Amber Alonso

5201 N. Maple Ave

Fresno, CA 92740

March 21, 2022

Visalia Unified School Board Members

5000 West Cypress Avenue
Visalia, CA 93277

Dear Visalia Unified School Board Members,

I am an elementary school teacher of Visalia Unified School District. Before I

became a teacher, I was a student myself through this district. As a child, I
struggled in academics until fifth grade, when I was first introduced to the
beautiful art of music. Through Visalia Unified School District, I had the
opportunity to learn to play the violin in fifth grade. Once I invested in taking the
time to study the violin, I found myself also persevering in other curricular areas.
In short, it was because of the impact of the art of music that I started to grow,
develop, and strive in areas where I once struggled in school. I am writing to you
because I want to provide the students of today an opportunity to succeed in our
schools through arts education programs, as I did.

Our district has an opportunity to invest in arts education programs that can help
all of our students prosper. My own experience in the arts has shown me first
hand that arts improve academic performance. Studies have also concluded the
same results. According to Create CA, students with an arts education are four
times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement. But the studies do
not stop there. In Minneapolis, MN, schools that integrated arts reported
substantial academic gains for all students, according to the research of Debra
Ingram and Eric Riedel (Cornett, 22). The students who greatly improved were
English language learners (ELL) and lower performers, and Visalia Unified Schools
are not short of students in these categories. We have a sum of wonderful ELLs
that we are working with to grow in all levels of academics. Arts education will be
a great aid in supporting our determined ELLs. Their improvement will be derived
from the positive influence on literacy skills and learning overall (Cornett, 22).

To give you a better understanding of how arts education programs are effective,
I will provide an example that I experienced with students. When learning about
California’s history of Missions and Mexican War for Independence, students
were divided into groups and asked to perform a short scene that explains one of
the standards that was taught. Their goal was to use as much vocabulary from the
lesson. Quickly, the ELLs, whose first language was Spanish, became the leader of
the groups because they understood the Spanish root of the vocabulary of that
lesson. The ELLs realized they had an advantage in their group and were thrilled
to help their other classmates. More often than not, the ELLs achieved a new
boldness that led their group through the performance. They made a connection
between the lesson, vocabulary, and the art of acting. This way of learning
intertwined arts and history to create a lesson that was comprehendible and
memorable. This is merely one example that has successfully encouraged ELLs to
strive for involvement in curricular areas.

It is evident that arts are important to the success of a child’s education. One may
argue that the arts are already active in the schools today, for example, music
class, arts and crafts time, drawing contests, and play productions. But these arts
are provided in only specific times of the day for only a few set reasons, for
example, to teach an instrument, encourage creativity with colors, and perform a
play. But arts does not stop there. There is a higher level of arts incorporation that
has yet to be achieved. Arts can be practiced in reading, math, history, and even
science. Arts can be added into every lesson! Embedding arts education programs
into schools needs to be through arts integration, not arts enhancement. Arts
enhancement is a much more common practice of arts supporting the lesson, not
seen as the main content. On the other hand, our goal should be the inclusion of
arts integration, where the center of the lesson is taught through arts, much like
the Missions and Mexican War for Independence example I explained above. By
integrating arts into every classroom, academic concepts will be reinforced in a
creative way that will inspire students and support their learning. Arts integration
can create new learning opportunities by connecting the arts with core academic
content. By combining common core subjects with arts, students will begin to
arrive at new understandings in these content areas. In the article “10 Reasons to
Support the Arts in 2021,” Randy Cohen elaborates on the study that arts improve
academic performance, “Students engaged in arts learning have higher GPAs,
standardized test scores, and college-going rates as well as lower drop-out rates.”
Combining arts and curriculum only reaps positive benefits that will achieve the
goals of Visalia Unified.

Another benefit of investing in arts education programs is the opportunity to

gather the parents and families of students who are involved in performances and
exhibitions. For example, media arts programs can invite the families and friends
of the students involved to watch the product they have created; performing arts
programs can host a production and concert for the school to enjoy and inspire,
visual arts programs can invite close loved ones to look at their diligent
masterpieces. Engaging students’ families is a benefit because the support of
family members is important in a student’s involvement and success in school.
According to another study from Create CA, 72% of Americans agree that arts
bring people together. People enjoy celebrating the works of artists and the
impact it has. Parents want to see their child succeed, and arts is a category that
no one can fail at.

Adopting arts education programs is more than the physical results; it is the inner
thoughts and memories that shape our students into the adults they will grow to
be. Students with access to arts education show improvements in mental health,
involvement with school, and social development (Cohen). Unfortunately, studies
have concluded that over the past two years, suicide rates are reaching horrific
records, as noted in the article “Children’s Suicide Attempts have Increased during
COVID-19 Pandemic” by Joe Gramigna. With the rising numbers of suicide rates
and mental health disorders due to the lockdown of COVID-19, students need the
encouragement to be involved and recover their well-being through the arts.
Time cannot be wasted. Investing in arts education programs needs to be acted
on now.

With all of these wonderful benefits and positive effects of arts education
programs, where do we begin with incorporating them into Visalia Unified
Schools? There are many possibilities that an investment in arts education
programs can reach. The first action that should be taken is investing in art
supplies for each classroom. The supplies can be a range of musical instruments,
costumes, and even recording cameras. It is important to not invest in only the
typical idea of art supplies, being crayons, paint, and paper. Although those are
valuable art supplies, the California Arts Standards for Public Schools states there
are five arts disciplines- dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts (16). It is
essential that each of these disciplines are accounted for and exercised in the
classroom. Therefore, the art supplies that will be invested in need to align with
each discipline. The more arts supplies that are added to the class, the more
opportunities to include arts education and learn in a creative way.

Another action the investment can take is indulging students in live art
productions and performances in the area. Field trips are not only a highlight of
school, they are an outlet is sharing the features of the five art disciplines. Finally,
additional action that should be taken is building on what the schools already
have- music class, art class, drama class. We should work on expounding on these
classes so that they are impacting all students in every class. We can plan a team
to create universal arts integrated lesson ideas for each subject and class to work
off of. This will ensure that arts education is being utilized to its maximum effect
by influencing every student.

The Visalia Unified School Board should consider allocating funds to arts
education programs because arts are essential in helping students fulfill their
potential. Arts opens a doorway that allows creativity to spark, academic
performance to increase, and impact the community as a whole.

Sincerely,

Amber Alonso
amberalonso@mail.fresnostate.edu
 References

“Arts Education Data and Facts.” Create CA, 24 Sept. 2021, createca.org/get-the-
facts/.

“California Arts Standards for Public Schools.” California State Board of Education,
2019, www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/caartsstandards.pdf.

Cohen, Randy. “10 Reasons to Support the Arts in 2021.” ARTS Blog, Americans
for the Arts, 21 Apr. 2021, blog.americansforthearts.org/2021/03/17/10-
reasons-to-support-the-arts-in-2021.

Cornett, Claudia E. Creating Meaning Through Literature and the Arts: Arts
Integration for Classroom Teachers. 5th ed., Pearson Education Inc., 2015.

Gramigna, Joe. “Children's Suicide Attempts Have Increased during COVID-19

Pandemic.” Healio, 2021,
www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20211013/childrens-suicide-attempts-
have-increased-during-covid19-pandemic.