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COMMUNITY

UPDATE

THIS MONTH’S FOCUS: ARTS EDUCATION

January 2001Issue No. 83

Michael Greene, president, the Grammy® Foundation

FULL STORY ON PAGE 4

n the final major speech of histenure as Secretary of Education,Richard Riley offered an optimisticoutlook on the future of education.Following the November elections,Riley said, “We have reached a newconsensus around education in thisnation for improving it and making it anational priority, even as we respect thatit is a state responsibility and a localfunction.”He said the votes that passed statemeasures for greater investments ineducation are a clear reflection of thecountry’s support for public schools, which serve 90 percent of America’schildren.“There is a growing consensus aboutthe effectiveness of higher standards,reasonable assessments, parentinvolvement, well-trained teachers, anda quality learning environment,” headded. “This consensus is built onpartnership, not partisanship.”The Secretary celebratedimprovements made in education in thelast eight years, including the creation of the 21st Century Community LearningCenter initiative, which funds after-school programs for more than 800,000children, and has garnered thousands of local and national partnerships.“Students’ minds don’t close downat 3—and neither should their schools,”he said. “And it’s through these stronglocal partnerships that we are keepingschools open and giving children betteropportunities to succeed.”The November 16 address alsomarked American Education Week andInternational Education Week.“Sometimes people forget that anemphasis on international educationhelps strengthen other aspects of domestic education,” he observed.Riley, an advocate of dual-languageschools, expressed hope that “every school in the U.S. will use technology to

Secretary Champions “Partnership, Not Partisanship”

Speech Points Out a Consensus for Education in Light of Elections

“Once you engage the kids, the rest will come.”

U.S. Department of Education

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 2)

Archived Information

ecent research confirms theimportance of studying thearts. While there is somedisagreement about the magnitudeof its benefit in improving mathand reading scores, evidencepoints to the positive benefits of integrating the arts into thecurriculum for a variety of academic and social outcomes.These benefits include:In one survey, nearly 80percent of eighth-gradershighly involved in the arts earnedmostly As and Bs in Englishcompared to theirs peers who wereless involved (64.2 percent).—

Champions of Change

, acompilation of seven major studieson the effects of arts on studentachievement in grades K–12.“The occupants of arts-centeredschools see themselves as membersof communities…[T]he artsencourage students and faculty members to work together, to createthings together, to perform together,to display the results of their effortstogether.”—

Gaining the Arts Advantage

, asummary of high quality programsin 91 school districts across thecountry.Students who wereasked to play instruments almostevery day scoredalmost twice as high,(on average, 53 percent)in music performance ascompared to thosestudents who did nothave music all year(27 percent).—

The NAEP 1997 Arts Report Card

, a national assessment of thearts in grade 8.These reports are available at www.aep-arts.org, the Web site forthe Arts Education Partnership, acoalition of educators, artsorganizations, and citizen groups.For additional resources forteaching and learning the arts, visit www.ed.gov/pubs/StateArt/Arts/resource.html.

COMMENTS

EditorCommunity Update400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.Room 5E209 Washington, D.C. 20002Fax: 202-205-0676OIIA_Community_Update@ed.gov

SUBSCRIPTIONS

ED PubsP.O. Box 1398 Jessup, MD 207941-877-4ED-PUBSedpubs@inet.ed.gov

CREDITS

Community Update

is published by the Officeof Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs,U.S. Department of Education.

U.S. Secretary of Education

Richard Riley

Assistant Secretary

Mario Moreno

Director, Community Services

John McGrath

Editor

Nicole Ashby

Contributing Editor

Terri Ferinde Dunham

Contributing Writers

Andy FinchMenahem HermanSharon Stevens

Designer

Jason Salas Design

Community Update

contains news and information about publicand private organizations for the reader’s information. Inclusiondoes not constitute an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any products or services offered or views expressed.

COMMUNITY

UPDATE

January 2001Issue No. 83

U.S. Department of Education

share information with a school fromanother country. This would encouragechildren to learn asecond language andinvite teachers to work together to meet thechallenges that arise in every classroom.”Serving from 1993–2000, RichardRiley has had the longest running careeras Secretary in the history of theDepartment of Education, since itscreation in 1980.For a full copy of his speech, visit www.ed.gov/Speeches/11-2000/001116.html.

A Bigger Picture of Arts Education

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1)

2 COMMUNITY UPDATE

Miami high school wherestudents feel safe; a Navajoreservation where schoolsuse technology to revolutionizelearning; and a community-wideeffort in Michigan where the hous-ing authority and the police arehelping students learn to read areamong the programs featured in the January Satellite Town Meeting,“The Good News in Education: BestPractices in School and Community Partnerships.” The pre-recorded pro-gram will highlight stories fromrecent broadcasts.To join the Satellite TownMeeting, call 1-800-USA-LEARN(1-800-872-5327), or visit www.ed.gov/satelliteevent. Also, view live or archived Webcasts of themeeting by visiting AppleComputer’s Apple LearningInterchange at http://ali.apple.com/events/aliqttv/.The Satellite Town Meeting isproduced by the U.S. Departmentof Education in partnership with theU.S. Chamber of Commerce andthe National Alliance of Business, with support from the BayerFoundation, the Procter and GambleFund, and Target Stores.

Satellite Town Meeting

Tuesday, January 168:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m. E.T.

round the country, many communities have found a way to put together two goodideas—arts education and after-schoolprograms—in a powerful combination.Offering activities such as theater,music, dance, creative writing, and visual arts can increase studentachievement, decrease students’involvement in delinquent behavior,and improve their attitudes aboutthemselves and their future. Integratingarts activities with after-school programsalso gives schools and communities newopportunities to build partnerships. A new publication called

How the Arts Can Enhance After-School Programs

describes several examples of schoolsand communities around the country working together in innovative ways.For example, “Arts Attack!” is aCalhoun County, Florida, programfunded by a 21st Century LearningCenter grant from the U.S. Departmentof Education. The W.T. Neal Civic Centerteams with Blountstown Middle Schoolto offer summer day camps, Saturday morning programs, and tutoring,mentoring, and counseling for 170students and their families. Said theprogram’s Suella McMillan, “These arekids who don’t get out to museums, so we bring the world to them.”For a free copy of

How the Arts Can Enhance After-School Programs

, call1-877-4ED-PUBS (1-877-433-7827),or visit www.ed.gov/pubs.For the past three years, thePresident’s Committee on the Arts andHumanities, and the NationalEndowments for the Arts and theHumanities have recognized tenoutstanding after-school arts programs with “Coming Up Taller” awards of $10,000 each. For more information, visit http://arts.endow.gov/partner/Taller00/Intro.html.

Arts After School

JANUARY 2001 3

ecently Iheard fromtwo formerstudents. Paul cameby to tell me that amajor national firmhad hired him as adivision manager inits accounting department, the youngestperson ever to be placed in this posi-tion.I asked him how he got the job. Hequickly pointed to his involvement inthe theatre arts program at our school.The enhanced self-esteem, the courageto take risks, the ability to clearly artic-ulate one’s thoughts, the disciplinerequired to get it right, the rush of emotion experienced through cre-ation—these were the factors thatallowed him to be selected from overfifty or so older candidates. Jim also wrote to tell me of his recentsuccess with a major broadcast network in Los Angeles. He is a writer, producerand video editor. He reminded me howhis parents had tried to convince himthat he needed a “real” career to fallback on just in case the “artsy” thingdidn’t work out. He confided that“through the arts I am able to see the world more clearly and understandmyself more deeply.” Arts teachers are often on the defen-sive, forced to justify the what, how,and why of what we do. Some of my colleagues’ arguments follow the“Mozart effect” rationale: arts training is valuable because it helps studentachievement throughout all areas of thecurriculum.Other teachers will tell you that thearts should be considered as significantas any core subject. Harvard researchersEllen Winner and Lois Hetland recently wrote that “the arts are as important asthe sciences, and that a central purposeof education is to teach our children toappreciate great human creations of allsorts.”My own sense of it is that arts educa-tion is inherently valuable because itdoes both things simultaneously. Ithelps students learn incredible life les-sons that they can apply in any field.Equally important, the arts in and of themselves are a critical component inthe development of every child. Thearts in multiple ways permeate every aspect of the human experience. Idon’t have the statistics of a Harvardresearcher, but I do have letters, e-mailsand calls from former students like Jimand Paul that would back me up. And Isuspect a lot of other arts teachers outthere have the same.

E. Frank Bluestein is chairman of the Fine Arts Department at Germantown High School and the founder of the school’s theatre, the Poplar Pike Playhouse. He is the 1994 Tennessee Teacher of the Year and the 1996–97 Disney and McDonald’s Performing Arts Teacher of the Year. He is also a frequent speaker and writer on arts-related issues.

any of the researchreports mentioned in thisissue are available onlineat the Arts Education Partnership(AEP) Web site at www.aep-arts.org. Founded in 1994, AEP iscomposed of over 100 national edu-cation and arts organizations thatpromote the essential role of artseducation for all students. For thepast several years, AEP has focusedon examining successful local part-nerships. In 1999, it issued

Learning Partnerships

, a guide forcommunity leaders who seek tocombine their talents and resourcesto address arts education needs, which is also available on their Web site.

Life Lessons in the Arts

By E. Frank Bluestein,

Germantown, Tennessee