In Today’s News

NCCAS Releases Update on State Arts Standards Adoption

February 16, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) has released a report entitled “The Status of Arts Standards Revisions in the United States since 2014.” The report is the result of an analysis of states who have revised their standards since the publication of the National Core Arts Standards in June 2014.

The National Core Arts Standards for dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts, were created in a transparent inclusive process engaging over 130 arts educators as writers and 6,000 reviewers. These PreK-12 grade-by-grade standards were written to guide educators seeking to provide quality arts education for America’s students, define artistic literacy, and support 21st century skills and college and career readiness.

Commencing in January 2015, NCCAS member organization Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education, began conducting the research culminating in this report. With the assistance of other NCCAS member organizations, Americans for the Arts interviewed and collected information from more than 270 individuals and organizations from across the nation, including state department of education arts curriculum directors, state arts agencies, and several other public sector partners with expertise in state arts standards revisions.

Jane Best, executive director of the Arts Education Partnership said of the report, “It is affirming to see so many states reviewing, revisiting, and renewing arts education standards. This is a meaningful step to ensuring that all children have exposure to the arts as part of a well-rounded education.”

The report may be downloaded from the resources section of the National Coalition for Core Arts standards interactive home at http://www.nationalartsstandards.org/content/resources.

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards is an alliance of national arts and arts education organizations dedicated to ensuring quality standards-based arts opportunities for all students. Members include the American Alliance for Theatre in Education; Americans for the Arts; Educational Theatre Association; National Art Education Association; National Association for Music Education; National Dance Education Association; NCCAS Media Arts Committee; and Young Audiences Arts for Learning.

Contact: Cory Wilkerson
Tel: 800-587-6814
Email: projectmanager@seadae.org

SEADAE News!

Argy’s national professional organization – State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education

On June 26, 2012, the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) released a paper entitled “Roles of Certified Arts Educators, Certified Non-Arts Educators, & Providers of Supplemental Arts Instruction” ( http://www.seadae.org/Corporatesite/files/c8/c8ddc6ce-bbf6-467b-af6a-4a1d1eebe8d5.pdf,) during a SupportMusic Coalition call streamed from Washington D.C.

SEADAE  received more than 9,000 hits on  their  website during the month of July, following the release of the paper, mainly from practitioners in the field.

The publication of the white paper was only the first step in what is hoped to be an on-going dialogue in the larger field of arts education regarding the roles and responsibilities of all involved in providing a high-quality, sequential and meaningful arts education for America’s children.

To that end, SEADAE will be hosting a National Accord Summit gathering of arts education leaders and policy experts on May 6, 2013 in order to ratify a newly developed guidance document on Professional Practice in Arts Education.

The intent behind the creation of such a statement is to develop and commit to a coherent and shared vision involving key partners in arts education to insure all students are provided with a quality arts education.  This upcoming Summit will be hosted at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, thanks to the leadership of Darrell Ayers, Vice President for Education.  The Summit was made possible by support from the Advocacy wing of the National Association for Music Education.

SEADAE is proud to have played a part in making this important moment a reality.  For further information on the summit or to download the white paper, please contact SEADAE through their website at  http://www.seadae.org

McTighe on National Core Arts Standards

McTighe Recording on Arts Assessment

Most states have someone at their state Department of Education’s that represent visual and performing arts education. We are members of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE). We have monthly online meetings and almost monthly we have professional development webinars that are often facilitated by our members.

Sometimes we have guests and recently SEADAE hosted a session with Jay McTighe of Wiggens & McTighe consultants. They are best known for originating the Understanding by Design approach. McTighe has worked with the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards and the writing teams creating the National Core Arts Standards with his work on assessment, arts assessment and the cornerstone assessments.

Fortunately, you can listen to the recording of the SEADAE webinar with Jay McTighe that has been archived. Jay has much to offer as we develop arts assessments as part of a complete curriculum. I was glad that the session was recorded since I wasn’t available to attend but you can hear many of my colleagues introduce themselves during the first 3 minutes at start of the webinar.

The archive link: https://seadae.webex.com/seadae/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=120786467&rKey=0f174cd89ef5e1d7

Download recording link: https://seadae.webex.com/seadae/lsr.php?AT=dw&SP=MC&rID=120786467&rKey=cc2683ea29f1e33c

It was great to attend a session while at the National Art Education conference in Texas earlier this month when Jay presented on the National Core Arts Standards. Daisy McTighe is an art teacher and has been working on the standards as well and is on webinar also. I suggest you check out this vimeo http://vimeo.com/44662239 and hear Daisy discuss the work.

What a Week!

Some weeks are crazy

Last week was filled with adventures! I started the week in Washington D.C. at the Arts Education Advisory Group (AEAG) meeting. They are part of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASSA) which is made up of the state arts commissions including the Maine Arts Commission. Every year the AEAG plans a professional development institute (PDI) for the arts in education associates at the state arts commissions which includes Meagan Mattingly. I am the representative to AEAG for my national professional organization called State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) which is comprised of the arts education specialists from the Departments of Education. I had a chance to be with AEAG at the opening of their PDI. It was wonderful to meet people who are committed to arts education in each state. Not to mention they are interesting, knowledgeable, creative, and FUN! The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) are affiliated with the AEAG and NASSA since funding is provided by the NEA. Consequently, there were a handful of staff from the NEA who are responsible for arts education who attended as well. In attendance was Ayanna N. Hudson, the NEA Director of Arts Education. She agreed to write a blog post for meartsed that will explain the programs/funding that is available for teachers, schools and communities. This will provide an overview to help you learn what is available. One of the evening highlights was the opportunity to see the performance of the DC Youth Slam Team. They were INCREDIBLE!

Next my travels took me to Reston, VA where SEADAE met with the chairs of the National Arts Standards writing teams and the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards leadership team. The writing teams are moving along with their work in spite of the little funding that has been provided. The most recent draft of the framework was shared by Co-Chairs, Marcia McCaffrey and NH DOE arts specialist and Lynn Tuttle, AZ arts specialist and president of SEADAE. The writing teams have taken the first draft with the components including Disciplines, Essential Questions, Enduring Understandings, Artistic Processes, Cornerstone Assessments, and re-arranged the direction of the document to make it  more user friendly. The work was shown to us on the website where the document will be housed so we could also see the work that has been done on the site. It will include a “quick view” button for finding stuff in a hurry, the use of tagging and keywords, and links to other works. All of this will be important aspects since it will be a web based document. You can view some of the ideas that are being considered at this link.

We had a discussion on what to call the final document so if you have any suggestions please email them and I can pass them along. The document will be arranged by grade level, PreK-8 but the high school format is still under discussion. You can read more about the format by clicking here.

At this point the expected date for the release of the “framework” will be in December. The first draft of the standards document which includes Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts will be within a few months after that, perhaps in March. Most likely the cornerstone assessments will be included when the standards draft comes out at grades 2, 5, and 8. The format will require feedback on the standards and the “userness” of the website.

Nancy Rubino from the College Board reported on recent research that looks at the Common Core State Standards for ELA and Math (CCSS) and the National Standards for the Arts. The research looks at the overlapping components of the CCSS and the arts frameworks and where the arts references are present in the CCSS. For example the research includes tells us that there are 26 ELA standards that have references to reading a work of drama. Looking closely at “college level learning” in the arts has been included in the research. The research will be released as soon as the final framework is determined and I am sure you will find it helpful. The College Board has done other research which I have mentioned in past blog posts and you can find links to this valuable information on the right side of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards wiki.

The end of the day included the live stream from the meeting to provide an overview of the event. If you weren’t available or couldn’t get on since the system was full I understand that it will be archived on the site in the near future.

I flew back to Maine early on Thursday morning and headed to Point Lookout in Northport where the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative (MAAI) teacher leaders and leadership team met that night and all day Friday. We worked on the Depository for arts education resources in Maine located at MaineLearning.net and continued plans for the Mega-regional workshops to be held throughout the 2012-13 school year. On Friday the teacher leaders from phase 2 presented their workshops so they could gather feedback on their sessions to determine if they’d like to tweak anything before taking their session on the road for the regional workshops. The regional workshop sessions will be posted on the Department arts assessment page in the next two weeks so you can see what is available. The energy and expertise of their topics was inspirational and truly amazing. I was reminded of how fortunate we are in Maine to have such outstanding arts educators who are willing to share information and expand their horizons to become teacher leaders in the arts. I am sure when the Cornerstone Assessments are released from the national standards work that Maine will be ready to take on the task of reviewing them to provide feedback that will inform the nation.

Needless to say when the week ended on Friday evening I was exhausted! However, I am extremely proud of the work that arts educators are doing throughout the state and urge you to continue to read and stay abreast of the opportunities that are offered. If you have questions or comments on any of this please feel free to email me at argy.nestor@maine.gov or post a comment at the bottom of this post.

MAAI arts educators fall workshop

Connections: Arts and Common Core Standards in ELA and Math

Let’s put this in perspective

Recently I have received emails asking about our role as arts educators and the Common Core Standards for ELA and Math. My colleague from Arizona, Lynn Tuttle, was asked to write a blog post for ARTSblog, Sept. 10, 2012. Lynn is not only the Director of Arts Education for the Arizona Department of Education but she is also the President of my national organization called SEADAE (State Education Agency Directors for Arts Education). Her post was so fabulous that we reprinted it on our SEADAE blog. The blog post is called Common Core is Here – Don’t Panic. It provides an overview and how and where the arts connect. Lynn also reminds us of the importance of the each states arts standards. Of course in Maine we have the 2007 document Maine Learning Results: Parameters for Essential Instruction that are our responsibility to teach.

My colleague, Joyce Huser, the Fine Arts Education Consultant from Kansas conducted a webinar last year for SEADAE called The Arts, Common Core, and 21st Century Connections. She collaborated with her ELA and Math colleagues to develop the webinar that is available for you on the Maine Department of Education site.

Also underway are the re-writing the national arts standards. You can keep abreast of that work at the wiki National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. I will be traveling to Washington DC next week to meet with my colleagues from SEADAE and the chairs of each of the National Core Arts Standards writing teams. At this point the new standards are due out during the summer of 2013. I will provide a blog post on my return to share what I have learned.

Arts Standards, 21st Century Skills, Common Core

Webinar explains connections

Last Tuesday my colleague, Joyce Huser, from Kansas presented a webinar to SEADAE (State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education), our professional organization of state arts specialists on the topic of arts standards, ELA Common Core, and the 21st Century Skills Map. The webinar was very helpful and I hope you will have 45 minutes to listen to it. The resources and link to the webinar are on the arts education webpage at the Maine Department of Education at http://www.maine.gov/education/lres/vpa/eor.html#webinars

Joyce was on the team that created the Art Skills Map for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The partnership is a national organization that advocates for 21st century skills for every student. The document provides information on how the arts teach 21st century skills and fulfill the needs for today’s learners. The webinar provides the connections (crosswalk) between arts standards, Common Core ELA standards, and the 21st century skills. The power point includes a graph that exhibits the skill demands for arts related careers for 2008 – 2018 which shows the skills taught in arts education classes.

National Standards for Arts Education

Update on national work

For anyone wishing to listen in on the live video stream of the National Coalition of Core Arts Standards meeting on Tuesday, January 24th in Reston, VA the link is: http://nccas.wikispaces.com/Framing+Meeting+-+Reston%2C+VA+-+Jan+2012

Four State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) members have been nominated by the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards to serve with the writing teams that will produce the next generation of arts standards. SEADAE member Dale Schmid of the New Jersey Department of Education will serve on the Dance writing team. SEADAE member Dr. Richard Baker of the Louisiana State Department of Education will serve on the Music writing team. SEADAE member Jack Mitchell of the California Department of Education will serve on the Theatre writing team and SEADAE member Joyce Huser of Kansas will serve on the Visual Arts writing team.

The National Coalition of Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) announced the selection of writing teams and chairs for the next generation of arts standards project on Friday December 16^th. NCCAS is a coalition of eight national organizations committed to developing new voluntary arts education standards that will build on the foundations created by the 1994 National Arts Standards and, more recently, the 2005 Standards for Learning and Teaching Dance in the Arts, to help guide curriculum designers, teacher training programs, funders, and federal and state policy makers in their arts education decision-making.

NCCAS announced that they received more than 360 applications from throughout the country to serve on one of the four writing teams of dance, music, theatre and visual arts. The coalition’s professional arts education organizations chose the team writers based on breadth of experience and skills in teaching, standards and curriculum writing, assessment and leadership, and practical knowledge in their area of expertise.

Lynn Tuttle, President of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE), called the selection of writers for the project “a major leap forward in our efforts to move ahead and actually begin working in earnest.” Tuttle and other SEADAE colleagues have been a guiding force in the effort to re-envision arts standards that will embrace 21st-century technology to help classroom educators better implement and assess standards-based arts instruction. “We know that this will be a complex and challenging project,” said Tuttle. “But we also know how important it is for arts teachers to articulate the skills and knowledge that ought to be available to every student in this country. If we want students to learn, we need to give our educators a framework that will help them create and teach their curricula. I think we have the team that can get this done.”

NCCAS Leadership and the chairs will meet in Reston, Virginia January 23-24 to finalize work on a learning framework that will guide the writers, and to discuss the project’s timeline and plans to include media arts as a discrete fifth arts discipline in the next generation standards. The meeting will include a streaming public Q&A period on January 24. Links to the interactive blog and available video streams will be posted the day of the event on the NCCAS website at http://nccas.wikispaces.com/Framing+Meeting+-+Reston%2C+VA+-+Jan+2012.

National Core Standards and Vacation

Beautiful Arizona

The first three days in Arizona were very warm but the weather was dry so it didn’t feel like 92 degrees was terribly hot. The hotel was about 5 blocks from Arizona State University so I had a chance to walk before moving to the air conditioned room where the meetings on the National Core Standards were held. We ate lunch outside and met in small group work outside as well so it made the work even more pleasant.

Thirty one of my colleagues from othe states part of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) organization attended the three day meeting in Phoenix the first week in November. We met with our partners from the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards who are:

• Lynne Kingsley, Executive Director, American Alliance for Theatre and Education
• Amy Jensen, Advocacy Director, American Alliance for Theatre and Education
• Sandra Ruppert, Director, Arts Education Partnership
• Michael Sikes, Senior Associate for Research and Policy, Arts Education Partnership
• Nancy Rubino, Director, Office of Academic Initiatives, College Board
• James Palmarini, Director of Educational Policy, Educational Theatre Association
• Michael Peitz, Executive Director, Educational Theatre Association
• Michael Blakeslee, Senior Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, The National Association for Music Education
• Scott Shuler, President, The National Association for Music Education
• Deborah Reeve, Executive Director, National Art Education Association
• Robert Sabol, President, National Art Education Association
• Barry Shauck, Past President, National Art Education Association
• Jane Bonbright, Executive Director, National Dance Education Organization
• Susan McGreevy-Nichols, President, National Dance Education Organization
• Deb Hansen, President, SEADAE, Delaware Department of Education
• Linda Lovins, National Expectations for Learning in Arts Education Tri-Chair, SEADAE, Florida Department of Education
• Marcia McCaffrey, National Expectations for Learning in Arts Education Tri-Chair, SEADAE, New Hampshire Department of Education
• Lynn Tuttle, National Expectations for Learning in Arts Education Tri-Chair, SEADAE, Arizona Department of Education
• Cory Wilkerson, National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, Communications Co-Chair, SEADAE

One of our tasks was to help determine who the writing teams would be for dance, music, theatre, and visual arts. Ten teachers for each team will be selected. I was proud that 9 Maine arts teachers applied. Thank you to those who took the time and made a commitment to help with this important work.  The chairs of these groups are listed at https://nccas.wikispaces.com/Writing+Team+Chairs

We had an extensive discussion around “media arts” as a 5th discipline in the national core arts standards document. Thank you to those who contributed their opinion on two meartsed blog posts. You can read what your Maine colleagues think about the idea on the two posts. And you can learn more from what the “media arts” investigation committee learned at https://nccas.wikispaces.com/Media+Arts+Investigation+Committee

Much of the discussion in Phoenix was streamed live for those who were available and for those who weren’t the videotapes can be accessed at https://nccas.wikispaces.com/NCCAS+Phoenix+Meeting+11-1-2011

College Board is a full partner on the leadership team and they have done some interesting research for our national core arts standards work. You can read their findings that is already helping to inform the work at https://nccas.wikispaces.com/International+Standards

As the work progresses you can continue to check the latest development by going to the wiki that has been created to house all of the links above and other information and resources at https://nccas.wikispaces.com/.

Botanical Gardens

At the conclusion of my three day meeting I had a chance to vacation for a few days in Arizona. For a state that only has on average 7 inchCaes of rainfall each year I was surprised that it rained twice while we were there. Phoenix has a population of 1,445,632 as compared to our entire state of Maine with 1,318,301 people. For a city with such a large population it didn’t feel crowded like other large cities. The city is laid out on a grid with nearly every street straight. Numbered streets go north & south, named streets go east-west. There are “washes” where there are low spots and when it rains (not much even) the water rises in the wash and you guessed it floods the roadways. We ran into one of them and also freezing rain, sleet, and snow. In spite of the weather we hiked in some beautiful places where the saguaro cactus grow perhaps as tall as 50 feet and may live to be older than 200 years.

Joani and Mark

We spent time with old friends and met interesting people. I met Joani, who teaches art at Arcadia High School in 2000, while we were on the Fulbright program in Japan. Joanie’s husband Mark is a Director of Technology in the Kyrene Elementary School District. We traveled north from Phoenix and saw about 8 inches of snow in the Flagstaff where people ski the area mountains, the tallest about 12,000 feet. We traveled northeast from there to Canyon de Chelly National Monument arriving in time to drive the rim as the moon rose. The rich orange rock was beautiful at dusk and the next morning with sunshine, brilliant blue sky and 18 degrees. We traveled by jeep down into the canyon to view and explore the history, culture, artifacts, that are sustained today by a community of Navajo people. It was one of those moments in time when I realize how tiny I am in this great big universe.

Canyon de Chelly

We stopped while traveling back to Phoenix at the Painted Desert, another amazing site at dusk. The next day we hiked in Sedona and were treated to another beautiful blue sky and sunshine day. If you haven’t visited Arizona I recommend it. The landscape is so interesting and provides plenty of inspiration for artists.

Young Navajo artist whose grandparents live in the canyon during the summer

Sedona

Media Arts Debate in Phoenix

Debating media arts

Rich Wells and Marcia McCaffrey

My colleague from NH, Marcia McCaffrey, is co-chairing the National Core Arts Standards work and today she did a marvelous job facilitating the conversation. With representatives from NAEA, NAfME, the dance, theater, and college board, along with my colleagues from 28 states a great deal was accomplished. Marcia was a master at keeping the day moving and it was a fascinating day. (Talk about trusting the process!)

Part of the morning was spent in debate about whether we should have “media arts” as a separate discipline or have media arts standards incorporated in the other 4 arts disciplines. Thanks to all of you who contributed your opinion on the topic.

Here’s a bit of the conversation which you can also follow, listen to on what was streamed from the all-day meeting today.You can access the archived stream at http://nccas.wikispaces.com/NCCAS+Phoenix+Meeting+11-1-2011. The presentations for the debate were well researched and in the end the state arts specialists had two votes. One for the state and the other for us personally. 32 voites were in favorite of a 5th and separate discipline along with standards for media arts embedded in the other four disciplines.

Jane’s opening statement

• it is premature to include media arts as a 5th discipline
• what is media arts, it needs to be defined – what’s constitute media arts in K12
• what makes it different – why not write them into the 4 disciplines
• media arts can write their own and then the 4 others can embed them into
• first and foremost needs to be taught from an arts aesthetic and not from the tools
• we’re already struggling with art and music to keep them in place in schools, let alone dance and theater

We w0uld have to deal with the following:

• licensure
• professional development systems
• support
• curriculum and assessments
• HQT

Amy’s opening statement

• when I started teaching I was deeply influenced by the national standards (that were just released) and the forward thinking of the writers
• 1895 – Lemure Brothers, film was presented of the train coming down the track. people ran out of the theater. The same thing was happening to my family this morning. Age 10, daughter, reading email, other daughter reading a book on line, husband reading his email, dog has a gps. They have the media but we need to provide students with opportunities to create and innovate. Americans view 60 films a year, tv, online, email combined – 4 months out of our year. It is shaping our lives, our cultures, our society. multi-disciplinary art form.

Need to look at two components:

time based media – movies, animation, theater, etc.

interactivity – video games, computational arts, etc.

• students can produce works of art that students need to have the opportunity to fully flesh out stand alone standards. Media arts – artform with expression, different than the other artform
• kids are already doing it so they need support systems to mirror what they are doing in their world
• have conversation in their global society

Mike’s opening statement

• Media arts need to be part of it.
• Narrow the definition – so we can get a handle on it. show what is necessary, to separate from the other arts. electronic arts intermix – leading resource – preservation of media arts
• Film institute from Great Brittain – media education in 1986, created a document – films, video, and television. came out with a bluepring for teaching and learning in the moving image – NYC. 5 strands

One important point: We can not have a media arts program in place and have them be in service to the other four disciplines – cross disciplinary works better for teachers!

So, there you have it in a nutshell from what I recorded. What’s next? The leadership team who is the governing group of the work, will make the final decision. I will keep you posted.