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2012

Stanislaus Alliance Urges Parents to Join Advocacy Efforts
February 23, 2012

The new Stanislaus Alliance for Arts Education encouraged parents to get more involved in promoting arts at their schools at an event this month.

"When programs are in danger, it's the parents and only the parents that save them," Patty Larrick, the alliance coordinator, told people at a parents forum at the Gallo Center for the Arts.

Working in partnership with the Gallo Center, the Stanislaus Alliance organized and event at which parents could find out how to get more involved in local advoacy efforts, as enjoy master storyteller, in performance at the Center.

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Will Measuring Creativity In Schools Help Youth Be Workforce Ready?
February 9, 2012

In an article featured in the Huffington Post, Youth Radio/Youth Media International (YMI) explores the potential impact of the creativity index proposed by SB 789 (Price), a bill sponsored by the California Alliance for Arts Education.

YMI interviewed Mary Wright, Associate Director for The Conference Board, a researcher on a report called, "Are They Really Ready To Work?", which "identified key skill sets that employers thought were important for their employees to have, and creativity and innovation were among the top five." Wright explains how she thinks it could affect the workforce readiness of young people today.

There is growing recognition that our state’s economy will be driven by ideas and innovation. According to a coalition of researchers, 81% of American corporate leaders say that “creativity is an essential skill for the 21st century work force.” Yet schools have narrowed their expectations in recent years, “teaching to the test” because standardized tests...

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School Board 101, A Webinar to Help You Advocate for Arts Education
February 6, 2012

In the coming months your local school board will be making important budget decisions. Find out how you can be a part of the conversation.

The California Alliance for Arts Education, in partnership with the California State PTA, created School Board 101, a free one-hour webinar to help advocates work with their local school board. The webinar offers an introduction to what school boards do, and how you can build relationships, communicate effectively and advocate to keep arts and music programs funded.

School Board 101 was held on February 23. An archive of the event will be available shortly. To recieve a link to the archive when it's ready, email: sibyl at artsed411 dot org.

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States Consider Creative Indexes for Schools
February 2, 2012

"If the only public measurement of your school is a standardized test, then schools have every incentive to teach to the test. The index is a tool to get to what is happening in the classroom."
In "Schools Mulling Creativity Indexes for Schools" in Education Week, Eric Robelen looks at three states that are considering adopting an Index that measures opportunities for creativity and innovation in schools.
"At a time when U.S. political and business leaders are raising concerns about the need to better nurture creativity and innovative thinking among young people," Massachusetts, California (SB 789 Price) and Oklahoma are "exploring the development of an index that would gauge the extent to which schools provide opportunities to foster those qualities."

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Thank you, Senator Kehoe
January 23, 2012

January 20, 2012


Senator Christine Kehoe

State Capitol, Room 5050

Sacramento, CA 95814


Dear Senator Kehoe:

Thank you for voting to pass SB 789 (Price) the Creative and Innovative Education Index. We salute your leadership on this issue.
With your help, we are advancing efforts to shift education policy to broaden assessments of schools and students beyond standardized tests. As you know, there is strong support among the public to provide California students with a well-rounded education.
There is also growing recognition that our state’s economy will be driven by ideas and innovation. According to a coalition of researchers, 81% of American corporate leaders say that “creativity is an essential skill for the 21st century work force.”

Yet schools have narrowed their expectations in recent years, “teaching to the test” because standardized tests are the only public measures of school success.

SB 789 calls for the establishment of a “Creative and Innovative Education Index” to measure the...
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Policy Council Tackles Tough Education Issues
January 19, 2012
The California Alliance for Arts Education convened its Policy Council in Sacramento last week and came to consensus on a number of the tough issues facing public education in California. The group affirmed the Alliance’s existing strategic priorities and called for particular emphasis on the need for funding, accountability, broader assessments of schools’ success and collaboration around the Create the State public awareness campaign for arts education. The agenda included presentations and discussion on:
• The four (now three) ballot initiatives to provide funding for public education
• SB 547 and other efforts aimed at school accountability
•...
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Investing in Arts Education to Advance California’s Creative Industry
January 19, 2012
The academic and social value of the arts is well-documented, and researchers now recognize an economic value. Leaders and employees of successful businesses and organizations in today’s creative economy utilize creativity, think critically, respect diverse viewpoints, and collaborate effectively. These are skills developed through arts education. California’s creative industry—one of the largest in the world—can certainly benefit from effective arts education programs in California schools.

A new research study asserts that even in the midst of educational and financial struggles, it is essential for California to invest in the arts in order to flourish within a culturally diverse, economically successful, and highly competitive global community. Investing in Arts Education to Advance California’s Creative Industry, a study by Kurt Whitman, analyzes the current role of arts education in the context of law and policy and includes a proposed course of action to more effectively fund and instruct the arts in California. ...
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Mark Slavkin's TED Talk Makes the Case for a Creativity Index
January 18, 2012

California Alliance Board Chair Mark Slavkin, was one of the featured speakers at TEDx Manhattan Beach on October 22, 2011. He described how the No Child Left Behind law has narrowed the curriculum and made it more difficult to provide quality arts education programs. He proposed the development of a new “creativity index” to hold schools accountable for more than just math and reading test scores. Watch the video.

The Alliance is working to broaden school assessments with the introduction of SB 789 (Price), the Creative and Innovation Education Index. This index would provide a tangible way to measure and inspire opportunities for creativity and innovation in our public schools.

In a state where creativity and innovation have been so critical to our economic strength, the bill affirms that California remains a leader in forging a path to the future for its students. A similar “Creative Challenge Index” has been signed into law in Massachusetts and is under consideration in Wisconsin, Oklahoma,...

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School Assessments Should Go Beyond Standardized Tests
January 18, 2012

SB 789 (Price) Moving Forward

With your help, SB 789 (Price) passed on the Senate Floor. It is now making its way through the Assembly. It was heard and passed in the Assembly Education Committee on June 13, 2012. It was placed on the suspense calendar by the Appropriations Committee until August 16. We are now working with Senator Price to move the bill out of committee onto the Assembly floor, where the entire assembly can vote on the issue.

SB 789 (Price), The Index for Creative and Innovative Education, is an opportunity to advance the conversation about how schools and students are evaluated.

Sponsored by the California Alliance for Arts Education and authored by Senator Curren Price, SB 789 would create an index to measure student opportunities for creativity and innovation in schools. If passed, it would provide a tangible way to measure and inspire learning opportunities that nurture creativity and innovation in our public schools.

Right now, student and school evaluations are based solely on standardized tests. As educators, parents...

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2011

What's for breakfast? What's Breakfast for?
November 28, 2011

On a recent Thursday morning, a group of forty people gathered in San Francisco for a breakfast of grits, sausage and greens. It was a special occasion; it was a chance for parents, teachers, elected officials, school officials and artists to talk about how they could work together to support arts education in local public schools; it was also the launch of the thirtieth coalition in the Alliance’s Local Advocacy Network.

For the last three years, the Alliance has been working to support local advocacy efforts in communities around the state. We always began with breakfast. In San Francisco, as in other places, there were three important ingredients of the gathering:
  1. Diversity: At the San Francisco meeting there were leaders from business, parent and cultural organizations, as well as school and elected officials. Although many are already working to advance arts education, the gathering helped people see their work in a larger context.
  2. Discussion: After a presentation on the status of arts education at the state and local levels, participants were asked, “Given what we’ve learned, what would be the recommended advocacy focus for San Francisco Alliance for Arts Education?” A lively conversation followed, with Board Members...
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