CURRICULUM Action Agenda
Action Agenda
To ensure that effective arts curriculum is widely available to teachers across the state, local and state arts education partners can work together to:
• Coordinate efforts. Convene agencies that fund arts curriculum (WSAC, foundations) in order to share resources, build support for curriculum development, and strengthen opportunities for future partnerships.
• Identify curriculum aligned with assessments. Document existing arts curricula that align state standards with valid, reliable arts assessments.
• Share curriculum. Encourage school districts to share existing comprehensive arts curriculum resources through exchanges and school board approvals for exchange and adoption.
• Relate the arts to other subject areas. Look for ways to integrate the arts with other disciplines through shared curricular concepts and processes.
• Train curriculum writers. Support and/or provide professional development for arts curriculum-writing at the state level.
• Train teachers. Convene professional development workshops in curriculum implementation in local and regional areas.
ASSESSMENTS Action Agenda
Action Agenda
To sustain an effective statewide system for assessment, state and local arts education partners:
• Track results at classroom, school, district, and state levels.
• Train educators on how to plan and conduct valid and reliable assessments and to document and report the results.
• Recognize students as the primary users of assessments, making sure they get ongoing feedback on their progress.
• Monitor student achievement statewide. OSPI will create a statewide reporting structure for school districts to report achievement in the arts both district-wide and in individual schools, relating statewide test results directly to classroom implementation.
• Use technology. Take advantage of technology to document, store, and report data for arts assessments.
• Build statewide support for assessments. Advocate for continued support and development of statewide arts assessments for all schools and all students.
• Track the development
of arts education. Track progress and change in the statewide implementation
of arts education
at regular intervals, using
the baseline established in the AERI study.
<return to Teaching Capacity page
TEACHING CAPACITY Action Agenda
Action Agenda
To create a system of in-depth, sequential professional development in arts education, state and local arts partners are working together to:
• Build a qualified cadre of arts educators, with special focus on dance and theatre as well as music and visual arts.
• Provide sustained, in-depth training. Go beyond one-time, one-day introductions to provide in-depth concept and skill-building in classroom management, curriculum development, and performance-based arts assessments.
• Create an ongoing sequence of professional development that keeps instructional delivery up to date with emerging best practices.
• Provide on-the-job coaching and feedback.
• Customize training, tailored to varying needs of arts teachers, classroom teachers responsible for arts education, and teaching artists/artists-in-residence.
• Offer professional development locally. Provide local and regional sites for professional development to increase accessibility and availability.
• Convene higher education institutions and continuing education providers to strengthen education in the arts for future teachers.
FUNDING Action Agenda
Action Agenda
To increase resources and develop a sound and sustainable funding strategy for arts education, schools, school districts, and arts education partners can:
• Establish line items for arts education within school budgets.
• Justify arts education needs.
• Identify and advocate for annual, sustained arts funding.
• Maintain a core program in the arts.
• Maintain arts equipment and supplies to meet curriculum needs.
• Seek arts grants from local, state, federal, corporate, and foundation resources.
• Identify opportunities for collaboration with other schools and with local arts organizations, to share resources and to seek joint funding.
• Build community awareness of the importance of funding for arts education; involve the community in safeguarding arts funding.
< Return to What You Can Do page
What You Can Do Action Agenda
Action Agenda
Arts education partners are taking steps to ensure that schools across the state are able to fully implement a multi-pronged structure for arts education, over time and within the regular school day. To further advance this work:
School districts can:
• Establish a clear long-term plan for advancing arts education.
• Develop arts education committees with shared purpose and knowledge of state arts standards and frameworks, and mandate a long-range plan for implementing and monitoring arts education. Include superintendents, arts facilitators, principals, arts teachers, classroom teachers, parents, community advocates.
• Establish guidelines for maintaining minimum funding levels for dance, music, theatre, and visual arts, to fully support staffing, curriculum development, professional development, materials and supplies, and planning time.
• Align learning plans with state standards, frameworks, and assessments in the arts.
• Establish minimum staffing requirements for dance, music, theatre, and visual arts teachers to support comprehensive arts education for all students in elementary, middle school and high school.
Principals and teaching faculty can:
• Adopt flexible schedules that provide time for arts education within the regular school day.
• Work with parents to increase community understanding and support for arts education.
• Provide common planning time for arts educators and classroom teachers to develop connections between discipline content and learning.
State agency partners and funders can:
• Establish policies that advance arts education for every Washington student.
• Provide professional development for principals and school leaders in arts education implementation.
• Evaluate ongoing statewide progress in arts education at regular intervals using the baseline established in AERI research.
• Educate policy makers and boards, the business community, and state foundations to advance excellent school programs and demonstrate the central role of the arts.
• Support technical assistance to administrators in districts and schools for pragmatic solutions to arts budgeting and scheduling approaches.
• Identify public and private funds to sustain and expand efforts to identify and replicate effective arts instruction and systemic approaches for arts education.
Partners at all levels can:
• Report regularly on growth in arts education at all levels: share information with students, families, local community, statewide community, and arts education advocates and legislators.
• Work together as partners for success.