SMARTS: BRING BACK THE ARTS

Advocacy Resources

Become informed about the arts and advocate effectively!

Recommendations to Maximize New Arts Funding
The California Arts Project shares strategies for teachers, administrators, parents, and others involved in decision making on the use of the new state funds. You can download and reproduce any document you find useful.

Kick-Off the Community Arts Education Project in Your School.
The Community Arts Education Project is a unique strategy manual to support quality arts education in public schools.
Download YOUR copy today!

Dr. Carol Channing & Harry Kullijian Foundation For The Arts
Award Winning performer Carol Channing was recently honored with the PTA Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor PTA can bestow, for her exceptional commitment and devotion to the education of our youth in the arts. The return to the teaching of the arts in the public schools in the State of California requires that the State and its citizens reevaluate, reexamine and rethink the benefits to be derived from a complete and adequate education that includes exposure to the arts as a part of the regular curriculum.

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Community Resources

Programs and artists to bring into your schools

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Teachers: Music, art and movement lessons online!

A selection of the best state and national resources for teachers

Jazz for Young People
Listen and learn about the Jazz for Young People Curriculum produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Lyrical Legacy: 400 Years of American Song and Poetry
Lyrical Legacy helps teachers explore eighteen American songs and poems from the digital collections of the Library of Congress.

Teaching the Art of Writing
Learn about an arts based approach for reluctant writers by Beth Olshansky, published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Off the Map
What is visionary art for the classroom? Visit an award winning website from PBS.

National Anthem Project: Teacher Resources
Resources help teach patriotic music and raise awareness of the importance of music education in preserving American musical traditions.

NEA Jazz in the Schools
This multi-media curriculum is designed to be as useful to high school history and social studies teachers as it is to music teachers.

Poetry Out Loud
Created by the National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation, this program encourages high school students to memorize and perform great poems.

I hear America Singing

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Parents: Activities to bring the arts home

Student Success: Arts Education Resources from the National PTA
Arts education not only cultivates imagination, self-expression, and creativity, but also plays a vital role in the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It promotes visual literacy, which enables students to analyze and interpret the meaning of complex visual imagery that permeates the media and popular culture.

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The State of the Arts in California Public Schools

An Unfinished Canvas: Local Partnerships in Support of Arts Education
This explores the role of partnerships between local arts organizations and schools and districts in supporting elementary arts education in California.

An Unfinished Canvas: District Capacity and the Use of New Funds for Arts Education in California
Through a survey of district leaders, this report assessed districts’ capacity with respect to arts education, explored early spending choices, and examined the relationship between the two. It also studied changes in arts education since the new resources became available and worked to understand the barriers that continue to stand in the way of comprehensive arts education for all California students. Research conducted by SRI International (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

An Unfinished Canvas: Large Scale Assessment
This paper provides a review of the status of large-scale arts assessments and current practice in statewide arts assessment for the purpose of K–12-education accountability. (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

An Unfinished Canvas: Teacher Preparation, Instructional Delivery, and Professional Development in the Arts
This study investigates the system for training and preparing elementary classroom teachers and secondary arts teachers to provide standards-aligned arts instruction, their familiarity with and use of the state’s VPA standards, their ongoing professional development, the supports and resources available to them, and the barriers to their delivery of standards-aligned arts instruction. (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

An Unfinished Canvas: Allocating Funding and Instructional Time for Elementary Arts Education
This study examines the allocation of funding and instructional time in 10 schools across five states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and California). (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

First Comprehensive Study of K-12 Arts Education in California Schools Finds Vast Majority Fail to Meet State Standards
A landmark study from independent research institute SRI International, for the first time systemically examining the status of arts education in California, reveals that the vast majority of California's schools fail to meet state standards for teaching the arts, and that access to arts instruction varies widely among the state's schools. (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

Read the Executive Summary
Read the Full Report

Arts education in the San Francisco Bay Area:
A supplementary status report

Why Did California Schools Get Arts Funding?
Listen to an interview on KALW radio featuring the PTA.

Sound of Music Returning to Schools
The San Francisco Chronicle takes a look at the new funding for arts education in California.

How the West Was Won: A Look at the California Budget Victory
Bob Morrison of the Music for All Foundation takes a look at the new arts funding for California schools.

Quality, Equity and Access: A Report on Arts in California Schools
The briefing paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the status of arts education in California. Download your copy.

California Music Education Crisis: The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Silence: The Unprecedented Decline of Music Education in California Public Schools documents the impact of budget cuts, high-stakes testing, and the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act on student participation in music education programs.

Arts Work: A Call for Arts Education for All California Students
According to this 1997 Report of the California Superintendents Task Force on Visual and Performing Arts: Arts education in California has been in a state of crisis since the passage of Prop. 13 in 1978.

• "In a majority of school districts, only 10 to 25 per cent of students participate in some form of arts education."
• "No district in California has more than 50 per cent of its students involved in arts education."

Visual and Performing Arts: California Department of Education

California Arts Council

The California Arts Project

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Grants and Funding Sources

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Arts and Education Research

Arts Training Linked to Better Literacy
Read a new study by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum about impact of arts education on critical thinking skills and literacy among elementary school children.
For more information about the Guggenheim Museum, go to:
http://www.guggenheim.org/

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Museums Online

Online museum resources for parents, teachers and students

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Interactive Web Sites

• Drama and Dance
• Music
• Visual Arts

Resources Online

• Advocacy
• Community
• Teachers
• Parents
• The State of the Arts in California Public Schools
• Arts and Education Research
• Grants and Funding
• Museums Online

PTA Reflections Program

• Literature, Musical Composition, Photography, Visual Arts, Dance, Film/Video