In This Issue
- California Budget Update
- Education and the Arts
- Improving Arts Education is Key to Stemming Audience Decline RAND Study Finds
- Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC issues Congressional Report Card on the Arts
- New Review of Arts Assessment
CONFERENCES, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Americans for the Arts and LA's Arts for All Host Knowledge Exchange
- The Stem: National Arts Assessment Conference in Los Angeles
- Worry-Free Advocacy
RESOURCES, FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
- The Music Center of Los Angeles County Spotlight Awards
- On Location: Spotlight on Your Community
- Funds Available Through California Partnership Academy Program
- National String Project Seeks Applications for New Teacher Training Program Sites
- NAMM Grants Available
- LEGO Grants for Developing Creativity
September 24 , 2008
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California
Budget Update
We have a state budget. Within it you will find the allocation for the
Arts
and Music Block Grant (6110-265-0001) at close to $109.7 million. Like
the
rest of education funding, this amount reflects a slight increase in
funding, less the normal Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). Given the
deficits that the state is facing, this is an accomplishment, if not a
victory, that education funding has been sustained at current levels for the
coming year.
There was considerable concern aroused by legislative proposals during the
year to increase district level spending flexibility over this and other
categorical funding. This language, though it was originally part of the
Governor’s budget proposal, is no longer in the state budget. District
level
flexibility will remain at the same level that it was during previous years
at 10 percent.
We have heard reports of school districts withholding or reallocating the
arts education funding in anticipation of expanded flexibility. If that is
happening in your school district, that is in violation of the agreed upon
budget language. We encourage you to contact your local school board
representatives or district superintendent. Let them know that you believe
it is essential that the intent of these funds – to support quality arts
education in all schools - be honored in compliance with state law. The
integrity of the block grant funds must be maintained for the purposes for
which they were intended, building on the progress we’ve made to enable
every child to receive quality arts education.
We will keep you posted as new information emerges from the budget
settlement. If you have questions, please contact Joe Landon, California Alliance
for Arts Education Policy Director at joe@artsed411.org.
Education
and the Arts
Responding to the new RAND study that argues schools must expand arts
education to build a new audience, a Los Angeles Times editorial questions, "if
our society is placing less value on classical arts, is it proper for
schools to try to change a cultural trend? If the popularity of video
games miraculously plummets, few would want schools to create a market
for the genre. The advent of the Internet calls into question even
the future of literacy as we know it, a shift that mightily concerns
newspapers across the nation." Click
here for article.
To view responses to the editorial, go to the Arts for LA website.
Improving
Arts Education is Key to Stemming Audience Decline, RAND Study Finds
"Policymakers have underestimated the critical role of arts learning
in supporting a vibrant nonprofit cultural sector, according to a RAND
Corporation study issued today. The study was commissioned by The Wallace
Foundation and conducted by RAND, a non-profit research organization.
Despite decades of effort to make high-quality works of art available to
Americans, demand for the arts has failed to keep pace with supply. Audiences
for classical music, jazz, opera, theater and the visual arts have declined
as a percentage of the population, and the percentage of these audiences
age 30 and younger has fallen even more. . . . Calling upon evidence that
experiencing and studying the arts in childhood increase the likelihood
of arts participation later in life, the study urges policymakers in both
the arts and education to devote greater attention to cultivating demand
for the arts by supporting more and better arts education."
Click
here to read article.
Americans
for the Arts Action Fund PAC issues Congressional Report Card on the
Arts
The Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC issued today its Congressional
Arts Report Card, covering the 110th Congress (2007-2009). The 2008 Congressional
Arts Report Card reveals that 181 members (43%) of Congress received a
grade of A or higher. When the grades of the Members of each state delegation
are averaged on a state-by-state basis, the highest scoring state delegation
is Maine, with a perfect score of 100. Alaska and Wyoming are the lowest
scoring state delegations with a score of 20 points each. Additionally,
the Arts Report Card shows that support for the arts is bipartisan and
growing, as evidenced in the nearly 24% increase in membership of the Congressional
Arts Caucus since 2000. Also, 21 representatives improved their Report
Card scores by one-letter grade or more from their 2006 Report Card grade.
The entire Report Card containing letter grades and numerical scores of
every Member of Congress based on his or her voting record on arts issues
can be found online here.
New
Review of Arts Assessment
Last year, with support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation,
the Center for Education Policy at SRI International issued a report
on the state of arts education in California. The report, An Unfinished Canvas:
Arts Education in California, revealed that a large majority of California
schools fail to meet state goals for arts education — that is, they fail
to offer a standards-based course of study in dance, music, visual arts,
and theatre. The report also identified key barriers to arts education,
including inadequate and unstable funding, insufficient instructional
time, and limited teacher capacity in the arts.
To identify solutions aimed at increasing the delivery of standards-based arts education to California students, the Hewlett Foundation has provided support for a suite of follow-up studies. An Unfinished Canvas: A Review of Large-Scale Assessment in K-12 Arts Education reviews existing approaches to large-scale assessment in the arts, considering both the benefits and limitations. Hard copies are available upon request to Jennifer Bland at jennifer.bland@sri.com or 650-859-2190.
Conferences, Professional Development
Americans
for the Arts and LA's Arts for All Host Knowledge Exchange
District-Wide Change in Arts Education, American for the Arts’ inaugural
Knowledge Exchange, will feature
Los Angeles County's successful Arts for
All, an initiative focused on enabling sequential K-12 arts education in
Los Angeles County school districts. Over the course of two days, participants
will share knowledge, grapple with key questions, and actively synthesize
information for applicability to participant communities anywhere in the
nation. Workshops will highlight the consensus-building process utilized
by the California Alliance for Arts Education coaches in their work throughout
Los Angeles County. Registration Deadline: Friday, October 10
October 27–28,
2008 in Los Angeles. Click here to
register.
The
Stem: National Arts Assessment Conference in Los Angeles
The California Department of Education, The California Arts Project, and
the State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards are hosting
a conference on assessment for K-12 administrators, arts teachers and
coordinators and arts leaders. Four assessment strands will be highlighted:
classroom assessment, districts/school management systems, large and
high stakes tests, and California assessment. October 21-22, Sheraton
Universal Hotel, Los Angeles. To register, click here.
Worry-Free
Advocacy
The Alliance for Justice and United Way of the Bay Area present Worry-Free
Advocacy:
Understanding the Rules of Nonprofit Advocacy and
Election-Related Activity.
During this one-day workshop for nonprofit managers, staff and volunteers,
attorney-trainers will cover topics such as: What type of activities constitute
as lobbying? How much can our 501(c)(3) lobby? What are the California
rules and regulations we need to be aware of What types of election-related
activity can our 501(c)(3) and 501(c)4 engage in? Wednesday, October 22,
9:00 – 4:00. For more information contact Jeff Prior at jeff@afj.org or
(202) 822-6070: To register, click here.
Resources,
Funding Opportunities
The
Music Center of LA County Spotlight AwardsThe Music Center of Los Angeles County Spotlight Awards is a nationally
acclaimed scholarship and arts training program for Southern California
high school students in the performing and visual arts. Open to all students
who attend high school in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino,
Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego Counties. The deadline for Performing
Arts is October 1, 2008. Visual Arts Deadline is December 1, 2008.
The performing arts program includes ballet, non-classical dance, classical
voice, non-classical voice, classical instrumental and jazz instrumental.
Applications for The Music Center Spotlight Awards are now available online here.
On
Location: Spotlight on your Community
This Kennedy Center initiative is designed to allow students the opportunity
to tell the story of the arts in their community so that it can be shared
more widely through digital media at the Kennedy Center ArtsEdge web
site. Up to ten schools from around the country will be selected to participate
in this program. A Thomas school bus will be outfitted as a media lab
on wheels. It will visit each school for two weeks and will be “on location”
sometime between January and June 2009. Over the two weeks, a drama artist
and media artist will be on location to work with one class (grades 5-8)
in storytelling techniques and media/video/ technology skills. The teacher(s)
and students will work together to create a short (three to five-minute)
video about an artist or arts group in the community. Click here to view the application.
Funds
Available through California Partnership Academy Program
The California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Community
College Chancellor’s Office are pleased to announce the availability
of funds through the California Partnership Academy (CPA) Program. Funding
is available for up to 50 grade ten implementation grants. Application
materials are available through California Department of Education's
Funding page at http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r17/cpa08rfa.asp For background
information about the CPA model, please visit the California Partnership
Academy website at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/hs/cpagen.asp.
If you
have any questions regarding this request for applications, please contact
Karen Shores, Education Programs Consultant, High School Initiatives/Career
Education Office at 916-319-0478 or by e-mail at kshores@cde.ca.gov .
National
String Project Seeks Applications for New Teacher Training Program Sites
Five-year matching grants will be given to colleges and universities across
the United States working to train instructors who teach children to play
stringed instruments. The consortium seeks to help support the creation
of up to ten more String Projects which will be centers of excellence in
the training of string teachers around the country. Each center will receive
up to five years of grant support from the NSPC, to be matched each year
by $10,000 from the host college. Deadline: November 17, 2008. Click here for
more information.
NAMM
Grants Available
Grants are available from the NAMM Foundation through the programs listed
below. Carefully review guidelines to determine eligibility and review
application deadlines. Grant programs include the Disney Music In You
Grant Program, NAMM Foundation Program Grants, and NAMM Foundation Music
Research Grants. For more information, click here.
LEGO
Grants for Developing Creativity
The LEGO Children's Fund is committed to helping children (birth to 14)
develop creativity through play. Quarterly review; next deadline is Nov
1. Click here for
more information.
Executive Director
Music for Minors, Inc.
Mountain View, CA.
Contact: musicforminors@mfm.org
(650) 237-9130
ArtsEdMail provides all the latest information to connect the Arts Education community in California. Our free e-newsletter is published every two weeks.
We rely on you to support our efforts.
Become an advocate or make a donation today!
Redistribution of this e-mail news bulletin is encouraged.
Copyright. California Alliance for Arts Education.