages

work with upper level students and have

the opportunity to see their needs firsthand. Team teaching is generally

scheduled during school hours. In some

cases, it occurs before and/or after

school hours when students attend sectional rehearsals. Oak Park is singular among American

suburbs in its rich artistic heritage

and fertile contemporary arts climate.

Writers Ernest Hemingway and Edgar

Rice Burroughs, modern dance pioneer

Doris Humphrey, and architect Frank

Lloyd Wright were Oak Park residents a

century ago. Today the community,

which sits at the western border of

Chicago, is home to celebrated actors,

sculptors, composers, filmmakers, and

other artists, and it embraces more than

200 arts organizations and businesses.

Many of these individuals and organizations play important supporting roles

in the schools of Oak Park Elementary

District 97.

Historically, the Oak Park community has placed great emphasis on

the quality of its schools and has long

played an active role in making the

schools strong in arts education. In

1989, for example, a team of parents,

community members, teachers, and

administrators came together to make

district budget reduction recommendations to the school board. Unanimously,

they recommended raising class size

rather than making any reductions to

the district’s art programs. The district

has since added arts staff. Parents also

participate in the schools as volunteers

in arts-related activities. 

In fact, the Oak Park Education

Foundation, a volunteer coalition of

community and business leaders and

educators, has been working with the

Oak Park Area Arts Council to plan and

pilot an “ArtStart” effort to more effectively link area visual, performing, and

literary artists with the schools. For

more than a decade already, artists and

authors have been providing hundreds

of area students, selected by classroom

lottery, with annual workshops.

Besides a tradition of community arts support, Oak Park has had the

the school board, parents, a Foundation

for Excellence, and the business community; Advanced Placement programs

in art and music; and an arts apprenticeship program for students to gain

experience in art-related careers. 

Originally a small rural district

that has grown into a large suburban

system with increased demand for the

arts, North Allegheny allocates 4.5

percent of the district’s budget for arts

education, including staff. According to

the department chairs for music and

art, James T. Reinhard, Jr., and Frank J.

Farina, Jr., respectively, the district philosophy is: “The teacher makes the

difference.” The district also recognizes

the need for space for the arts.

Art and music specialists meet

elementary students once a week each

in designated rooms. Middle school

students are met every day for onethird of the school year in designated

rooms. Upper secondary students are

met daily according to elective scheduling, although the high schools’

specialized studio and rehearsal facilities are increasingly taxed by the

number of students.

Special initiatives are supported,

including a program for integrating

the arts at the elementary level; an

interdisciplinary art, science, social

studies collaboration on the Allegheny

River, which is funded by the

Department of Environmental

Protection; a high school art gallery,

and traveling gallery program. The

computer multimedia course offered

by art and music was recognized,

along with electronic music composition and music, as a “Best Practices in

the Arts” program by the Pennsylvania

Department of Education, the

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and

the Howard Heinz Endowment. 

North Allegheny’s superintendent, Dr. Lawrence Bozzomo,

emphasizes careful planning and the

shaping of a focused vision for the

arts. That vision includes thoughtful

integration of the curriculum, presenting concepts and skills sequentially. He

also advocates the use of new technologies in the arts. 

Over the next five years, North

Allegheny must meet the challenge of

growth of student participation in the

arts with an increase in facilities, staff,

equipment, materials and supplies. In

addition, with grants, partnerships,

advocacy and other creative solutions,

the district anticipates widening integration, introducing portfolio

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 67

dards implementation, and overall arts

education programs is a community

that shows its support through parent

organizations, including a new community/parent group dedicated to the

support of all of the fine and performing arts in the Norman schools. The

community at large and various artistic partner groups, such as the

Firehouse Art Center, University of

Oklahoma, Sooner Theater, Norman

Arts and Humanities Council, and the

Children’s Arts Network, assist with inkind opportunities and, on occasion,

financial matching. 

Given a fluctuating financial

state, Norman Public Schools’ budget

cuts to arts programs are overcome

through matching grants, community

support, and donations from alumni

and friends of the arts programs. 

The arts programs have friends on

the board of education and particularly

in the office of Dr. Nancy O’Brian, who

played the clarinet when she was in

high school, has been a teacher, principal, curriculum director, assistant

superintendent, and now superintendent in the Norman school system. She

values arts education and articulates this

vision: “Through arts education, every

child will have the opportunity to

develop his/her gift as a performer or

artist; every child will have the opportunity to utilize the arts as an important

tool in the development of intellectual

and personal growth, and every child

will have the opportunity to learn the

language of arts education in order to

develop an appreciation of the fine and

performing arts.” ●

A Profile:

OAK PARK 97 (IL) 

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

An Elementary

Foundation√

National, State, Other 

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 10

Students (Total): 5,306

Per Pupil: $4,600

Arts Teachers (Total): 34

A Profile:

NORTH ALLEGHENY

(PITTSBURGH, PA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

An Elementary Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 13

Students (Total): 8,326

Per Pupil: $8,787

Arts Teachers (Total): 64

Fifty years of commitment to arts

education in Pittsburgh’s North

Allegheny School District has shaped a

program that today includes specialists

teaching music and the visual arts, theater and dance (97 percent of them

full-time and certified); support from

assessment, expanding inclusions,

widening integration, and adopting

state and national standards. ●

continued on next page
Olathe District Schools’ experiences

in planning and continuous

improvement, as detailed in the district’s report for this study, may prove

particularly useful to other school districts.

ON BUILDING AN ARTS EDUCATION

TEAM FROM (ALMOST) SCRATCH

Arts education has been a part

of Olathe District Schools since the

district was formed in 1965, but in the

past 10 years, both programs and

coordination of the arts have

increased. Dr. Ron Wimmer, superintendent, and Dr. Alison Banikowski,

assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, along with many

other individuals, have been instrumental in focusing attention on the

arts and in providing leadership and

support for the district’s facilitators

and coordinators. 

• For many years, monthly meetings 

were scheduled with a district 

administrator and the music coordinator. In 1983-84, an elementary art

teacher was hired half-time to coordinate visual arts education for the 

16 elementary buildings. Through a 

great deal of effort on the part of a 

few key members of the community,

the administration and Board of 

Education looked closely at the sta

tus of visual arts education at the 

elementary level. They then added 

to the half-time position to create a 

total of four elementary art resource 

teachers to support teachers in their 

task of providing visual arts education each week for their students.

• That team of four wrote a K-6 art curriculum in 1984-86. In 1987, it was 

recognized by the National Art 

Education Association as a model elementary art curriculum. The program

was recognized by the Kansas State 

Department of Education as a 

Program of Excellence. One of the 

members of the art resource teacher 

group was designated as Team Leader.

In 1986-87, facilitators for general

music, secondary choral music, and

orchestra were appointed. Each perbenefit of Dr. John Fagan’s leadership

and consistent commitment to the

arts. In 1989, for example, when the

district was struggling financially,

Superintendent Fagan supported

Julian Middle School’s fledgling CAST

(Communication, Art, Speech,

Theater) program, then in its second

year of a three-year Illinois State Board

of Education funding grant. In 1996,

he similarly supported Emerson

Middle School, then in the third year

of an Urban Partnership Grant for its

BRAVO program of incorporating the

arts into the curricula and into

extracurricular activities.

District 97 is more than 100

years old, and the arts have been an

important part of Oak Park students’

educational experience for as far back

as records are available. All students

participate in arts, music, and physical

education instruction (including

dance) through the curricula, and all

students have access to specialists in

these areas. The district also has vigorously pursued a strategy of integration

for dance, drama, music, and the

visual arts, employing consultants,

conducting staff development, and

securing funds from a variety of

sources. The district’s arts curricula

has been reviewed and revised in

recent years to reflect the Illinois State

Goals for Learning in the Fine Arts.

Performance assessments have been

written for all grades in visual arts,

general music, dance, and drama. 

●

apparent in the district administration.

For more than 20 years, arts education

supervision for the Ohio County

Schools was provided by Patricia

Solomon. When legislated downsizing

cut county office staffs in the state,

Solomon assumed additional responsibilities as director of personnel and

shared arts supervision with Dr.

Bonnie Ritz, director of instruction,

whose academic background is in language arts and theater. When Solomon

retired in 1996, Ritz took responsibility

for supervision of all arts instruction in

the schools. Continuity and effective

leadership have been maintained. 

The transitions from a strong elementary foundation in the arts to

middle school and then high school

are noteworthy. Beginning in kindergarten, students receive music and art

instruction with a certified professional

educator. This instruction is provided

to every student, kindergarten through

grade 8. Strings instruction, which has

grown in recent years, is available

beginning at grade 4. 

At the fifth-grade level (fourth

in some schools), chorus is an option.

The middle school instrumental music

instructors provide the instruction for

grade 5 students. Jazz bands also begin

in middle school. To facilitate continuation in arts education, band students

visit Wheeling Park High School during

grade 8. Orchestra concerts involve

both middle school and high school

student performances, and students are

provided the opportunity to shadow

high school students during grade 8.

Ohio County Schools relationship with the community is a two-way

street. Partnerships with businesses

and arts organizations support the

schools’ arts activities; arts students’

and teachers’ participation in civic

events and service projects benefit the

community. The larger benefit of this

relationship is evident in the voting

booth: Taxpayers in this school district

have never rejected an excess levy to

support the public schools. 

Funding for arts education –

teachers’ salaries, state-adopted textbooks, instructional materials,

equipment, instrument repair, and

staff development programs – comes

from the school budget. Grants and

fund raising by parents and community groups support special concerts,

artists’ residencies, and other needs. 

●

PAGE 68

A Profile:

OHIO COUNTY (WV)

Factors

The Community√

Teachers Who Practice

Their Art√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 14

Students (Total): 6,371

Per Pupil: $6,137

Arts Teachers (Total): 35 

A Profile:

OLATHE 233 (KS)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

An Elementary Foundation√

National, State, Other Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 34

Students (Total): 18,748

Per Pupil: $4,588

Arts Teachers (Total): 103

Ohio County Schools’ mission, the

district reports, is to develop

young people to their maximum

potential in social responsibility,

employability in the workplace, and

lifelong learning. The district has identified four areas key to accomplishing

its mission: staff development, community involvement, management of

academic performance, and transition

preparation.

In the area of arts education, the

benefits of well-managed transition are
son was teaching full time and 

beginning to assume some coordination responsibilities.

• In 1987-88, the Elementary Art Team

Leader began to assume some K-12 

visual arts coordination duties. She 

was named District Art Coordinator 

and given one-half day a week for 

coordination responsibilities. That 

time was expanded to one and onehalf days a week in 1993-94, and the

yearly contract was extended by three

weeks to match the contract length of

other curriculum coordinators.

• In 1994-95, a new position of Fine 

Arts Coordinator was created. It was 

filled by the Visual Arts Coordinator,

who continues in that position and 

continues to serve one day a week as

an art resource teacher for one ele

mentary building. At the same time, a

facilitator for theater was appointed.

• In 1996-97, the facilitator positions 

became stipend positions.

• Monthly meetings continue with the

assistant superintendent for curricu

lum and instruction, fine arts 

coordinator, the music coordinator, 

the orchestra facilitator, the secondary choral facilitators, and the 

general music facilitators. 

ON BUILDING AN ARTICULATED

CURRICULUM FROM FRAGMENTS

In the 1980s, Olathe curriculum

for each of the arts areas was fragmented. It had been written for grade-level

groupings without much alignment for

future or previous grade-level groups

(elementary, junior high, and high

school). No formal coordination existed among the fine arts. 

Today, a five-year curriculum 

revision cycle is in place, established 

by the district in the early 1990s for all

content areas. It includes pre-study, 

curriculum writing, implementation,

resource selection, and assessment 

composing. 

The district arts leaders report:

“An important factor was writing

sequentially for kindergarten through

grade 12. Since this was a new

approach for most, it was comfortable

to varying degrees, but very educational

for all of us to be involved in recommending what curriculum looks like at

each level and to clearly see relationships between the levels. Focusing on

outcomes rather than activities was a

leap for many of those involved. Our

district’s curriculum writing coincided

with the publication of the National

Standards for Arts Education. The

Parents take a leading role in

making the arts more visible and more

valuable to education in the Orland

district. The Parents Music Association

raises funds for music camp scholarships, uniforms, instruments, and

audio equipment. Parents for

Education has contributed many dollars to provide additional arts

experience for Orland School District

students. With the support of parents

and the community at large, the district and the Village of Orland Park

have collaborated not only on monthly showcases of student artwork but

also on an annual fine arts exhibition. 

This exhibition incorporates

visual work from grades K-8 and

includes a recital by the district orchestra. To display the student art work,

the Village of Orland Park purchased

40 flats, commits the Village Hall for a

month for the show, and gives the

time of a maintenance crew for assistance with installation. Meanwhile,

the district gives arts teachers additional time to prepare the art exhibit for

display. From this community art exhibition, a student work is selected to

represent each school and is displayed

for a year in the board of education

offices. These pieces are professionally

framed and returned to the student at

the year’s end. 

As a gesture of thanks (and good

public relations), each opening night visitor to the fine arts exhibition receives a

small memento of student artwork. ●

national standards were a driving force

in the writing of local curriculum. The

fine arts coordinator served on a task

force which wrote the Kansas Standards

for Visual Art Education during a similar time period, and brought relevant

dialogue from arts educators around the

state to the curriculum-writing process.”

If Olathe’s arts curriculum was

given a boost by the national standards

campaign, it was given a challenge by

the State Board of Regents, which

recently defined the specific number of

credits required for scholarships in the

state colleges, putting a heavy emphasis on “core” requirements. The time

restrictions of a six-hour school day are

causing scheduling problems for students seeking to include the arts in

their education.

Suggested solutions include setting aside blocks of time for the arts or

moving to a seven-hour school day,

thereby affording students more scheduling options. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 69

A Profile:

ORLAND 135

(ORLAND PARK, IL)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 13

Students (Total): 5,526

Per Pupil: $6,103

Arts Teachers (Total): 41

A Profile:

PARSIPPANY-TROY HILLS

TOWNSHIP (NJ)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Teachers Who Practice 

Their Art√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 12

Students (Total): 6,157

Per Pupil: $9,189

Arts Teachers (Total): N/A

Like other Chicago area school systems, Orland School District 135

takes excellent advantage of the city’s

multitude of arts resources. Even if

those world-class resources were not

available, the district could point with

pride to its work in arts education

within its own 24 square miles of

southwestern Cook County. 

Arts education in the Orland

Park School District is inclusive, accessible, measurable (using portfolio and

authentic assessments), national and

state standards-based, performanceand product-focused. It is taught by

visual arts and music specialists in a

comprehensive sequential program

that begins in the district’s four primary centers and continues through the

three intermediate centers and three

junior highs. Drama is also taught

starting at the middle-school level.

The program is fully funded by the

school district, but the community still

provides additional support. 

“I t took a lot of talking through

rough years, but it has been

worth it in every way,” says Dr.

Timothy Brennan, superintendent of

schools for this affluent metropolitan

New York suburban district which has

grown enormously since the 1960s. A

former music teacher, Brennan points

to the consolidation of administration

and support services as a way to incorcontinued on next page
porate the arts into a program of unity

and strength anchored by arts specialists at every grade level, enhanced by

the many cultural and educational

resources of New York City, and supported by the board of education and

the community it serves. 

Among the district’s arts specialists are practicing artists who show

and perform locally and regionally.

Several individuals have had shows of

their work at the Morris Museum, the

Newark Museum, the Cathedral of St.

John the Divine, and other locations

throughout the New York metropolitan area. The district has supported the

professional growth of its arts educators with tuition reimbursement,

payment for “art clinics” and sabbaticals, as well as traditional conferences

and professional meetings.

All students have the opportunity to participate in the arts. One

anecdote illustrates the district’s and

its educators’ commitment to access.

When more than 100 students in an

elementary school of 300 wanted to

play in the school band, the supply of

musical instruments was exhausted.

Not wanting to deny any child who

could not afford to rent an instrument

the opportunity to participate, the

instrumental music teacher put a

notice on the Internet requesting

donations of used instruments. The

response was overwhelming, and every

student who wanted to play in the

band was able to do so.

Even with all manner of funds

made available, the district would be

unable to offer high-quality arts education without some creative planning –

in particular, the scheduling of the elementary art program in a nontraditional

unit format rather than in periods. 

●

arts commission, and an arts-valuing

community, the arts play – and thrive

– in Peoria, just 15 miles from Phoenix

and part of Arizona’s fastest-growing

community.

As it builds on its successes in

arts education, the Peoria Unified

School District stands out for its

recruitment of teachers, attention to

elementary-level arts learning,

approach to technology, and tangible

contribution to community. 

Peoria recruits teachers with

strong arts preparation and abilities in

their medium. In particular, the district seeks arts teachers who practice

their art form in some capacity besides

the classroom – for example, music

teachers who direct or perform in

choral groups and artists who exhibit

or sell their paintings and sculpture.

“The higher the level of professionalism they exhibit, the higher the skill

level they bring to our students,” says

Andre Licardi, district director of arts

education.

The knowledge and skills of the

teachers are directed throughout the

district, beginning at the elementary

level. “The thriving high school programs are testimonials to our

elementary counterparts,” Licardi

points out. “They are working together

to provide the essential skills needed

for comprehensive, higher-level programs in all areas. As of 1994, all high

school students are required to take

one class in the arts for graduation.

Also, 34 percent of our high school

students are currently enrolled in the

arts during each year of high school.”

Peoria offers the high school student a four-year, curriculum-based

program in art, advertising art, ceramics, photography and media, band,

dance, drama, theater and humanities.

“Since our high schools currently have

block scheduling,” Licardi adds, “the

number of arts students has increased

at each of our high schools.” 

Peoria also provides a lesson in

the integration of technology into the

teaching and learning of the arts.

Licardi explains where the district has

been, where it’s going, and how it

plans to get there:

“The first phase is implementing

technology in our curriculum, units

of study, and lesson plans. More

than 85 percent of our arts teachers

already use computers, either in the

classroom and/or at home. We are

currently developing a plan for conPAGE 70

A Profile:

PEORIA 11 (AZ)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Teachers Who Practice 

Their Art√

An Elementary Foundation√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 29

Students (Total): 28,500

Per Pupil: $2,500

Arts Teachers (Total): 97

With a supportive school board,

a superintendent (Dr. Paul

Koehler) who was chosen by the governor to serve on the board of the state

sistency in using hardware and software in the arts classrooms. We have

several teachers who are on the cutting edge of technology. Therefore,

we are already using those teachers

to train and educate their fellow arts

teachers. Those same teachers are

pursuing grants that will help us to

create our own programs.”

“We have developed our own Web

site for the arts to serve schools and

community, and we hope to have it

on the Internet by the end of

September 1997. We are currently

working with the City of Peoria and

our technology department to bring

our arts programs to the schools

and community via cable TV.”

Peoria’s newest high school has

already been designed to house a television setup complete with computer

and editing stations. Art, photo, and

yearbook rooms already have been

redesigned to accommodate this plan.

The district administration’s

interpretation of “community involvement” goes not only to what the

community and its resources bring to

the schools, but what the schools

bring to the community. Three projects serve as examples:

• Festival of Trees: For this joint project with the Peoria Chamber of

Commerce, students make ornaments with a theme (Phoenix Suns,

Native American, Desert Animals)

and decorate the trees, which are

then auctioned to community businesses and the funds distributed

back into the community. 

• Empty Bowl: Ceramic students at all

29 schools put hands and hearts to

work and raise funds going to organizations that feed the hungry. In

1987, students raised more than

$8,800 for three local charities.

• Music Ends Silence: Following on the

success of the Empty Bowl, students

obtain pledges for an entire day of

music (performed by Peoria’s school

bands and choirs) at various sites.

Funds help local students with special

needs pursue a music education.

●
Located in Nassau County on Long

Island, Port Washington Union Free

School District (UFSD) is a comfortable

suburban community of six schools. 

“Were you to interview any

given fifth-year student here,” David

Meoli, Port Washington’s director of

creative arts, wrote in the district’s

report for this study, “you would find

that (s)he most likely: sings in the chorus, plays in the band/orchestra, has

taken dance workshops with members

of the Martha Graham School and/or

American Ballet Theatre, has created a

hologram, has been to an art museum

in a class setting several times, has performed in at least one play/musical

production, has created numerous

two- and three-dimensional art works,

and is able to talk about his/her own

(and others’) work in terms of quality,

composition, historical perspective,

and expressiveness.”

It would be easy to attribute that

hypothetical student’s breadth and

depth of arts education to the fact that

the Port Washington school district lies

just a short train ride from Manhattan.

Or one might point to the environment created by the artists who have

lived here (John Philip Sousa, John

Cassavetes, Perry Como, Shlomo

Mintz, Marian McPartland, and cast

members of “Seinfeld”), or to arts supporters with names like Frick and

Guggenheim.

Those factors, as well as state

and national standards and fine arts

graduation requirements, do come into

play. But like many other school districts that responded to this study’s

questionnaire, Port Washington points

to three linked areas as key to its

strong arts education: (1) range of

opportunity for all students, (2) forms

of community involvement, and (3)

allocation of resources – time, space,

and budget lines. 

What propels arts education

forward here, however, is planning and

commitment to continuous improvement. 

To put the arts within each student’s reach in this ethnically and

financially diverse community, the

Port Washington school district offers

a broad range of courses, from introductory training to intermediate and

advanced experiences. Opportunities

for students to excel are offered in

many different art forms, and in many

arenas within each art form. The visual

arts program includes studio courses as

well as several levels of computer

graphics, holography, design, and art

history offerings. A K-12 dance and

movement program – still a rarity in

most school districts – has been evolving in all of the district schools over

the past eight years.

Parent and community constituencies have very high expectations

for the Port Washington schools and

play meaningful roles in delivering

high-quality arts instruction to their

children. Involvement takes the form

of freely shared community resources,

the participation of local arts organizations and each school’s parent-teacher

group, and the work of a district-wide

Cultural Arts Committee made up of

parent representatives from each of the

six schools. The committee meets regularly to preview artists and plan arts

experiences for all district students. 

Resource allocation – time,

space, budget lines – is a telling measure of the value of the arts in the

district. Port Washington cites as vital

a full-time arts administrator, teachers

open to museum and artist collaboration, and central and building

administrators who fully include

music, art, theater, and dance in their

consideration of budgeting, scheduling, staffing and facilities decisions.

Although the bulk of the funding for arts programs is provided

through the district budget, particularly in the area of staffing, there are

many ways that the district optimizes

its resources – by utilizing state aid for

arts events, competitive grants, and

the funding or fund-raising support of

parents and other community members. In recent years, the community

has supported a new arts wing in one

school and the refurbishing of three

district auditoriums, the creation of a

dedicated gallery space in an elementary school (planned and paid for by

the parents), and raised enough

money to air condition the high

school auditorium complex. 

There are, of course, some things

that money cannot buy. Thoughtful

planning can make even the priceless

contribution – Marian McPartland’s

offer to play and teach high school students, Omni Recordings’ studio services

– go further, do more. A new dance

fund set up by the Blumenfeld family

is being tapped not only for workshops

and artist residencies, but the district

also has used it to create a “Tappin’

and Jammin’” elective for eighth-grade

students at the middle school.

●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 71

A Profile:

PORT WASHINGTON (NY)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts Coordinator(s)√

Opportunities for Higher 

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 6

Students (Total): 4,102

Per Pupil: $15,200

Arts Teachers (Total): 33

A Profile:

PUYALLUP (WA) 

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

A Cadre of Principals√

An Elementary Foundation√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 32

Students (Total): 18,312

Per Pupil: $5,453

Arts Teachers (Total): 84

Since it was founded in 1854, the

Puyallup School District, on the outskirts of Tacoma, has made a place for

the arts in the education of its young

people. That place continued to be

secured – and expanded – by careful

planning, budgeting, and educating of

others in the importance of the arts.

“The education of children in

the arts is an integral part of the district’s strategic plan,” Superintendent

Richard D. Stovde points out. “Our

community has had a longstanding

commitment to the ‘whole child,’

never limited to just the development

of academic talents alone. We are fully

committed to fulfill this expectation

not only because of our community’s

beliefs, but also because we believe

that few children can be a significant

benefit to our society without a grasp

of the value of the arts.”

Puyallup plans for arts education. Elementary principals assist

classroom teachers in providing time

and schedules that promote the exploration of band, orchestra, choir, visual

art, theater, and dance. Meanwhile,

school building administrators at the

secondary level make master schedules

that are developed around the arts.

The arts are placed on the master

scheduling board before other subjects

in order to create a conflict-free environment for student scheduling. 

The programs offered at the secondary level range from the required

continued on next page
visual and performing arts classes for

seventh graders to pottery and computer

graphic design for high school students. 

Budgeting for the arts begins

with Puyallup’s basic education budget. As Deanna Rine, assistant

principal of Stahl Junior High School,

explains, “Parents, grants, and partnerships are supportive of our programs

but do not fund our most important

resource: our teachers.” Rine described

the budget process: “Budgetary decisions are recommended by the

superintendent’s cabinet and voted on

by the school board. All school board

members reflect their community and

strongly support the arts. The school

district has maintained a music line

item in the budget which is managed

by the music coordinator. This type of

arts funding has been in existence for

more than 50 years. A budget line item

for arts education ensures that equal

monies will be provided for every

school program, regardless of building

principal support.”

Puyallup employs district arts

coordinators for visual arts, drama,

and music. The district did lose its

music supervisor position six years

ago, but, according to Rine, “the public outcry was so great that it was

reinstated within one year.” 

The community’s staunch support is also crucial for recruiting and

retaining excellent teachers, such as

high school drama instructor Lynda

Belt who was named 1997 Teacher of

the Year by the American Alliance for

Theater and Education. 

Community support takes the

form of partnerships with local artists

such as glassmaker Dale Chihuly, several musical organizations, and the new

Valley Arts United group which promotes the arts in the community and

at the same time builds support for arts

education in the schools. Mostly, supporters are parents, who often

participate in programs as performers

with their sons and daughters, and

Puyallup residents who simply value

the role the arts play in their daily lives. 

The school district nourishes this

community support in many ways.

Student talents bring the arts to nursing homes and hospitals. They

contribute to the annual downtown

arts show sponsored by the city council and local businesses. Advanced arts

students also contribute to the community’s quality of life by educating

younger children about important

social issues. Through the Drama

Outreach Program, high school students have performed plays dealing

with teen alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and stereotyping and labeling for

50 different junior high school classrooms and more than 3,000 students.

The issues were selected by student

survey. In order to participate, high

school students enroll in a Drama

Outreach class teaching “interactive

drama techniques.” The class meets

only one hour a day, but it requires a

significant amount of additional commitment from the students. Puyallup

High School estimates that its students

who participate in the program spend

at least 25 hours each semester working in the community. ●

Randolph County is the largest county

in West Virginia with a population of

just 26.5 people per square mile. Its

unemployment rate is more than 10 percent, and 60 percent of its students

receive free and reduced lunch.

After severe budget cuts in 1988

eliminated elementary arts teachers,

parents, artists, and educators met to

explore options for arts education

within the system. They devised a new

way for Randolph County to bring the

arts back: the ArtsBank Council, an

artist-in-residency program of local

artists who would be hired by the district to teach in the schools. Each artist

would spend an intensive four-week

residency at one school where each

student would have the opportunity to

work and learn with the artist. A program coordinator would be hired by

the district to oversee its day-to-day

operations. 

When Randolph County Schools’

budget was slashed, the district had to

find other means to fund the ArtsBank.

The district turned to the West Virginia

Commission on the Arts for grants

through its Arts-in-Education program.

This money was used to hire the local

artists and a coordinator. Art supplies

at first were provided by local business

partners-in-education; they are now

paid for by the ArtsBank.

In addition, ArtsBank provides a

per student stipend for art supplies;

some of these art materials would not

be available to children in rural areas

otherwise. ArtsBank also pays for

mileage for artists who must travel

long distances to teach in the rural elementary schools.

Today artists for the ArtsBank

program are recruited through ads

placed in the local papers by the

school system. County administrators

and the ArtsBank coordinator screen

the applicants, who must show that

they are practicing artists and work

well with children. Artists must design

art lessons to enhance regular curriculum and participate in an in-service

day to ensure that they understand

their duties and can communicate

PAGE 72

PRIDE OF PUYALLUP

It’s not every school system that has

its own museum. 

The Karshner Museum was donated

to the Puyallup School District in

1930 and has been owned, operated,

staffed, and solely supported by the

school system ever since. Displaying

exhibits on the cultural, regional, and

natural history of the northwestern

United States, the museum allows

students to get a firsthand view of

many Native American artworks. The

museum also features an exhibit of

glassworks by Dale Chihuly.

Puyallup elementary students visit

the district-owned Karshner Museum

at least once, sometimes twice a

year. Transportation for these visits is

paid for by the school district.

Students also learn through the

Karshner Museum in their classrooms. The museum provides

“Discovery Kits” to spur discussion

of museum exhibits in the classroom.

A kit may be used in order to prepare

a classroom for a museum visit or to

further classroom learning.

A Profile:

RANDOLPH

COUNTY (WV) 

Factors

The Community√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 15

Students (Total): 4,855

Per Pupil: N/A

Arts Teachers (Total): 0

"A budget line item

for arts education

ensures that equal

monies will be

provided for every

school program,

regardless of building

principal support."

effectively with children. In general,

75 percent of the artists hired hold a

degree in fine arts or arts education.

Not only has the ArtsBank

brought the arts back into the elementary classrooms, but it also has

strengthened the community’s awareness of the arts. As the program

became a growing presence in the

Randolph County Schools, the community began to take notice. Whereas in

the past funding came mainly from

grants, now banks, business leaders,

professional people, and the local hospital contribute. Many civic

organizations helped raise funds as

well. The local vocational school staff

and Future Business Leaders of America

provide clerical help to create mailing

lists and to send out fund-raising letters. The Annual ArtsBank Auction is

another avenue through which the

community helps support the program.

Local artists and organizations contribute their artwork to the auction for

the community to purchase, and the

proceeds go to ArtsBank.

●

estate market, thereby taking a positive

role in helping to counteract the

shrinkage phenomenon. 

The school district has been proactive in this effort, educating local real

estate agents about the arts programs

and the other benefits of the school

system. To help agents answer the

proverbial first question – “What are

the schools like?” – Robbinsdale Area

Schools developed and now sponsors

seminars for some 80 real estate agents

each year. The agents earn continuing

education credit and promote the

school district to prospective residents.

In February 1998, for example,

the half-day event included a short

performance piece from a musical, a

student reading from an award-winning literary magazine, and a visual

arts discussion led by a fifth-grade student. Superintendent Thomas Bolin,

who originated this idea, welcomes the

participants. The agenda includes discussions on academic opportunities in

the schools, roundtable sessions led by

principals, as well as arts presentations.

This district has had a full-time

public relations specialist on staff for

15 years. (All districts in the

Minneapolis metropolitan area have a

position like this in the office of the

superintendent.) In Robbinsdale Area

Schools, this specialist oversees a Web

page, the community newsletter,

media relations, a cable television link

and a print shop in addition to the

seminar for real estate agents. 

The schools also have a long history of hiring certified teachers with

training in theater and experience in

directing. Minneapolis is a theater

town, and theater programs have been

a powerful asset to the district since

the 1950s. School productions are very

popular, meeting their expenses and

then some from ticket sales. In addition to the popularity of theater in the

community and the long history of

hiring gifted “career” teachers who

stay and make the program attractive

to students (100 auditioned for roles in

a recent musical), success has been

attributed to: 

• Support from the administration: 

“The superintendent supports all of

the arts,” reports one teacher. “He

believes in them. Our financing is

looked upon as just as important as

that for sports.” Theater productions, like football games, are

extracurricular. Theater teachers 

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 73

A Profile:

ROBBINSDALE (MN)

Factors

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

Parent/Public Relations√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 19

Students (Total): 13,939

Per Pupil: $5,875

Arts Teachers (Total): 73

T he Robbinsdale Area school district

is located in a “first ring” suburb

of Minneapolis where the student population has dropped from 28,000 to

14,000 over a 10-year period. Two high

schools instead of three now serve the

district. In part, that is the result of a

state policy that enables junior and

senior high school students to enroll

in college courses, free of charge.

Another state policy – “open enrollment” – puts schools in competition

with one another to attract students. 

Test scores and special programs

are generally what draw students to a

school. Therefore, the district’s arts

education program has become a

tremendous marketing tool for

Robbinsdale Area Schools and the

community at large. The district has

promoted its programs, such as arts

education, as a “plus” in the local real

THEATER IN ROBBINSDALE: 

“THE ART OF THE PRESENT” 

Robbinsdale Area Schools was

honored by the Children’s Theater

Foundation of America as the recipient of the first-ever Medallion Award

given to a school drama program.

Honoring “continuity and artistry,” the

following award citation says a great

deal about what constitutes excellence in theater for young people: 

Occasionally, amid the maelstromof controversy that surrounds

public schools today, a beam shines

out from a lighthouse steadfast in the

storm, sending inspiration and hope

to those who struggle with the tides

of protest, financial problems, and

societal changes that sweep the

nation’s schools.

Based on a curriculum taught by 

certificated theater professionals,

extended to the community through

an annual season of productions,

with special attention to senior citizens, with traveling shows for

children, and including studentdirected one-act plays, the

performances of the Robbinsdale

high schools have been recognized

by experts in the field through the

Minnesota drama competition

where at least one of the three district schools has reached state level

in 19 out of the last 30 years.

Lest one think that Robbinsdale is

Nirvana, where pain and worry have

been extinguished, District 281 has

weathered the difficulties of population growth and decline, moving

from one high school to three and

now to two. It has an ethnic and

economic distribution close to that

of the nation and faces the financial

and social pressures common to

communities everywhere.

The French actor and director Jean

Louis Barrault called theater “The

Art of the Present.” Presently, education is sailing on a “sea of troubles,”

wherein some schools have lost

course and even foundered. District

281 has continued to make way,

providing its generations of young

people with a present experience in

art, a present platform to study the

human condition, a present opportunity to acquire skills important to

personal future, a present concrete

adventure in jointly solving mutual

problems – a headlight example of

theater in education.

continued on next page

Rochester, New Hampshire, is a seacoast town characterized by a low

socio-economic scale and residents with

a limited educational background. In

the decade that Dr. Raymond Yeagley

has been superintendent, the arts have

been put to work to help provide a better future for its young people.

A band director certified in

music education before he arrived in

Rochester, Superintendent Yeagley has

promoted a vision of the arts – including theater as well as visual art and

music – as basic to education for all

students.

Rochester draws upon and

exhibits many of the same strengths as

other communities with healthy arts

education programs: a sound K-12 arts

curriculum; a host of co-curricular

activities involving theater, music, and

visual art; parent booster organizations;

business partnerships; a supportive

administration, and high-quality arts

teachers. What is rooted in the superintendent’s vision and what has come to

set the district apart, points out Joanne

Houston, director of music, is

Rochester’s approach to its vocationaltechnical “School to Work” program in

the visual and performing arts. 

Rochester School District provides more than 40 course offerings at

the high school level in the visual arts,

writing, music, and media communications. Among them: Music Appreciation, Musical Theater, Band, 

Chorus, Accelerated Chamber

Ensemble Singers, Basic Art, Art 1, 2, 3,

and 4, Art 3 and 4 Honors, Advanced

Placement Art, Ceramics 1 and 2,

Painting and Drawing 1 and 2,

Sculpture 1 and 2, Commercial Art,

Housing and Home Decor, Graphic

Trades 1 and 2, Newswriting and

Photography, Technical Writing, Film,

Media and Communication and

Careers, Graphics Communications

and Technology, Drafting Technology,

Photography (black-and-white, color,

digital), Technical Drafting and Design,

Woodworking Technology 1, 2, and 3.

All students have the opportunity to experience these hands-on

courses, including the 20 percent of

students in the district with disabilities

and special needs. “The big challenge

is to maintain funding for programs

like School-to-Work and special education,” Houston added. Everyone –

staff, parents, community booster

organizations – helps with writing

grants, field trips, equipment donations, and a variety of other projects.”

●

PAGE 74

who direct plays, like football coaches, are paid for the time they put in

after school hours. “The central

office is willing to say, ‘This is as

important to kids and the community as other things.’ ” 

• More than one theater teacher at

each high school: Rather, there is

generally a team of five, highly qualified theater teachers at each site.

This means that a variety of projects

can be in process at the same time,

and when someone retires, other

people are there with long-term

experience to maintain the continuity of the programs.

• An annual major theatrical production at each middle school: These

productions may be directed by a

parent, principal, or English teacher.

They provide good preparation for

the high school drama programs.

• Fine arts as a requirement for high

school graduation: “It is a positive

thing to make credit in fine arts a

requirement for high school graduation,” states one teacher. The state

allows theater to be taken as an

English credit and not just as an

elective.

●

ROBBINSDALE’S “COMPREHENSIVE

ARTS PLANNING PROGRAM”

The Comprehensive Arts Planning

Program committee (CAPP) with

members from the community, parents, and staff meets regularly to

fulfill the following mission:

• Communicating the importance

of arts in schools

• Promoting arts education 

• Initiating arts events

• Creating opportunities for arts

involvement by the total community

The committee works in close

cooperation with the district

superintendent, who initiated the

real estate seminars, and with

school principals. A studentdesigned logo, “All the Arts for All

the Students,” is used in promotion

of CAPP activities. 

A Profile:

ROCHESTER (NH)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in Leadership√

Opportunities for Higher 

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other 

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 10

Students (Total): 4,600

Per Pupil: $4,200

Arts Teachers (Total): 25

A Profile:

ROCKCASTLE

COUNTY (KY) 

Factors

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

National, State, Other 

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 5

Students (Total): 3,163

Per Pupil: $4,466

Arts Teachers (Total): 15

The Rockcastle County School

District is in a lightly populated

area in the middle of Kentucky. In 

fact, the entire county is home to only

about 15,000 people. Despite its small

size and lack of resources, the Rockcastle district has still been able to

establish a commendable arts education program. By seeking help beyond

local sources, the school district formulated an arts program that would

benefit its students.

In 1989, there was no organized

arts education program in the district.

Music specialists had been serving

every grade level, although formal

visual arts instruction was available

only to high school students.

Nonetheless, research indicated that a

number of teachers were, in fact, integrating the arts on a daily basis. The

leaders of the school district – thenSuperintendent Bige W. Towery, Jr., the

school board, and central office staff –

appreciated their students’ need for a

strong background in the arts, but

they also understood that they did not

have the resources to establish an arts

program. 

Therefore, the school system

sought financial support from the state

level and eventually received a grant of

$9,600 from the Kentucky Arts Council

to assist with development of a

program over three years. The district

used the money to establish a basic

arts program within the district.

During this three-year period, the

school district slowly began allotting

its own funds towards arts education

and eventually was able to fund the

program autonomously.

Initially, the Rockcastle County

School District’s “Basic Arts Program”

was created to provide only the fundamental levels of arts education.

However, in the years since its inception, the Basic Arts Program has

evolved to the point where it can no

longer be considered just basic.

Besides covering the fundamentals of

music and the visual arts, the program

has both expanded and become more

interdisciplinary. 

Interestingly, H. Allen Pensol,

Basic Arts coordinator, pointed out,

“When the Kentucky Education

Reform Act (KERA) became law in

1990, many other districts were slow

to realize that the arts and humanities

would eventually be included in the

Accountability Index on the Kentucky

Instructional Results Information

System (KIRIS) by 1993.” Due to the

foresight of the school district leaders,

“district-wide arts instruction had

already been initiated. Students and

teachers with little or no prior interest

in the arts were becoming comfortable

and even eager to incorporate an arts

and humanities dialogue into their

schedule and daily lives.” Furthermore,

Pensol added, “Now that the Kentucky

Department of Education has constituted a State Core Content and set

Standards for Kentucky Schools, teachers in Rockcastle County are seeing

how the district’s initial groundwork

in arts instruction is accommodating

and complementing instruction in

other disciplines.” 

Since Superintendent Towery’s

retirement in 1995, the arts education

program of Rockcastle County has

received the enthusiastic support of

Superintendent Larry B. Hammond. 

In addition to encouraging the school

board to increase arts education funding and advocating for arts education

at state and national conferences, he

makes his support manifest. “Quite

often,” Pensol noted, “Superintendent

Hammond engages in year-round

classroom arts activities along with

the students.” ●

Saint Paul Public School District 625

educates nearly 44,000 students,

more than 30 percent of whom have

limited proficiency in English. Growing

increasingly diverse, the district reports

that the arts are a “natural vehicle for

learning” because they provide students with opportunities to “process

ideas in a way that may be more natural – visual, kinesthetic, and aural

learning.”

School District 625 benefits from

15 years of Comprehensive Arts

Program Planning (CAPP), which

began in 1983 with the start-up for the

district’s original arts magnet, Mississippi

Creative Arts Elementary School.

Strongly supported by its school board

and superintendent, arts education in

Saint Paul is built on the district’s

funding of the arts, starting with a

firm elementary foundation. All 66 elementary schools, in fact, participate in

music, visual arts, and creative writing;

some also offer students dance, speech,

and video. At the middle and high

school levels, the district provides a

range of facilities and opportunities:

dance studios, TV/video studios, black

box theaters, a publishing center, partnership programs with the University

of Minnesota, Ordway Music Theatre,

Minnesota Opera, and other community organizations. 

The district identified its top

three program strengths as (1) breadth

of arts offerings, (2) interdisciplinary

practices or integration of the arts

throughout the curriculum, and (3)

access to the arts. District’s arts specialist/coordinator Thomas K. Gale added

what he believes Saint Paul School

District 625 has learned in these areas:

• If the Saint Paul Public Schools district doesn’t make arts free/low

cost, schools can’t afford them.

• Having artists who represent diversity in the district increases student

identification and participation.

• It is easier to support arts programming when it includes basic skills

in all areas presented in an interdisciplinary manner.

• With commitment of staff development time and money, teachers can

deliver integrated arts curriculum.

• It is easier to build participation in

the arts from the elementary level up.

High school participation is lower

without the elementary impetus.

• Secondary students will select arts

programming as an option when it

is offered in an interdisciplinary

mode.

• Through competition and increased

performance, the district has discovered a larger student talent pool

than previously thought.

• Through the interdisciplinary

approach, students can experience

a wider spectrum of arts programs.

• Increased parent participation has

occurred in arts-related programming.

• Teachers and arts partners need to

share a common language when

implementing interdisciplinary 

programming.

• Arts partnerships have been able to

expand the breadth and variety of

arts offerings K-12.

• By introducing students to arts at a

young age, we are building future

arts audiences.

• Corporate funding increases the

chance of success for interdisciplinary arts programming.

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 75

A Profile:

SAINT PAUL 625 (MN) 

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

An Elementary Foundation√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 64

Students (Total): 43,747

Per Pupil: $7,110

Arts Teachers (Total): 176

A Profile:

SALINA 304 (KS)

Factors

The Community√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 15

Students (Total): 7,636

Per Pupil: $3,821

Arts Teachers (Total): 37

The strength of arts education in

Salina Unified School District 304

lies in integration of the arts into the

mainstream curricula. Through its 

Arts Infusion Program, produced in

partnership with the local arts agency,

the Salina Arts and Humanities

Commission, the district has created

an interdisciplinary system encouraging lifelong learning through the arts

while bettering student performance.

In Salina, the community has a

direct investment in the artistic future

of its children. With a population of

43,000, Salina is the regional center for

a very rural area in the center of the

state of Kansas. Through concentrated

continued on next page
effort over the last 20 years, Salina has

developed its arts and cultural

resources to include a local arts agency

that is a department of city government; a visual arts center and historical

museum (both nationally accredited); a

community theater with a strong

youth program; an annual arts festival

(the Smoky Hill River Festival) now in

its twenty-second year, and a symphony orchestra, as well as a local artsbased grants program.

The Salina school district achieves

depth and quality of program delivery

through a balance of comprehensive

planning with these agencies. This

approach, which involves exposure to

and training by a variety of local and

national educators and artists, succeeds

because the district recognizes the community agencies’ expertise in the

delivery of arts education and the

importance of creating viable partnerships between artists and educators.

One overarching goal of the Arts

Infusion Program is to extend awareness of the program into the

community. School-residency artists

are commonly featured in other venues

in the community. For example, a storyteller working in the schools may

appear at the local senior center and

also work with members of the local

storytellers’ guild, later performing with

the guild at a community-wide family

dinner and bringing parents into the

circle. The Smoky Hill River Festival is

an event that leads to longer-term

artist-in-residence programs through

which Salina children establish relationships with professional dancers,

musicians, visual artists, theater artists.

It is also a source of funding. 

One example of increasing the

availability of arts instruction in the

classroom is the use of a drama curriculum consultant. The consultant is

available on a continuing basis, upon

request, to assist teachers in using the

dramatic arts as a teaching tool. Salina

elementary students learn history by

enacting early settlers as characters and

learn planetary relationships by physically exploring time and distance. This

position is funded through the Quality

Performance Accreditation category of

the Kansas Arts Commission’s Arts in

Education grant initiatives.

The Salina district has forged

partnerships and found innovative

ways to extend the local agencies’

considerable arts resources. ●

While the San Jose Unified School

District has many lessons to

share in the development of a rich,

sequential visual and performing arts

curriculum, this nationally recognized

district’s accomplishments are especially instructive when viewed

through the lenses of financial and

demographic challenges.

The passage of Proposition 13 in

1979 presented San Jose Unified with a

fiscal crisis faced with varying success

by all California school districts. What

further complicated San Jose Unified's

response to that resource problem were

the problems of its own geography

and population distribution. Some 24

miles long but only 2 to 3 miles wide,

the district has majority populations in

the south, minority populations in the

north. The year before Proposition 13

was passed, student housing facilities

of nearby San Jose State University

were converted to accommodate

Vietnamese refugees. Ethnicity of the

district's more than 33,000 students is

comprised of 43 percent Hispanic, 39

percent white, 12 percent Asian, and

7 percent other. 

To address the resulting social

and educational problems, in 1982 the

district initiated a voluntary desegregation program by establishing several

magnet elementary, middle, and high

schools. In 1984, identified as a heavily impacted minority school district,

San Jose Unified came under court

order to desegregate its schools and to

rely "heavily on the use of magnet

schools to encourage voluntary transfers for the purpose of desegregation."

With increasing need for

resources to expand and develop the

magnet programs in the face of drastically reduced state financial support,

the school district began seeking arts

and corporate partners.

"In 1986," Dr. Bill Erlendsen,

director of external programs, reports,

"the school district began partnering

with existing arts organizations, including American Musical Theater, San Jose

Symphony, Opera San Jose, San Jose

Repertory Theater, the San Jose

Museum of Art and other professional

and community groups with district

schools to provide in-depth support for

arts education and public outreach."

The artist-in-residence program sponsored by the California Arts Council

provides experiences in music, visual

arts, drama, and dance for students.

San Jose has implemented magnet programs and academies in 26

schools, five of which encompass the

magnet arts strand. Best known

nationally is San Jose Unified's Lincoln

Academic and Visual Performing Arts

High School, which has developed a

model program with Apple Computer

– "Computing in the Arts" – that is

supported by the California State

Department of Education. The

University of Santa Clara and the Tech

Museum of Innovation also are collaborating with Lincoln in designing a

model educational program in multimedia video which targets reading and

literacy for Limited English Proficient

(LEP) students. 

Partnerships such as these, in

addition to proactive grant procurement and the use of state desegregation

monies, make it possible for the district

to meet the need for magnet schools

while simultaneously providing arts

education to all students. Today

approximately 4.8 percent of the district's $165 million gross annual budget

is applied to arts education. Equity, as

defined by the desegregation court

order, requires that no student be

denied access to programs due to

financial hardship. To ensure equity,

therefore, the district funds all arts

education materials, supplies, and

necessary fees. 

San Jose Unified's experience

offers a lesson in how one seemingly

small triumph after another can build

the kind of broad, deep communitywide support that makes it possible to

overcome the highest hurdles. A newspaper columnist's critique of Cory

Elementary magnet school's performing

arts production provides case in point:

“By most standards Cory should not

be able to afford the extravagant performance the kids are putting on. It's

the kind of show you might expect

in an affluent suburban school district. The communities [Cory] does

pull from are among the poorest in

the city. Many of Cory's kids are disadvantaged. While I'm not certain

what standards you are supposed to

apply to 5, 6, 7 and 8-year-olds, having seen it, I'll guarantee it: This

show will knock your socks off.”

●

PAGE 76

A Profile:

SAN JOSE (CA)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 44

Students (Total): 33,815

Per Pupil: $5,453

Arts Teachers (Total): 100
When the California state deficit

brought cuts in education 

funding, many public schools had to

dismantle their arts programs. In Santa

Barbara County, performing and visual

artists are working with elementary

school students and providing their

teachers with staff development

through a private-public partnership

between the Children’s Creative

Project (CCP), a community-based, arts

education nonprofit, and the Santa

Barbara County Education Office. 

Incorporated in 1974, the

Children’s Creative Project became a

program of the Santa Barbara County

Education Office under the leadership

of Superintendent William J. Cirone.

The education office provides the CCP

with the executive director’s salary,

office space, utilities, accounting services, insurance, legal assistance,

printing, and management training.

With only two full-time staff and a

part-time bookkeeper and secretary,

CCP provides schools with resident

artist workshops (from 8 to 30 weeks’

duration) and 600 touring artists with

performances in 150 schools. 

CCP handles the scheduling for

touring artists who receive 100 percent

of their fees. Resident artist workshops

cost $32 per hour, of which 12 percent

goes to CCP to cover administrative

costs. Schools pay artists’ fees from

school site funds, money earned by

PTA fund raisers, school district general funds, and support from local

businesses or service groups. CCP

secures grants and stages fund raisers,

such as the I Madonnari Italian Street

Painting Festival (see sidebar), an idea

CPC’s director, Katy Korea, brought

back to Santa Barbara after a trip to

Italy in 1987.

While the residency and touring

artists’ partnership program does not

replace a fully funded, system-wide arts

education program, this effort is helping to keep the arts alive. Through the 

I Madonnari Festival, Koury has succeeded in engaging the entire community

both as sponsors and participants. The

potential of a program that provides

the Getty Center for the Arts. Lockett,

arts in education coordinator for the

Selma City school district, had learned

about the center and its summer institutes in Discipline-Based Arts

Education (DBAE) from her superintendent (who didn't know about arts

instruction but knew Lockett did and

trusted her knowledge). Selma's superintendent was exploring any program

that would help the mostly poor

minority youth in this district 50 miles

from the state capital of Montgomery.

Lockett called Bell, who had spent

20 years in public education with the

Montgomery (AL) schools before going

to Saint James School, a nonsectarian,

college preparatory coeducational day

school network of two elementary

schools, one middle school, and one

high school located in middle- to 

high-income residential areas of

Montgomery. Bell agreed to join

Lockett, each of them taking teams of

administrators, arts teachers, and classroom teachers to the Southeast Center

for Education in the Arts. 

A few years later, as interest in

the Southeast Center grew and it could

no longer handle the numbers wishing

to enroll, the Getty Education Institute

for the Arts asked Lockett and Bell if

they would be interested in developing

a satellite center.

According to Lockett, she was

“dumb enough to assume it would

work” and just charged ahead. Lockett

and Bell went to their respective

school leaders. Dr. James Carter, 

superintendent of Selma City Schools,

and Dr. Raymond Furlong, headmaster

of Saint James School, then sat 

down for private conversations about

the benefits to both systems. DBAE

was a successful catalyst: Both leaders

agreed that the collaboration was

about the children and fully committed themselves to the project. 

Each school district brought

strengths to the collaboration. Saint

James provided clout, a campus for the

institute, and start-up funding. Selma

offered a rural, diverse constituency,

receptive principals, and more funding.

Still, the project started off with so little in the way of resources that Martha

Lockett recalls going to grocery stores

to get them to sponsor schools' participation by donating food. She then

picked up the food, cooked over the

weekend, and brought the meals to the

first institute in the summer of 1996. It

offered approximately 100 black public

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 77

arts education resources and experiences for 63,000 Santa Barbara students

is great. The realization of that potential poses a worthwhile challenge for

the local school districts. ●

A Profile:

SANTA BARBARA

COUNTY (CA)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 91

Students (Total): 62,194

Per Pupil: N/A

Arts Teachers (Total): 43

A Profile:

SELMA (AL)

Factors

The Superintendent√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

Planning√

Statistics

Saint James School

Schools (Total): 4

Students: 1,272

Per Pupil: $3,591

Arts Teachers (Total): 6

Selma City Public Schools

Schools (Total): 12

Students (Total): 4,862

Per Pupil: $4,731

Arts Teachers (Total): 17

I MADONNARI

ITALIAN STREET PAINTING FESTIVAL

This three-day festival held each

Memorial Day weekend brings together

400 professional and nonprofessional

artists of all ages to create 200 largescale chalk drawings that fill the plaza

at the Santa Barbara mission.

Sponsoring businesses, individuals,

and families pay from $10 for a 2’x 2’

child’s pavement drawing square to

$450 for a 12’ x 12’ square. The festival

also features live music and an Italian

Market. Some 30,000 people turn out

for the event, and many more visit the

site over the following weeks as the

artwork fades and finally disappears. 

I Madonnari Festival’s annual profit of

$50,000 enables the Children’s Creative

Project (CCP) to provide every school

in the county with $200 arts credit

toward the fees of touring or resident

artists. It also pays for the production

of a catalog that is distributed to every

school and describes the 150 touring

artist performances and 50 resident

artists available to them. Each year

selected arts offerings are organized

around a different theme derived from

academic subject areas or cultural

traditions. 

CCP presents a second festival each

April at the San Luis Obispo Mission.

Eight years ago, two college friends,

Martha Lockett and John Bell, went

to the Southeast Center for Education

in the Arts, which was established in

1989 at the University of Tennessee at

Chattanooga as a regional institute of

continued on next page

arts education program and enhanced

its value throughout the district. 

The key to success was the interest

and participation of the school board

member and Seminole County’s business

community. The board member was

invited to work with the planning committee and serve as the event co-chair –

a move that helped spread enthusiasm

among other board members. The

school board endorsed the project after

seeing the strong support of business.

These contributing companies included

Lockheed Martin, Scholastic, the

American Automobile Association

(which donated its AAA headquarters as

the site for the event), and Disney

(which donated assistance with lighting

design, choreography, sound equipment,

and help in judging auditions). 

These sponsors welcomed the

opportunity to make a statement in

support of public schools. “Aesthetic literacy” – an echo of the national push

for literacy in general – was the advocacy message, with emphasis placed on

the growing number of cultures and

communities in the area. In addition,

the organizers avoided a negative

“doom-and-gloom, the-arts-are-introuble” message. The lesson the Arts

Alive organizers now share with other

school districts is: “Be positive, assertive, enthusiastic about the importance

of the arts. Make things happen.” 

Half of the $24,000 raised in the

event’s first year helped establish an

“Arts Alive Grant” – a mini-grant

program to encourage innovative proposals involving the arts. Grants are

available to any fine arts educators

through a panel process. 

The first grant was been awarded

to high school Advanced Placement

art teachers who used the funds to

take seniors interested in applying to

art schools to Sarasota for a college

portfolio day. That one trip resulted in

a total of $28,000 in scholarships for

the graduating seniors.

The remaining $12,000 is being

used to help the county’s new art magnet school purchase string and rhythm

instruments, lighting and stage equipment, and also to hire a ballet

instructor – the director and founder

of a local professional ballet company

– to teach a ballet class.

Seminole County plans to focus

its next fund raiser – at the Orlando

Museum of Art – on technology training for teachers. ●

school teachers and white private

school teachers from 16 schools and

organizations an opportunity to mingle

that had never before existed. The

teachers began to find that their problems are the same and that there are

good people everywhere doing anything they can do to reach kids. 

Today the Alabama Institute for

Education in the Arts (AIEA) is a

statewide, multi-arts center dedicated

to bringing about change in education

through a comprehensive program in

Discipline-Based Arts Education for all

children through professional training,

curriculum development and implementation, and arts education

advocacy. Through its three institutes

in the visual arts, music, and theater,

AIEA serves and promotes collaboration among school districts, teachers,

administrators, parents, artists,

docents, arts councils, cultural institutions, colleges and universities, and

the Alabama Department of Education. 

Any public or private school

with a nondiscriminatory enrollment

policy is eligible for participation.

Schools are required to send a team

consisting of a classroom teacher, an

arts specialist (if available), and a principal or administrator. The state arts

council's support of teachers' participation has stimulated interest in other

teachers, and, as a result of its involvement, the council has changed its

focus to the support of arts education.

What's more, arts specialists 

who initially feared that classroom

teacher involvement in DBAE might

result in the elimination of specialists'

jobs are finding their services in even

greater demand. ●

One of three counties that make up

the most densely populated area

in central Florida, Seminole is one of

the state’s – and nation’s – most

dynamic centers of growth. Seminole

is also young: Of its approximately

300,000 residents, nearly 60,000 are

students in grades K-12. 

The close proximity of this area

to Orlando has created cultural, economic, and social diversity and has

also presented the county with a vast

number of social issues and economic

problems for which it was unprepared.

The range of incomes within the district, as reported by the 1990 census

tracts, reflects great disparity in socioeconomic conditions: The median

family income ranges from $10,000 to

$71,000, with several large pockets of

critical need occurring in juxtaposition

to affluence. In many aspects, the

county has had to reframe its identity

and restructure priorities. 

The arts, therefore, play an

important role in the county as a cultural and educational bridge. The need

to provide full and equal access to the

district’s arts education also is serving

to provide the community with an

opportunity to come together in support of a shared goal. 

In 1996, a member of the

Seminole County Public Schools Board

of Education, a community involvement coordinator, and the district’s

fine arts curriculum specialist came

together around an idea for a districtwide fund-raising event: a $100-a-plate

black-tie evening designed to showcase

not only the artistic talents of students

but also of teachers, principals, and

other public school staff.

The “Arts Alive” event raised

$24,000 net, but perhaps more important, it raised awareness of the district’s

PAGE 78

HOW TO GAIN SUPPORT FOR

YOUR ARTS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

The Alabama Institute for Education in

the Arts offers this down-to-earth advice

for other school districts pursuing arts

education initiatives: 

• Get leaders/decision makers committed to the project up front. 

• School leaders: Find someone in the

community committed to the arts and

committed to the schools. Develop a

personal relationship with him or her.

• Don't be afraid to ask for help.

• Learn how to beg in a positive way;

it's an art form. 

• Go slow. Develop a core group, a 

critical mass of support. 

• Public school educators: Do more

advocacy and public relations with

civic groups such as the Chamber of

Commerce, Kiwanis, Rotary, Ruritans.

• Keep the focus on kids. It's about

them. Everyone has a vested interest

in their success.

A Profile:

SEMINOLE COUNTY (FL)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

Parent/Public Relations√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 52

Students (Total): 56,000

Per Pupil: $4,355

Arts Teachers (Total): 154

This Fort Wayne, Indiana, school

district, which is comprised of primarily white, middle-class students,

has more than doubled in size over the

past 20 years, making it one of the

fastest-growing districts in Indiana. 

Southwest Allen County Schools’

arts education receives support from

every key quarter – school board,

superintendent, administration, parents, and the community at large. The

support is evident in the depth and

breadth of arts education in the district and especially in the planning

time and opportunities for professional

development that are afforded all of its

teachers, arts teachers included.

Moreover, while the school system has

required cuts in spending on materials

in the past, the district reports that

reduction in staff as a means of controlling the budget – even when faced

with reduced funding – has never been

considered.

The district provides a broad

range of arts education at all levels

throughout the system. In addition to

visual arts and music, the Southwest

Allen County Schools also offers dance

theory, dancing, and competitive ice

skating. Musical theater productions

are mounted at all schools, often in

conjunction with other curricula, such

as a unit on rain forests. 

Both the superintendent and

assistant superintendent are arts advocates. They have used the powerful

emerging research on the arts and cognitive development to advance arts

education. The assistant superintendent relies on the National Standards

for Arts Education to set the direction

for curricular revision and program

development.

Southwest Allen County Schools

places a high priority upon professional development of teachers, including

three full days a year of on-site workshops. The district also encourages

teachers to take students to major art

exhibits in Chicago, Cleveland, and

Toledo, as well as to the performances

of national theater touring groups in

Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, and

Fort Wayne. Each full-time teacher is

assigned a laptop computer with a

modem for use at home and at school.

Training in basic applications as well

as in subject-specific applications is

provided, and as personnel attain high

levels of skills they qualify for upgraded equipment. The elementary staff

has worked to enhance the software

programs that are part of the MIDI systems in all of their rooms. At the

middle and high school levels, the district provides a series of workshops on

the use of the computer synthesizer

and the keyboard equipment. 

The Southwest Allen County

Schools also provide something even

more rare: time. All of the arts teachers

have daily collaboration time – 

a time when they can meet with 

colleagues or classroom teachers to

respond to a student’s needs or interests or to plan cross-disciplinary units,

visiting artists’ schedules, or in-house

activities. Elementary teachers have 45

minutes each day while middle school

and high school teachers have 30 minutes a day. The teachers of each

discipline meet monthly to coordinate

plans, share resources, visit local and

state museums, review curriculum

expectations, and discuss information

gleaned from conference attendance. 

Parents and staff have expressed

interest in more programming for the

arts. Some teachers believe there is a

need for an arts coordinator; others

favor a more defined program for talented youth. All have made a solid

commitment to an orchestra and are

building this program even though it

is expensive to offer a class with such

small numbers of students during the

first years. 

This commitment may be boosted in part by the clearly visible

benefits of the arts as demonstrated by

a single program in Southwest Allen

County Schools: Several years ago two

teachers who had participated in a

New York Metropolitan Opera workshop returned to Fort Wayne to launch

an annual fifth-grade project – a student-written, -directed, and -produced

opera. Students from all of the district

schools participate in the annual

FAME (Fine Arts and Music for

Elementary) Festival, which includes a

week-long focus on culturally diverse

experiences for elementary art and

music students and their families.

What began as a local festival reaching

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 79

A Profile:

SIOUX VALLEY (SD) 

Factors

The School Board√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 3

Students (Total): 651

Per Pupil: $4,921

Arts Teachers (Total): 6

A Profile:

SOUTHWEST ALLEN

COUNTY (IN) 

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Parent/Public Relations√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 9

Students (Total): 5,359

Per Pupil: $5,327

Arts Teachers (Total): 27

While the communities of the

Sioux Valley School District have

long supported the arts, until 1995

this rural school district provided arts

education only at the junior high and

high school levels. Today, with K-12

under one roof, the arts education program begins in kindergarten. 

The strategy for expanding arts

education into the elementary grades

involved research, written reports, and

presentations to the school board.

According to elementary arts specialist

Erica Howell who was instrumental in

effecting change in Sioux Valley’s

school system, the way to achieve such

a goal is to “gather various types of

research together and write reports

that make the case and show conclusively how arts impact a child. Then

take those reports to the Board of

Education and explain that the arts are

as important as athletics.”

Result: The budget was increased

to accommodate curriculum needs and

to add a full-time specialist for the elementary grades. An additional

full-time instrumental music instructor

also was hired. Now the problem the

district must solve is space. A bond

issue was voted down due to tax concerns, so the school system is looking

for space in another building. Over the

next few years, Sioux Valley will need

to find a solution to its “facility

crunch.” Says Howell, “The upside is

great: We have this need because our

program has grown. The downside is

that there is still more work to be done.”

●

continued on next page
2,000 students in northeastern Indiana

now engages 200,000 students across

the northern and central part of the

state with festivities at three sites.

●

The Spring Branch Independent

School District’s visual arts and

music coordinators and their colleagues

in the school system have been given

the same challenge the Commonwealth

of Texas gives every Texas district: 

• On the one hand, they must provide the best possible arts education

experience for high school students,

who are now required to take one

credit of fine arts to graduate;

• On the other hand, they have no

stated guidelines for curriculum

beyond using the new Texas

Essential Knowledge and Skills for

fine arts. 

In Spring Branch as elsewhere in

Texas, it is up to the district to determine what course requirements need

to be in place to insure student access

to and high achievement in all fine

arts disciplines. The state legislature

also has left it to the district to find

ways to cope with cuts in education

funding and to keep existing arts programs in place. 

To address the music curriculum,

for example, Spring Branch organized

a team of teachers who first read books

on multiple intelligences and learning

styles as well as articles on assessment,

brain research, urban schools, national

standards and technology, and drafts

of TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge

and Skills). They then developed a

mission statement about how music

instruction should impact students’

lives. Benchmarks were set at three

grade levels. Because music teachers in

the Spring Branch district see hundreds of students no more than twice a

week, they decided all students’

progress could be formally – and realistically – assessed every year. Objectives

were written for each grade level.

Spring Branch music teachers

were then asked to write strategies for

the new objectives. The curriculum

writing committee also sought the help

of the district’s central office as well as

outside help from outside the district.

Implementation is being carried out at

the “campus” level with each campus

having its own curriculum expert from

the curriculum-writing committee.

These experts now meet at least twice a

year to address the ongoing curriculum

process and related issues.

Meanwhile, with the help of parents, teachers, and others in a statewide

coalition, the district is finding ways to

continue to fund arts education. 

According to Bill McGlaun, the

district’s executive director for secondary schools, arts programs are

increasing, not falling back. The 1998-

99 budget includes five additional

elementary art teachers. McGlaun

cites the use of technology in the arts,

including animation, as a force for

promoting support of arts education.

Craig Welle, music coordinator, cites

research. “A lot of the research that’s

going on is really helping us make the

case for arts education, but the challenge seems to be to find ways to share

that information with decision makers.”

One strategy to overcome lack of state

legislative support for the arts, he

offered, is to establish a coalition of

teachers at the state level, to work

through PTAs, and to lobby for the arts

in order to gain foundation money

and grants which may help keep programs in place.

PAGE 80

A Profile:

SPRING BRANCH

(HOUSTON, TX)

Factors

The Community√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

A Cadre of Principals√

National, State, Other 

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 38

Students (Total): 30,556

Per Pupil: $5,596

Arts Teachers (Total): 154

A Profile:

STARKVILLE (MS)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

An Elementary

Foundation√

National, State, Other Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 9

Students (Total): 4,119

Per Pupil: $5,403

Arts Teachers (Total): 28

MUSIC AND THE MEASURE OF

ACHIEVEMENT

“Music as part of the ‘enrichment’ area

of the fine arts in the ‘required’ curriculum mandated by [Texas] Senate Bill

One, will not be tied to statewide student assessment,” the Spring Branch

district reported. “If music instruction is

to be truly learner-centered, some kind

of student assessment must be conducted at the local level. The TEKS

validate music educators’ role in providing students with a well-balanced

education, but until music teachers

move forward with assessing student

achievement reliably, they will be a step

behind those in other disciplines which

do have measures in place.”

The strongest elements that the

Spring Branch school district has succeeded in maintaining are overall

depth in all the arts disciplines, an

orchestra program that is a model for

Texas, and the Arts Partners aesthetic

education program.

Spring Branch’s Arts Partners

program evolved as the district’s demographics changed radically – from a

suburban to an urban community –

in just 10 years. 

The district sought to use the

arts to broaden understanding and

bridge the cultural gap by exposing all

the students to a variety of cultures. At

the beginning, when students were

asked whether they wanted to participate in an arts activity, they had little

or no context for knowing whether

they wanted to become engaged. The

strategy the district developed was to

increase arts awareness so the students

would have a basis for judgment and

to give all students the opportunity to

experience the arts. Now, seven years

later, all ethnic groups interact actively

with increased exposure to the arts. 

“We should never underestimate

the value of an arts program and its

impact on the student’s education,”

says McGlaun. ●

Starkville School District provides

many examples of excellence and

innovation in arts education: 

• a solid elementary foundation in

the arts, giving every student in

grades K-5 one period per week

with the music specialists and one

period per week with the visual arts

specialists;

• the district technology plan and 

the capital improvement plans,

which include the addition of a

production studio at Starkville High

School with classes in television

broadcast communications, a MIDI

lab for the instrumental music

department, and an increasing

emphasis on the graphic arts; 

• an outstanding theater program

beginning in ninth grade;

• a creative writing program which 

benefits from intensive professional

development for teachers, “publishing

activities” at every level for students,

and an annual “Writer’s Day” with

experts addressing the importance of

writing in the “world of work”; 

• collaborative projects between the

Starkville School District and

Mississippi State University, including a design program that brings

university architecture students to

Rosa Stewart Elementary School; 

• an interdisciplinary after-school

program for fourth and fifth graders

that integrates the arts with other

curricula (recently awarded a grant

of $3 million from the U.S.

Department of Education).

Starkville also has other valuable

lessons to share – lessons the district

learned the hard way. Joyce Polk, district arts coordinator, explains: 

“In Mississippi, there has not

been strong financial support for arts

education. Funding for personnel and

programs in the arts has not been a

part of the Minimum Foundation

Funding Program – the mechanism for

distribution of state funds to local

school districts in Mississippi. Only in

very recent years have state accreditation regulations addressed standards

for arts education.”

Despite these obstacles, the community’s expectations for arts education

have been high, and the school board

and administration has tried to meet

them by funding, supporting, and promoting arts education. 

“What have we learned?” Joyce

Polk asked – and answered this way:

“We have learned that:

• Interests in and participation in the

arts provides a link between school

and community and promotes support for the total educational system.

• Community involvement is a vital

component of a strong arts education.

• Given opportunity and encouragement,

assistance and support is available from

many segments of the community.

• Much more than an effective educational program results when a

community works together in the

endeavor. Human relationships are

nourished, and arts programs begun

in schools continue far beyond. 

• Cooperation and support for arts education results in a better quality of life

for the citizens of our community. 

• Involvement in the arts improves academic achievement and results in the

development of well-rounded students

who are able to leave a rural

Mississippi school district and compete

in prestigious college and university

environments across the country.

• By providing a great variety of arts

offerings, we are able to involve

large numbers of students from

diverse backgrounds, abilities, and

interests. We have seen the theory

of multiple intelligences in action! 

• Participation in art-related activities

promotes understanding and acceptance of individuals from diverse

ethnic and cultural groups. 

• Participation in the arts provides a

common bond and a common

interest among students.

• The required fine arts in our

schools promote involvement in

the arts far beyond the schoolhouse

door. This participation in the arts

helps to promote healthy lifestyles

for a lifetime. (Research indicates

that the most effective drug abuse

prevention strategy is a high level

of supervised student activity that

extends beyond the school day.)”

● 

art and music. Physical education

incorporates music and dance. High

school graduation requirements specify two credits per one year of fine or

performing arts and two credits per

one year of applied arts. 

“Young children,” Johnson

observes, “are open to sampling new

experiences. By the age of 15, they generally stop sampling as they get on

track to college. “If you don’t have the

arts in the elementary grades, you will

have less in high school. The question

is: What do you want your children to

look like when they leave you? Holistic

education is what creates good quality

of life. We have a strong commitment

to holistic education for kids. Our students end up with an unbelievably

strong, rich background in the arts.” 

To sustain this kind of commitment to the arts, Summit’s superintendent notes, requires “a person 

at the top who will say ‘no,’ who will

not turn to the arts or to the arts programs in the elementary schools when

budgets are cut. It’s easy to drop things

at the elementary level. It’s a quick

way to reduce a district’s budget.

When superintendents are told they

have to add so many things – AIDS

education, drug education – you have

to have leadership that will again and

again recommit to culture.” 

Summit’s board of education has

long supported funding, staffing, and

space for the arts. Every building project

undertaken since 1963 or before has featured space allocated to the visual arts

and music. Each secondary school has a

fully equipped auditorium and separate

vocal and instrumental music areas. The

six elementary schools also have dedicated arts space and an integrated

multipurpose performance area. 

An “ours” (versus “yours”)

approach to resources is credited by

Summit leaders as contributing to a

“for the good of all” mentality that literally opens doors for all elements of

Summit’s “learning community.” For

example, local community theaters and

the schools maintain cooperative agreements and share costumes, props, and

sets freely. The Breckenridge Music

Institute provides a free assembly to an

elementary school in exchange for use

of the building for rehearsals. The

local community college, Colorado

Mountain College, uses district facilities for many of its programs. And each

year the “Backstage at the Riverwalk”

musical comedy production – sponLessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 81

A Profile:

SUMMIT RE-1 

(FRISCO, CO)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

An Elementary

Foundation√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 10

Students (Total): 2,407

Per Pupil: $4,797

Arts Teachers (Total): 16

Summit County, Colorado, is a community rich in culture. With fewer

than 25,000 permanent residents, it is

home to two summer orchestras, a

year-round community band, a choral

society, two dance studios, a county

arts council, two community theaters,

and a thriving colony of practicing

artists. Residents expect the arts to be

available to all and consider the arts to

be integral to the total educational

program of the community. 

“We make a commitment to

begin in kindergarten,” says Dr.

Nadine Johnson, superintendent, “and

give students the arts all the way

through high school.”

Elementary students receive an

hour of instruction per week in both

continued on next page
design and CAD (Computer Aided

Design) drafting lab allow Deerfield

students to pursue “real world” projects. At Highland Park, an “Integrated

Senior Project” gives second-semester

sored by Summit High School, the

Town of Breckenridge, and the nonprofit Backstage Theater – rehearses at

Summit Middle School, then shares part

of its profits with the school district. 

●

With a century of arts education to

its credit, Township High School

District 113 – also known as DeerfieldHighland Park – would be expected to

have strong arts programs. It does. Yet

Highland Park High School and its sister

school, Deerfield, which opened in 1960,

are not resting on their many laurels.

Located in an affluent, highly

educated suburban community northwest of Chicago, this secondary school

district has graduated hundreds of students, such as actor/director Gary

Sinise, who have gone on to successful

careers in university and professional

theater, music, dance, visual and media

arts. In fact, a student cannot graduate

from Deerfield or Highland Park high

schools today without taking a minimum one-semester fine arts course

from among the 34 courses available. 

Taught by an outstanding faculty

– challenged by the district to continue to grow as artists as well as

educators – the courses range from

filmmaking and electronic music to

technical theater and graphic design.

Given a district philosophy of inclusion, all arts courses are available to all

students. Support services and learning

accommodations are made when necessary, but generally the arts educators

work successfully with all students. 

Special opportunities exist for 

students at both ends of the learning

spectrum. In addition to Advanced

Placement courses in art history, studio

art, music, as well as advanced theater

performance for students seeking higher

levels of opportunity, District 113 offers

visual art, drama, and music to students

with disabilities. Upon completion of

these courses, the students are mainstreamed into other art classes as their

schedules permit. 

To meet the needs of increasing

numbers of students with financial

need, Patrons of the Arts (at Highland)

and Friends of the Arts (at Deerfield)

programs were launched in the early

1990s. Funds are now raised collaboratively with parents and fine arts

faculty through distribution of a fine

arts calendar of events. Funds support

students who might wish to take private lessons or do summer study in

their art form.

The fine arts curriculum is

designed so that a student with no arts

background can experience success in

any of the four arts – music, theater,

dance, and visual arts. For example,

students with no dance background can

enroll in dance, and the extracurricular

dance program is open to any student

in the school. Music courses, such as

electronic music, are specifically

designed for the student with no music

background. But learning expectations,

based upon the national and State of

Illinois standards, are high. Each student is expected to gain considerable

depth of knowledge in at least one art

form that can be translated into other

art forms for lifelong learning. 

Over the past 30-some years,

Highland Park parents, faculty, and

student volunteers have been welcoming back alumni to perform or present

workshops for the three-day, threenight festival of the arts called “Focus

on the Arts.” 

More recently, Deerfield High

School added an artist-in residence

program that bears some resemblance

to an “educational barter” initiative in

nearby Milwaukee (see Milwaukee

Public Schools case study). The

Deerfield artist in residence is given an

honorarium by the school board and

studio space in a room adjacent to the

visual arts classroom. In return, these

artists provide instruction and inspiration for high school students who

enjoy getting to know working professionals. There are other tangible

benefits, such as arts classes offered to

the adult evening school and the resident artist’s sculpture that was acquired for the school by a communitywide fund-raising campaign.

Continuous curriculum assessment had led to other innovations and

initiatives. New computers in a graphic

PAGE 82

A Profile:

TOWNSHIP 113

(DEERFIELD AND

HIGHLAND PARK, IL)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

Continuity in

Leadership√

Teachers Who Practice Their Art√

Opportunities for Higher Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other Outside Forces√

Planning√

Continuous Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 2

Students (Total): 2,820

Per Pupil: $15,100

Arts Teachers (Total): 19

ARTS HISTORY IN HIGHLAND PARK

Its 1987 centennial publication states

that the school began with a singing

program included in its curriculum: “In

1897, the principal was authorized to

buy 20 singing books at a price not to

exceed $.75 per copy.” By 1912 and the

school’s silver anniversary, the curriculum included “art, music, and one

Shakespearean play each year.” In 1915,

the board of education received a letter

which “called attention to the incorrect

and unbecoming methods of dancing on

the part of high school pupils at their

school dances. A dance instructor was

hired for PE classes for $50.00.” 

A WORK IN PROGRESS

In 1995, an eighth-grade student in

Chicago telephoned Highland Park

wondering if the high school still had

the murals depicting American industry

that Edgar Britton had painted in the

1930s as a WPA (Works Progress

Administration) project. The call led to a

tremendous discovery: nine panels that

had been leaning on a brick smokestack in the school attic since 1955. 

Now restored, they have become a

contemporary curricular-integration

work in progress. When the murals

were first found, AP Studio Art students analyzed the artistic techniques

used to create them. The Art History

students discussed the historic meaning of panels. Finally, the chemistry

teacher brought her students to view

the murals and discuss with the conservators the chemical analysis

decisions involved in mural restoration.

As a result of this integration of public

art works in curriculum, one graduate

is now studying art history, studio art,

and chemistry in college so she can

became an art conservator. 

The project will continue as grant

money is obtained. In addition, it has

become part of the “New Deal

Network” Web site of the Institute for

Learning Technologies at Columbia

University. The Web site – http://new

deal.feri.org/classrm/teach.html –

describes “Highland Park’s Edgar

Britton Murals: Using Public Art for

Interdisciplinary Study” and the curriculum development work of the

school’s fine and applied arts department chair, Connie Kieffer. Planning grants from the Illinois

State Board of Education.

• Thomas Paine Elementary School

received its second Museum in the

Classroom Grant to allow the

dance/drama teacher and a fourthgrade teacher to create an online

Abraham Lincoln museum. The 

museum will serve as a link to other

fourth-grade classrooms around the

state, offering a collection of dramatizations of Lincoln folklore gathered

from the eighth circuit. It will also provide an opportunity for high school

art and drama students to act as mentors for the fourth-grade students. 

• Urbana High School received a

Museum in the Classroom Grant

from the state board of education

allowing art students to work closely with Adler Planetarium for two

years and produce the winning web

page in Illinois. (Visitors are welcome at www.cmi.k12.il.us/Urbana

/projects/UHSArt/mic3)

• Parents and other community members have begun participating in

“Artshares” – regularly scheduled

occasions for arts-making experiences

with their children. The district has

also begun hosting lecture-demonstrations and performances of student

work for the school board and parent

organizations. 

Superintendent Gene Amberg is

credited with the vision for arts education in the Urbana school system,

which is a source of pride for the school

board, administration, teachers, students, and community at large. They

believe arts education – and students’

successes in arts-based experiences –

has played a “significant role” in the

improvement of student attitudes and

performance in the classroom. ●

Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 83

A Profile:

URBANA 116 (IL)

Factors

The Superintendent√

An Elementary

Foundation√

National, State, Other

Outside Forces√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 8

Students (Total): 4,925

Per Pupil: $5,896

Arts Teachers (Total): 30

Three dates in the life of Urbana

School District 116 are instructive:

1924 — The district budget shows its

first line item for arts education at the

secondary level.

1989 — A line item for arts education

at the elementary level is added to the

district’s budget after schools decided

to create a program called the Arts for

Urbana – Elementary in answer to the

state-mandated goals for arts education

in Illinois. 

1990-91— The Arts for Urbana–

Elementary program is launched as an

integrated fine arts program taught by

teams of arts specialists who are

trained specifically in their chosen

areas: dance, drama, music, and 

visual art.

Since then:

• Enrollment in arts classes at the

middle school and high school 

levels has steadily increased.

• The Arts for Urbana-Elementary

program has received three K-6 Arts

Volusia County may be best known

for Daytona Beach and race cars, but

it is also on a fast track for arts education.

A Profile:

VOLUSIA COUNTY (FL)

Factors

The Community√

The School Board√

The Superintendent√

An Elementary Foundation√

Opportunities for Higher 

Levels of Achievement√

National, State, Other 

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 63

Students (Total): 57,035

Per Pupil: $4,566

Arts Teachers (Total): 191

seniors the opportunity to study a

chosen theme in a collaborative milieu

that integrates the arts. In a nod to

research on the brain and the arts, the

project stresses the importance of

making connections. 

Dr. Linda M. Hanson, Township

113 superintendent, observes, “We have

never before been better poised for

replacing antiquated points of view with

a new vision in arts education. Recent

discoveries in the area of brain research

have given us a new understanding of

the function that the arts play in the

learning process. We always knew the

arts enriched our lives and nurtured our

souls; we know now that we learn

through and because of the arts. The

next century,” she predicts, “will be

noted for an expanded definition of student learning and the essential role that

the arts play in that understanding.”●

The district reports: “We are very fortunate that Volusia County has

historically employed district-level subject area specialists in all content areas.

Line items currently in the budget exist

because the district and music specialists have been and continue to be very

aggressive in making the program needs

known to the decision makers. The district has willingly become very sensitive

to arts education needs though full

funding cannot always be provided.”

When budgets cuts have been necessary, the district adds, they “have been

absorbed by across the board reductions

or at the district level.”

As funding permits, the district

has offered artist residencies, partnership activities with area arts institutions,

AP and International Baccalaureate programs, professional development

workshops and summer academies. The

district also holds Florida’s largest Very

Special Arts Festival, which involves

more than 2,500 students of all ages. 

Approximately 2 percent of the

$5 million budget is spent for arts education. Most of the allotment is salary,

but line items for transportation, supplies, repairs, space rental, residencies,

and consultants are also allocated in

limited amounts. Additional funds for

the arts are provided by the schools and

accessed through a school-based decision-making process. Volusia schools

take advantage of as many funding

sources as possible: budget line items,

private grants, partnerships, parent

groups, and community fund raisers. 

The Arts Council of Volusia

County also is active in promoting

school-and-artist communication,

which has encouraged the participation of local artists and arts groups at

both the classroom and school level.

The district’s Volunteers in Public

Schools (VIPS) office helps keep the

connections by maintaining a list of

people who are willing to contribute

their talents to schools.

Superintendent William E. Hall

recognizes the value of arts learning to

students and the community at large:

“Where students have a chance to create, use their imagination, and express

themselves, we tend to have strong

academic programs, high levels of family and community support, and

positive learning environments. This is

important as the arts build the skills

valued by business and industry.”

●
PAGE 84

A Profile:

WAYLAND (MA)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

A Cadre of Principals√

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 5

Students (Total): 2,678

Per Pupil: $7,043

Arts Teachers (Total): 14

Every other year, the citizens in the

town of Wayland, west of Boston,

must vote on whether to override a

severe property tax cap that was set 

on Massachusetts citizens decades ago.

To not have a successful override vote

would mean the loss of the arts program in the schools. Every election has

passed the override overwhelmingly.

Many factors play critical roles

in that biennial accomplishment: the

community’s involvement (parents

write letters, make phone calls, help

with publicity) and the quality of the

arts programs themselves (K-12, broad,

deep, accessible, innovative).

All K-8 students in this growing

district are required to take art and

music. Instrumental music is offered

beginning in grade 3 for strings and

grade 4 for winds and percussion, and

rehearsals and lessons take place during the school day. There is a chorus,

orchestra, and band in every school.

Jazz ensembles and chamber music

ensembles are offered at the middle

school and high school. Theater arts

begins in grade 5, and all fifth graders

participate in an annual musical. 

The middle school also mounts a

full musical production each year,

which includes approximately 170 students (40 percent of the school). A fall

play has just been added to the middle

school theater program. The high

school’s theater program puts on six

major productions annually, including

a musical. Theater arts classes are heavily enrolled, and a film study course

has been added. Both art and theater

arts offer sequential major courses. 

To make the most of the budget

allocation for the arts, the staff assures

creative use each year. Considerable

time and effort is spent in careful planning and sharing of equipment and

budget monies. 

Support for the arts program in

the budget process and throughout the

year comes from the superintendent,

Dr. Gary Burton, who follows another

arts advocate, Dr. William Zimmerman.

Now retired, Zimmerman enjoyed playing with the high school band, leading

the elementary band in parades, playing for high school musicals, and serving on the board of the state music

educators’ association. Principals and

district administrators regularly attend

concerts, plays, and art shows, and

they “clear a path” for the arts programs by showing the whole district

that arts education holds an important

place in the Wayland school system.

●

A Profile:

WESTBROOK (ME)

Factors

The Superintendent√

Parent/Public Relations√

Planning√

Continuous

Improvement√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 6

Students (Total): 2,944

Per Pupil: $5,709

Arts Teachers (Total): 28

The school district of Westbrook,

Maine, a small community outside

Portland, is recognized for the quality of

its arts education leadership, notably

through the work of three superintendents

from the late 1950s to the present – Dr.

Carroll McGary, Edward Connolly, and

Robert Hall. It is also known for the overall

excellence and continuous improvement

of its arts education programs, for its students’ performance, and for its vigorous

arts advocacy and perseverance during difficult budget times. (See sidebar.)

Westbrook has no designated arts

advocate, yet a firm partnership among

administrators, teachers, parents, and the

community at large has proved highly

effective. When the district was experiencing problems with funding, students

wrote to the state policy makers, and the

PTA kept in touch with the legislative

chair. When Westbrook almost lost a

part-time teacher to budget cuts, the

administration and school community

together made a commitment not to lose

any teachers, and they realized that goal.

The administration and board took the

position that “staffing is critical in keeping class size down, learning skills up.”

Vital to the advocacy efforts is

community visibility for the K-12 visual

art, music, and drama programs. By

newsletter, the district keeps the community abreast of core issues in arts

programs, gives accolades to students

and teachers alike, and creates interactions between community and schools.

Westbrook schools engage parents

in their children’s arts learning in a number of ways. The schools host Family Art

J

ust 15 miles or so due west of

Milwaukee is the city of Waukesha,

which has supported arts education in

its school district for more than 40 years. 

Jeff Schlueter, chairman of the K12 art program, attributes the longevity

of the visual art program to the support

of the community, board of education,

and administration. Shared planning time

and leadership are viewed as contributing

factors by other Waukesha arts educators.

Michael Potyinger, district music department chair, observes, “Shared weekly

planning time for the music specialists is

central in the development of our elementary general music program, which is

the most important key in our secondary

success in music education.” 

What also stands out as a particular strength in Waukesha is the

school district’s encouragement of

shared leadership. Schlueter offered

two suggestions:

• Allow leadership to be shared with

students. “We have had great success

with high school artists sharing their

work with middle school students,”

he said. “The older students feel honored, and the middle schoolers have

art role models.”

• Invite high school students to be

the guest artists during Fine Arts

Days in elementary schools. “This

is especially effective if the student

goes back to his or her own elementary school. It is very rewarding

for art teachers to hear their former

students be so articulate about their

art.”

●

A Profile:

WAUKESHA (WI)

Factors

Planning√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 25

Students (Total): 13,465

Per Pupil: $6,903

Arts Teachers (Total): 107
Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 85

I

n Wichita, Kansas, Unified School

District 259 provides arts education at

every level of learning, K-12. That

accomplishment is a direct result of

community support for arts education.

Were it not for a successful parents’

protest in 1996, the district might have

lost not only its elementary instrumental

music program but also its visual arts

program for grades 1 through 5.

Community support in Wichita

takes many forms and comes from a

variety of resources: parents, colleges and

universities (Wichita State University,

Kansas-Newman College, Friends

University), local arts organizations

(Wichita’s Center for the Arts,

Symphony, Jazz Festival, Art Museum,

Women Artists, Opera Kansas, among

many others), businesses (Boeing,

Kansas Power and Light, Dillons, and

more), and foundations. For example,

Knight-Ridder, parent firm of The

Wichita Eagle provided a $500,000 grant

through its foundation to train classroom teachers and community artists to

teach school content through the arts. 

A community exchange program allows

students to spend time in businesses and

observe the arts “at work.” Business

employees in turn participate in workshops with the students in the schools. 

The result is an arts education program of breadth and depth. At the

elementary level, each student receives a

minimum of four hours of arts instruction per week. In grades 1-5, students

receive a total of 90 minutes of visual arts

instruction per week – 40 minutes taught

by a certified art specialist, 50 minutes by

the classroom teacher. Orchestra is

Nights, for example, which give parents

and children a chance to work collaboratively on an actual art project. The district

not only exhibits the artwork of every art

student at the district-wide exhibitions,

but it also displays learning outcomes

alongside each exhibited project to educate parents and the public about

students’ art learning. Music students participate in community events and perform

at local nursing homes and senior centers.

The district’s drama students not only

work on their school theater productions

but also become involved in local community theaters, performing on stage or

working backstage.

“Parents see from the many performing arts programs, concerts, plays,

and band programs, as well as the visual

arts” says Janet Crawford, district director of art, “that the arts are viable in

developing the whole person.” ●

A Profile:

WICHITA 259 (KS) 

Factors

The Community√

National, State, Other 

Outside Forces√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 81

Students (Total): 46,711

Per Pupil: $4,367

Arts Teachers (Total): 213

THE MAINE WAY TO PERSEVERE

Perseverance is a hallmark of the

Westbrook school district and its arts

education program. Responding on

behalf of the district to a question about

budget (“Have you overcome budgetary

cuts to arts education; if so, how?”)

Janet Crawford, director of art, shed

light on the kind of critical thinking,

problem solving, and resourcefulness

that gets folks in Maine through the

worst of winters and tough

financial times.

Cutbacks in recent years due to economic conditions have had a major

impact on Westbrook’s art materials

budget. Supplies have been depleted,

and replenishing has only recently

begun. What offsets this strain on the

instructional program, however, is the

Westbrook School Committee’s and the

administration’s commitment to maintaining an appropriate level of staffing.

The consensus is that while it is difficult

for teachers to “do more with less,” losing supplies has a less dramatic effect

on the quality of instruction than losing

staff. Cutting people would have meant

cutting programs.

The arts programs have survived

because the administration and the

school committee members have given

extraordinary amounts of time to careful

planning and decision making during

budget deliberations. Through teamwork, they have avoided severe

reductions in staff. While some positions have been lost, the losses have

been kept to a minimum and have been

distributed fairly across the disciplines. 

The district’s practice of buying art supplies in bulk and storing them centrally

also has helped Westbrook arts programs survive budget cuts. Pooling

gives teachers the chance to choose

from a wide variety of art materials for

planning lessons. 

Crawford offered three Westbrook

lessons for surviving a period of economic stress: 

• Keep an open mind about the ebb

and flow of school funding and

understanding that “this period too

shall pass.” A positive attitude and

a will to maintain quality arts

instruction in the face of adversity

goes a long way. You simply have

to expect the growth to be slower

during tight budget years.

• Capitalize on growth opportunities

during boom years for the arts by

increasing supplies and adding

staff at that time. This [strategy]

has provided the cushion necessary

to help ease us through this period

of slower growth.

• Reap the benefits of resourcefulness and human resources. Art

teachers are masters at seeking

donations from local businesses,

recycling, and utilizing resource

centers that offer free materials to

schools. 

Crawford summed up: “We never give up

and never take for granted the support we

receive.”

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

continued on next page

PAGE 86

offered in both the fourth and fifth

grades, band in fifth, so students have

the opportunity to receive 60 to 90 minutes of music instruction each week. 

Middle school builds on the 

elementary base with visual arts and

music classes. At the high school level,

students can take the mainstays of band,

art, and drama, and they can expand

into more specialized areas such as AP

Art, creative metalsmithing, experimental video, exploration of musical

instruments, AP music theory, drama,

and technology-based visual communication classes, such as television and

photography. 

To ensure access and quality, the

Wichita Public School system strives for

equal distribution of arts courses 

to the high schools, whether in lowincome or affluent areas. With fully

implemented curriculum standards, 

the district also works to keep quality

consistently high. The effort appears 

successful: USD 259 reports that an adjudicator from Omaha who participated 

in a citywide music festival at which all

of Wichita school groups performed,

admitted to being “amazed at how well

all of the groups performed.” 

●

A Profile: WILLIAMSPORT (PA)

Factors

The Community√

The Superintendent√

District Arts

Coordinator(s)√

Teachers Who Practice 

Their Art√

Statistics

Schools (Total): 12

Students (Total): 7,025

Per Pupil: $4,609

Arts Teachers (Total): 39

The Williamsport Area School District

in north central Pennsylvania

includes the city of Williamsport, local

townships, and some of the most rugged

and secluded terrain in the East. Its arts

education program is woven into the

fabric of the community, which has a

proud tradition of music and visual art.

Program leadership, reports

Richard Coulter, chair of the music

department, has been a vital component

of the district’s arts strength. Arts supervisors serve on local and regional arts

boards and work with local arts agencies,

universities, production houses, and

businesses to develop alliances and

mutually beneficial partnerships. In turn,

many of the region’s most prominent,

active professional artists serve on the

district’s faculty and create opportunities

to demonstrate the value of arts education. They promote sharing of equipment and rehearsal space, visiting of

guest artists as clinicians and/or performers in the schools, mentoring of

students, borrowing of costumes from

the local college theater department, and

use of the Community Arts Center, the

region’s premiere performing arts facility,

at a very low, subsidized cost.

Public advocacy-education is a

responsibility shared by everyone in the

district’s leadership. The extracurricular

ensemble program, for instance, is designed

not only to perform but also to “inform the

community about the great kids and the

wonderful work taking place in the

schools,” explains Coulter. “There are very

few major banquets, conventions, or celebrations in town that do not include

participation by a school group. We also

have a high level of visibility with local service agencies and clubs, such as Rotary,

Kiwanis, and Lions.”

The Williamsport district and its

arts education programs have become

linked to the area’s economic development. As Dr. Martha Robinson,

Williamsport’s superintendent, affirmed,

“The arts program is one of the strengths

of our district and is responsible for

attracting many families to our community. We are committed to its remaining a

strong and vibrant part of every student’s

core curriculum.”

●

GAININGTHE

ARTS ADVANTAGE
Lessons From School Districts That Value ARTS EDUCATION PAGE 87

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T he President's Committee on the

Arts and the Humanities and the

Arts Education Partnership wish to

acknowledge the support of three outstanding leaders from the private

sector whose contributions to this

study extended far beyond the granting of funds from their respective

organizations:

• Jane Polin, program manager and

comptroller of the GE Fund, for her

unflagging support of this ambitious

project, her belief in its value to education in America, and the impact of

her considerable – and growing –

leadership in the philanthropic

arena;

• Nicholas S. Rabkin, senior 

program officer, The John D. and

Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,

for his commitment to the study at a

particularly critical juncture and for

his wise counsel throughout the

project; 

• Richard S. Gurin, president and CEO

of Binney & Smith and a member of

the President's Committee on the Arts

and the Humanities, for staunchly

advocating arts education, especially

among the nation's business leaders,

and for dedicating his personal energies and corporate good will, financial

resources, and creative abilities to

Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons

From School Districts That Value Arts

Education.

We would like to recognize Ellen

McCulloch-Lovell's role in initiating

this work, the expert guidance of the

Arts Advisory Committee, as well as

the team of superintendents and educators who helped to carry it out by

visiting the "case study" school districts. In particular, we thank Dawn M.

Ellis, senior project associate, for her

diligence in the collection of information from hundreds of school districts

nationwide and for her insights into

how arts education thrives throughout

a school system.

Without the additional support

of the National Endowment for the

Arts, the U.S. Department of Education,

and the White House Millennium

Council as well as the in-kind services

of the Council of Chief State School

Officers and General Electric

Information Services, this study would

not have happened. Its publication is

made possible by the contributed time

and talents of Binney & Smith's senior

publication designer, Peter M. Sak, and

Lee Manis, manager of Art & Design

Development. Binney & Smith also

arranged major contributions of paper

and ink. Bell Atlantic funded the development of the report's online version,

created by Effie Samios and Ilia Startsev

of Istros Media Corporation (IMC).

Special thanks go to facilitator

Craig Dreeszen of the University of

Massachusetts and to the many participants of three forums – one of

secondary school-age students in the

District of Columbia held in August

1997, a second of school administrators held in September 1997, in

conjunction with the American

Association of School Administrators,

and the third on December 6, 1997,

with school superintendents and advisors gathered to help develop the

protocol research questions for district

site visits and interviews. We thank

the directors of the New York City

Superintendent's Forum for welcoming the study's researchers to their

conference on "The Arts for Literacy." 

We are grateful for the contributions of volunteer researchers Kathy

Fitzgerald, Rita Foy, Sara Goldhawk,

Doug Herbert, Sarah Howes, Alesha

Pulsinelli, and Maxine Stevens;

Catherine Burt and Kimberley

Heatherington, research assistants;

PCAH special assistant Regina Syquia

and interns Julie Adair, Jennifer

Brehm, Mimi Dionne, Kristin

Hathaway, Sarah Himmelheber, Carrie

Hughes, Sheena Lee, Rohit Raghavan,

David Silva, Andrew Silverstein, Jon

Tucker, and Carmella Williams. 

M. Shawn Wray, who initially

joined the project as an intern, became

its invaluable information and communications resource. Judith Humphreys

Weitz guided the creation of a Web

presence for the study. Susan Rappaport

gave her valuable time and services to

contact school districts and write

several profiles, Rhonda Nail Manis

volunteered as the report's proofreader.

Their contributions are greatly

appreciated. 

We are especially pleased to

acknowledge all the people around the

country who helped bring this study

to life. In every district they visited,

the researchers were welcomed into

the homes of local families. The

President's Committee and Arts

Education Partnership are very grateful

to each of them. We also appreciate

the assistance of on-site coordinators

Deborah Brzoska in Vancouver, WA;

Roy Fluhrer, Greenville, SC; Lilia

Garcia and staff, Miami-Dade County,

FL; Arlene Jordan, New York

Community School District #25; Susan

Loesl, Milwaukee, WI; John Schutz, Las

Cruces, NM; and Alison M. Youkilis,

Wyoming, OH.

Laura Longley's writing, editing,

and production management were

superb and indispensable. She elicited,

clarified, and gave shape to the work

of all of us. We couldn't have done it

without her.

Most of all, we are deeply

indebted to each school district that

participated in this effort by gathering

information and sharing it with us.

Your time, data, ideas, experiences,

and program descriptions form the

core of this study.

PROJECT PARTNERS

President's Committee on the Arts

and the Humanities

T he President's Committee was

created by Presidential Executive

Order in 1982 to encourage private

sector support and to increase public

appreciation of the value of the arts

and the humanities, through projects,

publications, and meetings. 

Appointed by the President, the

Committee comprises leading citizens

from the private sector who have an

interest in and commitment to the

humanities and the arts. Its members

also include the heads of federal

agencies with cultural programs, such

as the National Endowments for the

Arts and the Humanities, the Institute

of Museum and Library Services, the

U.S. Department of Education, the

Smithsonian Institution, the Library of

Congress, the National Gallery of Art

and the John F. Kennedy Center for

the Performing Arts.

continued on next page
Arts Education Partnership T he Arts Education Partnership

(formerly known as the Goals

2000 Arts Education Partnership) is a

private, nonprofit coalition of more

than 100 national education, arts,

business, philanthropic, and government organizations that demonstrate

and promote the essential role of arts

education in enabling all students to

succeed in school, life, and work. The

Partnership was formed in 1995

through a cooperative agreement

between the National Endowment for

the Arts (NEA), U.S. Department of

Education, National Assembly of State

Arts Agencies (NASAA), and the Council

of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). SPONSORS

GE Fund’s award-winning arts-ineducation program supports model

partnerships between schools and

cultural organizations. Through

advancing the role of the arts in

education, the GE Fund promotes both

skill development and community

involvement in schools and arts

settings nationwide.

Known as an innovator in corporate

philanthropy, the GE Fund is a catalyst

for improving the education and wellbeing of men, women, and children

around the world. As the principal

vehicle for the GE Company's philanthropy, the GE Fund supports a wide

range of education, social service, arts,

environmental, and other charitable

organizations in the United States and

abroad.

The John D. and Catherine T.

MacArthur Foundation is a private,

independent grant-making institution

dedicated to helping groups and individuals foster lasting improvement in

the human condition. The Foundation

seeks the development of healthy

individuals and effective communities;

peace within and among nations;

responsible choices about human

reproduction; and a global ecosystem

capable of supporting healthy human

societies. The Foundation pursues this

mission by supporting research, policy

development, dissemination, education and training, and practice.

Binney & Smith, maker of Crayola

®

products, has been providing hands-on

products for children’s creative development, self-expression, and fun for nearly

a century. Today the company offers a

multitude of art products for art and

classroom teachers to motivate children’s

learning and help them have successful

hands-on art experiences. The company’s

long-standing partnership with the

educational community has generated

many successful programs for learning

enrichment.

The National Endowment for the Arts

is the federal grant-making agency that

Congress created to support the visual,

literary, design, and performing arts to

benefit all Americans. The Arts

Endowment's mission is twofold: to

foster the excellence, diversity, and

vitality of the arts in the United States,

and to broaden public access to the

arts.

The U.S. Department of Education

was established by Congress on May 4,

1980 in the Department of Education

Organization Act (Public Law 96-88 of

October 1979). The department's

mission includes the promotion of

improvement in the quality and usefulness of education through federally

supported research, evaluation, and

sharing of information.

The White House Millennium

Council was created in 1997 by

President and Mrs. Clinton to give

every American an opportunity to

mark the millennium through meaningful activities that celebrate our

democracy, strengthen communities,

and leave lasting gifts to the future.

The national theme is “Honor the past

– Imagine the future.” Mrs. Clinton

has issued a call to action to make the

arts basic to every child’s education,

enabling them to imagine the future

through the arts.

PAGE 88

GAINING

THE

ARTS ADVANTAGE
(*Case Studies)

ALABAMA

Selma/St. James

ALASKA

Anchorage

ARKANSAS

El Dorado

ARIZONA

Kyrene

Peoria

CALIFORNIA

Clovis

Lawndale 

Redondo Beach*

San Jose 

Santa Barbara 

COLORADO

Larimer County-Thompson

Summit 

FLORIDA

Hillsborough County

Miami-Dade County*

Seminole County

Volusia County

GEORGIA

Atlanta 

Fulton County

IDAHO

Boise 

Coeur d'Alene

ILLINOIS

Maine Township

Oak Park 

Orland Park 

Township 113

Urbana 

INDIANA

Southwest Allen County 

IOWA

Iowa City 

KANSAS

Olathe

Salina

Wichita

KENTUCKY

Jefferson County

Rockcastle County

MAINE

MSAD #28

MSAD #40

Westbrook 

MARYLAND

Howard County 

MASSACHUSETTS

Chelmsford

Lexington

Masconomet

Wayland

MICHIGAN

Ann Arbor 

MINNESOTA

Robbinsdale

Saint Paul 

MISSISSIPPI

Hattiesburg

Starkville 

MISSOURI

Independence 

MONTANA

Missoula County

NEBRASKA

Columbus

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Rochester 

NEW JERSEY

Glen Ridge

Parsippany-Troy Hills

NEW MEXICO

Las Cruces*

NEW YORK

CSD #3 

CSD#25*

Elmira

Jamestown 

Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda

Liverpool 

Port Washington 

NORTH CAROLINA

Charlotte-Mecklenburg 

NORTH DAKOTA

Minot 

OHIO

Cleveland

Hamilton

Lima

Wyoming* 

OKLAHOMA

Norman

PENNSYLVANIA

East Stroudsburg 

Lewisburg

North Allegheny

Williamsport

SOUTH CAROLINA

Beaufort County

Greenville*

SOUTH DAKOTA

Sioux Valley 

TENNESSEE

Kingsport 

Memphis

TEXAS

Spring Branch, Houston

VERMONT

Chittenden South 

VIRGINIA

Arlington County

Charlottesville

Fairfax County

Henrico County

WASHINGTON

Puyallup

Vancouver*

WEST VIRGINIA

Ohio County 

Randolph County

WISCONSIN

Burlington 

Kettle Moraine

Milwaukee*

Montello

Waukesha 

WYOMING

Fremont County

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

BY STATE
PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON THE ARTS

AND THE HUMANITIES

1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Suite 526

Washington, DC 20506

ARTS EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP

1 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20001

Funded by

GE Fund

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Binney & Smith

Additional Support Provided by

National Endowment for the Arts

U.S. Department of Education

White House Millennium Council

GAINING THE ARTS

ADVANTAGE

Lessons From School Districts That Value

ARTS EDUCATION