We stay on top of the latest trends, opportunities and threats in our field. Our newsletter provides a digest of current arts education headlines; our Legislative Update tracks bills in the California Legislature that could impact arts programs in our schools; and, our blog offers an in depth view or opinion on current policy issues. Below are the latest news stories about our work.

U.S. Dept of Ed Supports Arts Education in Title 1 Program

published by CAAEStaff on April 18, 2014 - 4:32pm

At the 2014 National Title I Conference, Dr. Monique Chism, Director of Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs at the Department of Education, took a stand for arts education within the Title I program. Not only did she share her conviction that “arts education ensures that underserved students in public schools, particularly low income students and English-learners do better in school and [...] have the greatest relative improvements in academic achievement when participating in arts programs,” but she also shared a personal story of how the arts impacted her as a young person. (See video below).

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2014 Student Voices Campaign Launches!

published by CAAEStaff on February 28, 2014 - 5:37pm

The Student Voices Campaign launching on March 1. 2014, gives students a platform to demonstrate their creative power and passion for the arts with their elected officials. Students are invited to upload original videos of two minutes or less that respond to the question ‘What Does Your Creativity Look Like?’ at http://studentvoicescampaign.org/ between March 1 May 31, 2014. Students can sing, speak, dance, animate, act, speak or paint their answers.

As local districts set priorities and funding allocations to comply with California’s new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), young advocates can offer powerful evidence of the ways that arts education empower and equip young people for a successful future.

For the second year of the campaign the California Alliance for Arts Education is pleased to partner with some of the state’s leading arts leaders, including the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, the California State Summer School for the Arts, Center Theatre Group, Inner City Arts, Inocente, Shine Global’s Academy Award-winning documentary and Venice Arts.

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Opinion: Why students make the best arts education advocates

published by CAAEStaff on July 8, 2013 - 12:21pm

There’s an irony surrounding education reform and advocacy. Namely, that the beneficiaries of so much work and effort – the students -- are rarely consulted.

Granted, student involvement in education reform has its limitations. Most students in the K-12 public education system cannot vote. As full time students, there sometimes aren’t enough hours in the day for sleeping let alone effective advocacy. But most importantly, many students think their voices don’t have the weight that adult voices do. This last reason is the easiest to change because it’s simply not true.

Arts education is exalted as a way to find your voice. So why not allow studentS to speak up for their right to keep speaking? Interning at the California Alliance after years of being a student involved in a public school’s drama, dance, and choir programs made me realize arts advocacy doesn’t have to (and arguably shouldn’t) be as exclusive as it may seem.


SO WHAT EXACTLY MAKES STUDENTS THE BEST ADVOCATES FOR ARTS EDUCATION?
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Student Voices Video Makers Win Adobe Software for their Schools

published by CAAEStaff on May 29, 2013 - 5:04pm


Last month marked the close of the Alliance’s Student Voices campaign, which gave students from all over California a platform to share their creativity and passion for the arts with their legislators. Our first-ever student video campaign drew an inspired array of submissions that showcased the artistry, hard work and zeal of student artists.

Thanks to a generous donations from Adobe, the students whose videos received the most likes have won free Adobe software for their schools.
Melody Lee and Irene Lee, students at the Orange County for the Arts took first place and a video created by Michelle Coder and Cody Watson in partnership students at Ridgepoint School, a middle school in Sacramento, came in second. Congratulations to both on their unique vidoes and their successful efforts to spread the word about the campaign on social media.

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Alliance Releases Policy Paper on Title 1 & Arts Education

published by CAAEStaff on April 8, 2013 - 10:54am
This week in Washington DC, at the Arts Education Partnership’s National Forum Spotlight: Educating the Next America, we will release a new white paper, A Policy Pathway: Embracing Arts Education to Achieve Title I Goals.

Co-authored with Danielle Brazell of Arts for LA and Dr. Lauren Stevenson of Junction Box Consulting, the paper documents the journey we’ve been traveling for the past eighteen months to make it possible for schools and districts to embrace arts strategies for achieving the goals of Title I and improving educational outcomes for low-income students who are often underserved in public schools.
Our interest in this issue was spurred by the substantial body of research demonstrating that certain forms of arts education can be an asset to schools and districts in achieving Title I goals. Despite that research evidence and the support of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan who states that “Arts education remains critical to leveling the playing field of opportunity,” we have found a lack of clarity about whether and how the arts might play a role in Title I programs.

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ALLIANCE PRESENTS SERIES OF REGIONAL CONVENINGS ON ARTS Education and TITLE I

published by CAAEStaff on February 27, 2014 - 5:49pm

The California Alliance is hosting regional convenings planned to help California schools and districts understand the appropriate use of arts strategies within the Title I program.

In the coming months, we will travel to Sonoma, Los Angeles, Alameda, and Sacramento to share strategies for increasing student engagement, academic achievement, parent involvement and other Title 1 goals through the arts. School principals, district administrators, financial officers, school site council members and categorical funding experts are invited to attend and will receive information on best practices and research that can be used to support these efforts including a step-by-step walkthrough of how arts strategies can be included in a school site plan.

The scheduled convenings are the following:

  1. Alameda: Friday, April 25, 2014 1-3p.m., Alameda County Office of Education, 313 W. Winton Ave, room L2 Hayward, CA 94544 Register. Event Flyer.
  2. Sacramento: Wednesday, May 21, 2014, Sacramento County Office of Education, 8:30 AM: Breakfast and Networking 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM: Meeting Register.

* The admission to all the listed events is FREE

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Arts Education and Title 1 Funding: What you can do

published by CAAEStaff on January 13, 2014 - 10:08am

A primary mission of the California Alliance for Arts Education is to ensure that every student, not just those who are fortunate to live in affluent communities, receives the benefits of arts education as a component of a comprehensive high-quality education. This commitment led to our involvement in Title I funding for public education.

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Decision on Dance and Theatre Credential Postponed

published by CAAEStaff on September 16, 2013 - 2:34pm

In late September, the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) will hold its next meeting where it was expected to render a decision about whether to add a single subject credential for dance and theater. That decision has been delayed until the Commission’s December meeting. Although the state's education code requires instruction in four artistic disciplines, California is currently one of only a handful states that does not offer a credential for dance and theater teachers. In June, the California Alliance and other organizations supporting the new credential sent letters of support to the Commission. We will report back on the results of these efforts after the December meeting.

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Speak Up about How the Local Control Funding Formula Gets Implemented

published by CAAEStaff on August 5, 2013 - 11:27am

Regional Meetings Held This & Next Week

In June, California passed historic reforms to our school financing system. In the coming months, the State Board of Education (SBE) and California Department of Education (CDE) will be formulating how the new Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) will be implemented at the district level. Community and stakeholder engagement is critical to this process.
Speak up at regional meetings about the positive impact of the arts on students, especially high needs students. The SBE and CDE are holding a series of regional meetings to gather stakeholder input and ideas to inform implementation of LCFF. Sessions begin at 9:30 AM and end at or before noon at each location.
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Advocates Make the Case for the Arts in New School Accountability Measures

published by CAAEStaff on July 8, 2013 - 4:46pm

In recent years, the Alliance has advocated to broaden the ways that school success is measured beyond standardized tests. Under No Child Left Behind, standardized tests are the only measure of achievement and are tied to high stakes accountability measures, giving schools an incentive to “teach to the test” and to ignore the broader spectrum of what it means to provide a complete education for the whole child.

Those narrow test-related expectations fail to encompass the responsibility our public schools have to prepare students to meet the challenges and expectations of the workforce of the 21st century. As we have moved into an economy driven by ideas and innovation, our schools must respond by providing all our students with the opportunity to develop creative skills. For this reason, the Alliance has made this issue a priority in recent years, sponsoring legislation to create a Creativity Index for schools and most recently, mobilizing advocates to weigh in on new accountability measures being considered by the California Department of Education (CDE).

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