Arts Education Research

Delaware Teacher of the Year Emphasizes the Arts

Another music educator has been named teacher of the year. This year it is Mark Teesdale, a general music and choral teacher. It is wonderful to see arts educators recognized by their peers for the great work they, and you, do every day.

DOVER -- The future of the U.S. depends on arts education, according to Mark Teesdale, a general music and chorus teacher at Lake Forest Central Elementary School. "The arts play an integral part in developing the total child," Teesdale said Tuesday night after being named Delaware's 2009 Teacher of the Year. "We must keep the arts a fundamental part of our children's education." The 25-year classroom veteran, who teaches fourth and fifth grades at Lake Forest, received the award during a ceremony attended by more than 400 educators, state leaders and other guests at Dover Downs Hotel and Conference Center. As state winner, Teesdale will be Delaware's nominee for the national Teacher of the Year contest and will speak with community groups, business leaders, policy makers and educational organizations about Delaware schools. Lake Forest Central Elementary School Principal Cathy Zimmerman said Teesdale has built the best music program in the state. "He works so well with children. He's able to mold them and give them their stage," she said. Lake Forest Superintendent Dan Curry said for many students, arts is a gateway. "The arts opens another avenue for kids to express themselves," Curry said.

It is also nice to see administrators cheer the recognition with Congratulations Mark!!! Top teacher emphasizes the arts | delawareonline | The News Journal

Associated Press to Repost Corrected Story on Candidates Positions

If you have been following our little dust-up over the reporting of the Presidential Candidates positions sent out last week by the Associated Press you know that we requested a clarification regarding a statement attributed to the Obama campaign calling music and art "non-core subjects." We made this request out of concern that either the Obama position was misinformed or the reporter was rewriting federal law about "core subjects." The AP has agreed to send out a corrected version of the story this today after being unable to provide a source for the attributed statement. It just goes to show you we must always be vigilant in how arts education is positioned in the media and with policy makers. A "non-core" label certainly does not advance our cause. A point for our team!

Finding Their Groove

Two years ago, HBO aired the first part of a three part series called The Music in Me. The idea was as elegant as it was simple: kids send in videos explaining why music was important to them and then show so of the music within them. The result? A peabody Award winning series for creator Leslie Stifelman. Not wanting her vision to stop with a documentary... Leslie has taken the past two years to develop her idea for the documentary into a community based event celebrating the wonderful music that is alive and well in our children. This led her to create Finding the Groove: All Kinds of Kids Making All Kinds of Music. Finding the Groove makes it's world premiere this weekend on October 19th with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra featuring kids from across Indiana who have shared their passion for music with Leslie and now Leslie will share them with the world. The Indianapolis Symphony has been FANTASTIC to work with. They really have stepped forward and deserve a lot of the credit for making this project a success. If you are in the Indianapolis area this weekend you should check it out! I have had the great fortune to work with Leslie on this project. She has done a fantastic job managing the entire process and keeping her vision in clear focus. It should be a great concert and the first in what will undoubtedly be a new way to engage an entire community to find their collective groove. A special shout out to my friends Jeff Queen and Jay Webb for involving the Avon High School music program. Thanks guys!

Canadian Prime Minister Pledges Tax Credits for Arts Training

The US isn't the only Country holding an election. There happens to be one to the north of us. Interestingly, when we compare how the arts are fairing when comparing the two nations campaigns... so far Canada is winning 1-0. That deafening sound you hear in the US is the complete LACK of public discussion about the arts. Granted, we have a few major issues that just might take priority (2 Wars and a complete economic melt down) but with all the advances made in our country to elevate the arts in the political discussion you would think at least one policy initiative would pop up. But for now... let's contemplate the Canadian plan:

(CEP News) Ottawa - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper says if he is re-elected next month, he will bring in a new children's arts tax credit and expand the reach of the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP). Harper told an Ottawa news conference he will provide the same kind of tax treatment for arts training that the government already offers families with children involved in sports programs. In addition, he said the new arts tax credit and the fitness tax credit will be made fully refundable so lower income families will receive cash payments if their incomes are too low to qualify for tax credits. "Giving working families a break is one of the most important Conservative priorities," Harper said. The prime minister also promised to expand the RESP program to allow charities and not-for-profit organizations to establish savings plans for children from low-income families in partnership with parents.

I am not sure tax credits is a substitute for - let's say - providing universal access to arts education in schools.... but you have to start somewhere!

What do they know that we don't know?

China is expanding music and art education for ALL children! Very exciting! Very enlightened! Which leads me to ask the question.... at a time when the US is reducing or eliminating music and arts instruction for many of our students and focusing on testing, testing, testing .... what does China know that our education leaders do not? Hmmmmmmmmm...

BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Performance in arts courses will become a factor in evaluating primary and middle school students, the Ministry of Education said on Thursday. Arts education was insufficient because of lack of time, teachers and resources, which has hindered the development of quality-oriented education, said a course plan for compulsory education issued by the ministry on its website. Chinese students are well-known for intelligence and diligence as shown by high scores but often show little or no artistic talent. Many youngsters, especially in rural areas, do not know how to sing or dance and have never had music or art lessons. Under the plan, class-hours for the arts should take up 9 to 11percent of the school time in the nine-year course of compulsory education, which includes six years of primary school and three years of junior high school. Primary and middle schools should use arts textbooks approved by the educational departments and improve their teaching quality in accordance with national standards, it said. Performance in arts courses should be included in a student's record as an important promotion factor. Most urban schools have full-time arts teachers, but many rural schools lack such professionals. Some schools only have part-time arts teachers or have none.

Link: "Artistic talent" to become factor for appraising Chinese students

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Well, it is not really what I did; it is more what I learned. And it wasn't really my summer vacation, but that of my daughter, Natalie. And what I learned through her experience may provide some insights that can help your program.

Mike Huckabee Wins Iowa!

On a remarkable evening on a cold evening in the heartland of America a man of great compassion and courage sent a clear message to the American people:

"This victory is not for me... it is for WE... We The People"

WOW!

NY Times: To Provide Quality Music Education Now, Schools Could Learn From the Past

Every now and then a newspaper report writes an extraordinary article providing both clarity and insight to the challenges faced in music education. The New York Times gave the music community a "Christmas Present" when the published the following article. I have provided an excerpt here but the full article is worth the read. In order to invent our future... maybe we need to revisit our past!

The crisis of the moment has partly to do with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s announcement last summer that New York City schools would be required to teach the arts, and that principals would be rated annually on their success, much as they are in other subjects. In theory this could put some muscle behind the adventurous curriculum (or blueprint, as it is called) that the city’s Department of Education and a panel of arts consultants drew up in 2004: a kindergarten-through-12th-grade program that envisions choral and instrumental performance, the fostering of musical literacy and the consideration of the role music plays in communities and the world at large. The music proposed for this course was admirably boundary-free, cutting a swath from Beethoven and Puccini through folk songs, spirituals, jazz and pop. The problem is that the 2004 blueprint is recommended rather than required. Given the paucity of music teachers in the system — there was one music teacher for every 1,200 students in 2006, Education Department officials have said — schools that could execute it in all its glory were few. Exactly how (and how quickly) that can change is unclear. Mr. Bloomberg has also decreed that the $67.5 million earmarked annually for Project Arts, a financing program started in 1997 by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, will go directly to the schools. The fear is that it will be absorbed by programs other than those for arts education. That’s what arts organizations are worrying about publicly. But the fact is that Project Arts and grant programs like it have become a dependable gravy train for these groups. In the absence of the teachers and the budgets necessary to offer comprehensive and coherent arts courses, the schools, encouraged and financed by such programs, have formed partnerships with performing groups, charging the ensembles with the task of creating arts programs for children. Typically that means a few performances for each participating school, dressed up with classroom preparation sessions and specially created handouts. They often include discussions with musicians, who are not usually members of the “partner ensembles” but young “teaching artists.” They are paid fees equal to, and sometimes considerably more than, a classroom teacher’s hourly wage (but a fraction of what a unionized orchestra member would receive).

Music - Education - Classical Music - New York Times

Trust... But Verify!

After three years of work we finally finished our major project conducting an arts education census of every public school for the state of New Jersey. It was a long, involved, complicated process involving two agencies of state government, dozens of organizations, hundreds of people and thousands of schools. The results create the most comprehensive look at arts education on a broad scale that has ever been conducted in this country. I will share with you the key highlights, findings, recommendations, and the significant lessons for the all of us. First, the facts: On September 18, 2007, New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells and Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy, along with the project partners for the New Jersey Arts Education Census Project, participated in the release of the report, WITHIN OUR POWER: The Progress, Plight and Promise of Arts Education for Every Child, via web cast and before a live studio audience at New Jersey Network Studios in Trenton. The Report includes the highlights, findings, and recommendations from the New Jersey Arts Education Census Project and is the result of collaboration between the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, the New Jersey Department of Education, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, and Music for All, with additional support provided by NAMM - International Music Products Association, the D’Addario Foundation for the Performing Arts, and David Bryan of Bon Jovi, who is a project supporter and was on hand to perform. This project was inspired by the Mapping Project, which was carried out by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey from 1996-98. The New Jersey Arts Education Census Project is one of the most comprehensive reviews of arts education ever conducted on a statewide basis with more than 98 percent of all New Jersey public schools participating. By combining the findings of a statewide mandated survey of arts education offerings in every school with other information, the Project creates a 360-degree view of the status of arts education in New Jersey. “These findings have given us a realistic picture of the state of arts education in our schools,” said Secretary Wells. “We now have the information we need to clearly identify where our existing resources can be best focused to strengthen student access to arts education and make sure that all New Jersey students get the complete education they deserve.” The findings and recommendations presented at the event are part of the long-term plan to broadly disseminate the Project’s discoveries and to centralize, maintain and distribute arts education information across the state through the newly formed New Jersey Arts Education Partnership.

Sandy Feldstein

I heard the news today...

  It is with great sadness, that my mom, Tracy and I announce that Sandy Feldstein has ended his year long battle with cancer.  We were all together at home in Tarzana California when he passed very early this morning.  He was at peace, surrounded by his family and the love and thoughts of well wishers from all around the world.      Funeral Services will be held next Tuesday, Sept 4th at 2 PM at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.  Mount Sinai is located at 5950 Forest Lawn Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90068, 323-469-6000.  There will be a reception at Sandy and Wendy's home directly following the ceremony.  The address is 19525 Valdez Dr Tarzana CA 91356.      As you know, dad's life has been devoted to music education, so in lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to the newly established Sandy Feldstein Music Education Fund. The Music for All Foundation has organized this new fund, and the family will see that all contributions will be allocated as dad would have seen fit.  Please make contributions payable to "The Music For All Foundation," and please write Sandy Feldstein Music Education Fund on the comment line of your checks.  We hope that the generosity of those who love dad and love music will ultimately lead to a scholarship in his name.  The address for donations is 39 West Jackson Place, suite 150 Indianapolis IN 46225      Sincerely,      Wendy, David and Tracy Feldstein

Sandy was a close friend to me and my family. He will be sorely missed. I will post more about his tremendous contributions to our cause... but for now... I weep.