The U.S. House of Representatives has just created an annual September Arts
in Education Week, which this year will be September 12th-18th.
This is an opportunity for orchestras to amplify their ongoing national and local advocacy efforts to advance
arts education as a core academic subject in our schools. The League
will be working with our partner organizations to create visibility for
this national advocacy effort. We realize it is short notice this year,
but here are a few suggestions for how you can help in your community:
1. Check with teachers, PTA leaders, school board members, and
other school leaders to learn how your orchestra can support arts
education in your schools.
2. Seek opportunities for leaders of your orchestra (music
director, musicians, executive director, board leaders, and others) to
speak on behalf of in-school music education in the local press, at
school board meetings, and in other public settings.
3. Review (and sign onto!) the League’s statement of common cause, Orchestras Support In-School Music Education. We
will be publically promoting this statement during Arts in Education
Week – you won’t want your orchestra to be left off the list of more
than 200 orchestras that have signed on!
Thanks for helping! For more information about Arts in Education Week,
go to the Arts Education Partnership’s special site at http://www.aep-arts.org/artsineducationweek.html.
Arts in Education Grants Available at U.S. Dept. of Education
A small but important pool of funding is available at the U.S.
Department of Education to support arts education in our nation's
schools. The U.S. Department of Education's Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Program
(AEMDD) is currently accepting applications for FY10 awards. These
highly competitive grants enable schools and organizations to integrate
standards-based arts education into elementary and middle school
curricula and improve students' academic performance. Eligible programs
must be administered in partnership with a local education agency and
can be up to four years in duration, with the first year used to plan
an imbedded evaluation process.
At least five previous AEMDD awards have supported school-based
collaborations with orchestras, including the Annapolis Symphony
Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Rockford Symphony Orchestra, Tucson
Symphony Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The deadline for
Notice of Intent to Apply is February 16, 2010 and the deadline for
applications is March 16, 2010.
Learn More About USED Grants
NEA and Arts Education Funding Increase
Congress has set the FY2010 funding levels for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Arts in Education programs at the U.S. Department of Education, including increases in funding for both accounts.
Arts in Education funding at the U.S. Department of Education 
increased by $2 million for FY10. The increase in funding provides for a new competitive grant round for the Model Development and Dissemination grant program. Stay tuned for further information as the guidelines for this highly competitive application process become available.
Secretary Duncan Voices Support for Arts Education
This is the moment to make the case for arts education in your community! Your orchestra and arts advocates nationwide have some fresh talking points to leverage, courtesy of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Three sources provide valuable quotes endorsing the legitimacy of the arts as a core academic subject of learning:
letter
from Secretary Duncan to school leaders emphasizes that the arts are a
core subject of learning and that states and localities can use federal
funds to support the arts. As students in your community head back to school, gear up to advocate for music education. Check out our Music Education Advocacy Tools, read our tips for launching your advocacy effort, and make sure your orchestra has endorsed the League Statement of Common Cause in support of in-school music education!
As states and local school districts define
education priorities in this challenging economic climate, U.S.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has issued a statement emphasizing the importance of arts education for every child.
The letter can be a useful tool when communicating with local and state
policy leaders regarding funding for arts education. The statement
clearly emphasizes that, under federal law, the arts are a core
academic subject of learning, and that states and localities can use
federal funds to support arts education opportunities for all learners.
The NAMM Foundation and the SupportMusic Coalition,
of which the League is a member, will host a live discussion with
Secretary Duncan next Tuesday, moderated by Mary Luehrsen, Director of
Public Affairs and Government Relations for NAMM. Your participation is
needed to help demonstrate your concern and highlight the need for all
children to have access to the arts as part of a complete and quality
education.
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Time: 1 PM Eastern, 12 Noon Central, 11 AM Mountain, 10 AM Pacific
We encourage you to forward this invitation to your local school and community leaders and urge their participation in the call.
Registration for the conference call stream is available online now and
up to 15 minutes prior to the event. Secretary Duncan will join the
call promptly at 1 p.m. ET on August 18th.
Register for the Call Today!
Today, for the first time in more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Education announced the results of the 2008 Nation's Arts Report Card, detailing how much eighth-grade students know and are able to do in music and the visual arts. The results, officially known as the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts (NAEP) reveal barriers to student achievement in the arts, with significant racial/ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic gaps. The results elicited the most direct and supportive statement from the federal government regarding arts education in recent years. In response to the results, the Secretary of Education and senior officials at the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Assessment Governing Board all called for substantially increasing access to arts learning and significantly improving the quality of national data collection on the status of arts education in the nation's schools.
Read the full article
Obama Calls for Creativity and Innovation in Education Plan
In March 10 remarks announcing his education policy plan, President Obama said, "It's time to give all Americans a complete and competitive education from the cradle up through a career." The plan emphasizes early childhood education, performance pay for teachers, local school innovation, and lifelong learning opportunities. Orchestras, as local partners in strengthening arts education in the schools, have been calling for national, state, and local policies that ensure that every student has access to a complete education - one that includes comprehensive education in the arts.
While the plan does not specify arts education proposals, President
Obama acknowledged the role that creativity will play in preparing
students for a 21st century workforce, saying "I'm calling on our
nation's governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and
assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a
bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like
problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and
creativity." The plan also calls for doubling funding for afterschool programs
, which have often provided opportunities for orchestras and other
community organizations to partner with schools. Throughout this year,
Congress and the White House will continue to work on the multi-year
process of re-writing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (known
as No Child Left Behind).
See How You Can Weigh In
Congress Approves FY09 Increase for Arts Education
The FY09 omnibus bill included a $633,000 increase in funding for the competitive Arts in Education grant programs of the U.S. Department of Education. Despite the proposal of the past administration to eliminate Arts in Education spending, along with a number of smaller education programs, Congress acted once again to support arts education by approving $38.166 million for Arts in Education spending. A recent study released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds significant declines in arts education for minority and low-income students and calls for further research by the U.S. Department of Education to discover the status of arts education in our nation's schools.
Learn More About Arts Education Funding
House Appropriations Includes Arts Education Funding for FY09
The House Appropriations Subcommittee has approved $38.6 million for Arts Education at the U.S. Department of Education - only the second time in the past eight years that the House has included any funding for the Arts in Education programs. As with NEA funding, the most likely scenario for arts education spending is steady funding at last year's level until Congress re-considers federal funding in early 2009.
View Arts in Education Funding History
A new national poll of 1,000 likely voters finds that, "30% of American voters are not only dissatisfied with public education's narrow focus on the ‘so-called' basics but that they also believe developing the imagination is a critical, but missing, ingredient to student success in 21st century schools and moving students beyond average." The pollsters say that this voting cohort - which is being called the "Imagine Nation" - is of a scale rivaling "soccer moms." This powerful affirmation of public support for arts education can be leveraged as orchestras act to strengthen the presence of music education in the schools.
Learn More about the Imagine Nation
The Professional Development for Arts Educators Program supports the implementation of high-quality professional development model programs in K-12 education for music, dance, drama, media arts, or visual arts educators. The deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply is February 11, 2008 and the deadline for transmittal of applications is February 29, 2008.
The Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Program is designed to enable schools and organizations to develop and disseminate comprehensive approaches for integrating the arts into elementary and middle school curricula, strengthening arts instruction in these grade levels, and improving students’ academic performance. The deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply is February 13, 2008 and the deadline for transmittal of applications is March 14, 2008.
Learn More about U.S. Department of Education funding opportunities
What is the status of arts education in our nation’s schools? After
nearly 10 years without comprehensive national data, Congress has
approved more than $2 million in funding to support a fast-response
arts education survey in the 08-09 school year. Orchestras and other
arts advocates rallied behind this request for data collection.
Congress also approved near-level funding for the competitive Arts in Education grant programs
of the U.S. Department of Education, following an across-the-board cut
to all of the Department's programs. Despite the President’s proposal
to eliminate Arts in Education spending, along with a number of smaller
education programs, Congress acted to approve a total of $37.5 million
in Arts in Education spending for FY08.
Potential historic increases in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Arts Education are in jeopardy as Congress and the White House face off over total spending for the current fiscal year. On November 13, the President vetoed the Labor-HHS-Education funding bill, which included unprecedented support for arts education funding and would have fully funded long-awaited research on the status of arts education in our nation's schools. Only one of the 12 federal FY08 spending measures - the Defense bill - has been signed into law. Congress may craft a catch-all spending bill in December, but holding on to the gains in arts funding will be tough as Washington policymakers whittle away at all proposed increases in domestic spending.
See the Progress on Arts Education 31.86 Kb
While the most important advocacy for arts education in our schools often happens at the local and state levels, improving the federal education laws can open the door to improved policies nationwide. As Congress begins to re-consider the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and writes the newest version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the arts community is calling for specific improvements to the law that determines how the federal government supports education. The League, in partnership with more than 20 national arts and education organizations, is calling on Congress to improve access to arts education for all students by enacting specific legislative recommendations. The process of re-considering NCLB will be a multi-year effort. Stay tuned for targeted opportunities to weigh in with your members of Congress.
See How Congress Can Boost Arts Learning
A letter to House Appropriations Chairman David Obey was signed by 71 members of Congress urging support for increased Arts in Education funding.