Artspiration invites you to join representatives from California’s leading arts education and advocacy organizations: Create CA, California Alliance for Arts Education and CCSESA Arts Initiative and the California Department of Education, for a special arts education workshop.

Outcomes:

• Understand the background and history of the Blueprint for Creative Schools and the CREATE CA initiative
• Explore the Arts Education Data Project and its role in ensuring equitable access to high-quality, standards based arts education
• Discuss the strategy of creating a district-wide arts plan and hear examples from the field
• Build knowledge of why and how arts education meets the eight state LCFF Priorities
• Receive valuable updates on state and federal arts legislation that impacts school and district policies

Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Time: 11:30 A.M. – 3:00 P.M. (Lunch Provided)

Location: Santa Clara County Office of Education

Cost: Free

Register:...

Thank you to everyone who sent letters to the California Department of Education requesting the inclusion of language about the Visual and Performing Arts in the state plan to implement Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). We have been in touch with the California Department of Education to raise our concerns about this issue and received the following response from Barbara Murchison, ESSA State Lead at the California Department of Education:

The current draft of the ESSA State Plan, available on the California Department of Education California ESSA State Plan Drafts webpage, does reference the VAPA standards and the state’s intentions to support the implementation of these standards, particularly in the Title II, Part A section of the document.

Perhaps more important, the ESSA State Plan is fundamentally an application for federal funds—not a master plan for P-12 education—and the State Board of Education has directed us to meet, not exceed, plan requirements. The template does not require California to describe how it is supporting VAPA education, so the document already goes beyond what is required to signal California’s...

The goal of the Arts Now Campaign is to establish the expectation that every district is responsible for providing their students with a high quality, comprehensive education that includes a strong arts program, complete with instruction by credentialed arts teachers as well as arts integration strategies being implemented across the curriculum. But how do we measure our progress toward this goal?

This fall we are launching a new, more robust set of metrics that includes both quantitative measures such as number of participants and event survey results as well as qualitative tools such as open ended responses to surveys and interviews.

With the launch of the Arts Education Data Project, arts enrollment data for every school in the state is widely available and easy to use. This provides us with a clear baseline as we begin our work with individual districts and counties. In addition, the Alliance has developed a rubric called the State of Arts Education Survey to measure a district’s capacity to deliver arts education...

Guest Author: Peggy Burt, Senior Advisor, Arts Planning Initiative

The Challenge: How to communicate strategically with district leadership to demonstrate progress in arts education.

The Strategy: Structured, reflective, brief monthly reports to leadership, turning district leaders into arts champions!

The Story: The coordinators of Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA coordinators) as well as other arts leaders and arts educators in school districts often find that their work is well known by some in the district, but almost “invisible” to others.

In an environment where information is often “information overload,” how can we be strategic about getting the facts and the stories to decision makers who have influence around arts education for all students in the district?

A few years back, I had the honor of working as the VAPA coordinator for a small district in Los Angeles County. The superintendent was warm, collegial and very open to communications. I started writing a brief monthly update to keep him informed about all of the progress and successes around...