1
State of the Arts
in
Palm Beach County Schools
Where do we go from here?
A needs assessment sponsored by the Maryand Robert Pew Public Education Fund
January, 2005
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Palm Beach County Schools, most particularly Dr. Art Johnson, Superintendent, Dr. Ann Killets, Chief Academic Officer, and Dr. Tom Pearson, K-12 Arts Program Planner and Secondary/Career Education , who have been extraordinarily supportive of this assessment and clearly recognize its value for Palm Beach County children.
We also thank Rena Blades, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sonya Davis, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Membership, and the staff of the Palm Beach County Cultural Council. The Cultural Council is a valuable partner and has been actively involved in this assessment.
We thank PrimetimePalm BeachCounty and the Children’s Services Council who made their September 2004 Survey of Afterschool Cultural Activities Survey available to us.
We wish to express our appreciation to Jeff Koons, Palm Beach County Commissioner, who has been a consistent public supporter of the arts for Palm BeachCounty children.
We thank the Chicago Community Trust, particularly Sarah Solotaroff, Kassie Davis, and Lynn Donaldson, who made their survey instrument available and took time to meet with and discuss their work with Palm Beach County representatives in early December, 2004.
Many thanks to arts partnership participants, particularly those in Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, Boston, and Los Angeles, who have led the work in this country and continue to serve as mentors and guides.
Special appreciation for the dedication and commitment of Louise Grant, Executive Director of the Mary and Robert Pew Public Education Fund.
Finally, we want to thank the many principals, classroom teachers, arts teachers, artists, and arts administrators who agreed to complete our survey and/or be interviewed in order to contribute to this initiative. Without their input, we would not be presenting this report to the school district, parents, funding community, and arts community in Palm BeachCounty.
Table of Contents
Introduction6
No Child Left Behind: The Context for Arts Education Reform 6
Purpose of the Needs Assessment10
Goals of the Needs Assessment11
Methods for Conducting Needs Assessment12
Site Visits15
Palm Beach County Schools Overview16
Arts Education in the District18
Description of Findings20
Elementary Schools20
Middle/Secondary Schools30
Participating Arts Providers38
Related Research:Prime Time After School Providers Survey55 Palm Beach Cultural Council Survey 55
Themes and Recommendations58
Getting Started87
Resources and References91
Addenda96
Cover Letter/Survey Instruments97
Interview Protocols107
Consent Form109
Principal Investigator:Dr. Gail Burnaford, Professor and Chair of the Department of Teacher Education, FloridaAtlanticUniversity, Boca Raton, Florida
Dr. Gail Burnaford moved to South Florida in July of 2003 to assume the position of Chair and Professor of Teacher Education at FloridaAtlanticUniversity. Previously, she taught at National-LouisUniversity in Evanston, Illinois, and most recently at NorthwesternUniversity, with a focus on supporting teacher action research as a tool for teacher change, professional development, and school reform.
She is the author of three books, Renaissance in the Classroom: Arts Integration and Meaningful Learning (Burnaford, Aprill, Weiss);Teachers Doing Research: The Power of Action Through Inquiry (Burnaford, Fischer, & Hobson); and Images of Schoolteachers in America (Joseph and Burnaford); all published by Lawrence Erlbaum. Dr. Burnaford has been an Associate Editor of the Teaching Artist Journal and serves on the Editorial Board of the Learning through Music journal.
Dr. Burnaford’s work with the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education and the Ravinia Festival's Music in the Schools Outreach Program challenged her to integrate her work in teacher education and school reform with the arts. She has been an external evaluator on numerous arts projects and programs, including the Chicago Old Town School of Folk Music, and the New Mexico Arts Council’s Ticket to Learning. She has served for several years on the faculty of the Empire State Partnerships Summer Institute at SarahLawrenceCollege and Long IslandUniversity, and currently works on the evaluation team for ColumbiaCollege’s Office of Community Arts Partnerships’ Arts in Mentoring FIPSE Grant project.
She was the Principal Investigator for the Chicago initiative with the Music-in-Education National Consortium, in conjunction with the New England Conservatory of Music, Georgia State University, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education, the Metropolitan Opera Guild. This project, funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE), focuses on conservatory, performance, teacher and music education students as they learn to engage in partnerships with arts organizations and schools as Artists/Teachers/Scholars
Dr. Burnaford studied piano and voice, most recently with Florence Kopleff, and has extensive experience in recital, concert, and operatic performance. She sang with Robert Shaw's Atlanta Symphony Chorus and Chamber Chorus, touring Europe with the orchestra and chorus in 1988. She sang with the group Basically Bach and the Bach Festival Chorus in Chicago and has been a church musician for decades.
In 1978, Dr. Burnaford wrote a master's thesis titled, "Integrating Music and Literature: Theory and Application." That work was an initial attempt to synthesize the two passions that have driven her professional and personal life. Burnaford's doctorate is in Curriculum and Instruction from GeorgiaStateUniversity in Atlanta, Georgia. She has been a teacher educator for 20 years; prior to her work in higher education, she was a preschool music teacher, a middle school language arts teacher, and a high school English teacher.
Co-Researchers
Dr. Cathy Smilan, Art Education Instructor, FloridaAtlanticUniversity, Boca Raton, Florida
Dr. Cathy Smilan received her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Art Education from FloridaAtlanticUniversity in August 2004 and is currently a member of the faculty teaching courses in Art Education in the Department of Teacher Education. Her academic interest in art integration began in 1996 when she wrote a master’s thesis titled: In-roads in art education: Interdisciplinary art education as an avenue for creative critical thought in our changing society. She continued this area of research in her quantitative dissertation that focused on the impact of art integration on science learning. As an art integration specialist, her research interests include community partnerships in arts education, collaborative teaching in and through visual arts forms and investigations into the development of creativity in K-12 students and pre-service teachers. She taught high school English in Palm Beach county for five years and is a former Project LEAP teaching artist. Prior to embarking on a career in education, Dr. Smilan maintained a successful fine arts studio in Los Angeles, California.
Dr. Elizabeth Kimble, Music Teacher, Choral Director, Music Consultant, Atlanta, Georgia
Dr. Elizabeth Kimble received a Master of Music Education from FloridaStateUniversity and a Doctor of Education degree in music from the University of Georgia. She has conducted and taught music from kindergarten through college in public, independent, and international schools, served as a county music supervisor, directed numerous church choirs, and founded and directed 4 children’s community choirs, most recently at EmoryUniversity and the University of Georgia. She sang for many years with Robert Shaw in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus. For the last 2 years, Dr. Kimble was the head of the choral department at a large public high school in Orlando, Florida.
Introduction
No Child Left Behind:
The Context for Arts Education Reform
According to the U.S. Department of Education Website, No Child Left Behind is “based on four basic principles: stronger accountability for results, increased flexibility and local control, expanded options for parents, and an emphasis on methods that have been proven to work.” NCLB, as it is termed, is the most publicized and most far-reaching federal education act in this country’s history.
In 2001, when the act was originally introduced, the arts were included as core subjects and therefore entered into the accountability and funding priority category. In 2003, earmarked funds were cut to $30 million and focused on programs that integrate the arts into the curriculum, authorize arts education research, lead to the development of models of school-based arts education programs, and contribute to the development of state-wide arts tests. Grants have also been made available for after-school programs and arts programs intended to reduce school dropout rates and improve academic achievement.Of the 45 model program/dissemination grants between 2001 and 2004 (about $35 million total), 64 % have artist-in-schools or artist residency components, while 46 % were awarded to arts agencies (Chapman, 2004, p. 12).
Arts programs continue to be at risk in this country as mandated tests in the next 4 years mean that instruction in other subjects takes precedence over the arts. In elementary schools, test-prep and test taking may well exceed the average 26 hours typically devoted to visual arts education in our nation’s schools (NCES, 2002).
In July 2004, a letter to Superintendents appeared on the ed.gov
Website, from then Secretary Rod Paige, underscoring the value of the arts and encouraging local education agencies to use funds wisely to support “comprehensive arts education”, noting that NCLB was not intended to undermine arts education. Paige: I believe the arts have a significant role in education both for their intrinsic value and for the ways in which they can enhance general academic achievement and improve students’ social and emotional development. He continues, by naming current research (Critical Links, 2003) that underscores the value of the arts as a critical link for students “in developing the crucial thinking skills and motivations they need to achieve at higher levels.”
Paige reminded Superintendents in this letter that Title II funds can address the professional development needs of teachers of the arts and that “portions of Title II funds can support partnerships that include nonprofit, cultural-arts organizations.” Nonetheless, arts programming has been challenged in districts where the strong influence of preparing students to pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) has shaped curriculum decision.
In Florida, various counties have linked FCAT to arts education professional development. Pinellas County School Art supervisor, Susan Froemming, for example, has been conducting Find Art in the FCAT teacher training, in which teachers are challenged to develop correlations between FCAT benchmarks and Visual Arts benchmarks.
Arts organizations similarly have risen to this challenge, designing FCAT Tours in museums to help teachers see the value of a field trip that may not be convincing enough without the link to FCAT and student achievement. They recognize the pressure that principals and teachers are under and appear to see the need to find other ways to work with educators that either create minimal disturbance to routine (and therefore limit impact for students) or bypass school curriculum altogether.
Further pressure is mounting from parents who see the trend toward accountability and what it could mean for the arts and humanities in the curriculum. A recent survey indicates that 82% of parents of public school students and 80% of the general public are concerned that an intense focus on tests “will mean less emphasis on art, music, history, and other subjects” (Rose & Gallup, 2003).
Arts education researchers, meanwhile, have been exploring the role of philanthropic organizations, as opposed to school districts, states, and federal government agencies, in addressing these challenges (Constantino, 2003). Nationally, elementary principals rank quality programming and the lack of qualified arts teachers as their primary needs. Locally, principals note that without a district mandate and external funding, arts education will continue to get short shrift.
Funders enter this environment with a responsibility and a potential to influence policy if they are informed, visionary, systematic and patient. Arts education that is equitable, sustained, and developed over time can be guided by funding collaboratives – public and private – if there is a sincere desire to improve. A critical mass of people can move beyond enrichment and exposure to more deeply connected programs that enhance learning.
Research is essential to support such a policy agenda. Demonstration sites, pilot studies, and systematic scaling up are all a part of what has been occurring in other sites in the country as communities and cultural organizations assume some responsibility for doing what NCLB, with its emphasis on testing, research-based practice, and funding allocated to networks, has made more difficult for districts to do by themselves.
This then is the context for the current study.
Purpose of the Needs Assessment
The purpose of this needs assessment was to determine the scope, sequence, breadth, and depth of arts education in the four arts disciplines – art, music, drama, dance – in K-12 Palm Beach County Schools. Arts education, for this needs assessment, includes both in-school courses, electives, and extracurricular offerings taught by certified arts specialists and programs, projects, assemblies, and field trips offered by external arts providers.
The needs assessment serves to provide both the district and interested funders with crucial information about current arts programming in Palm Beach County Schools. The assessment also includes information about grade levels and schools that have access to artists, field trips, assemblies, and performances, and about which geographical areas of the county are particularly underserved. It provides the community and local arts organizations with data concerning the arts specialists in visual arts, music, dance, and theater who are employed by the district. Finally, the assessment underscores the arts program characteristics that address learning goals and standards and how arts providers do or do not integrate their offerings with the needs of the students, parents, and the district.
Following this Needs Assessment, it is possible for funders to communicate with each other and with the district to provide a short-range and long-range plan for meaningful arts education in Palm BeachCounty.
In our current age of accountability in the areas of reading, mathematics and science, it is possible that the arts will be undervalued unless there is concerted, research-based effort to inform providers, arts specialists, and community funders about the potential for the arts in learning. That is the ultimate purpose of this assessment.
Goals of the Needs Assessment
A.To determine the scope and sequence of in-school art programming.
B.To describe the characteristics of arts education programming offered by external arts organizations (including art forms represented, lengths of programs, alignment with learning standards, target grades, geographic outreach).
C.To determine the scope of funding for each arts form represented in the schools through external arts providers.
D.To detect evidence of arts integration processes to increase learning in content fields.
E.To identify gaps and needs in order to allocate limited dollars.
Method for Conducting the Needs Assessment
Three surveys were developed and distributed to three groups: 1) Palm Beach County Elementary Principals, 2) Palm Beach County Secondary Principals), and 3) Arts Providers/Organizations in Palm BeachCounty.
The survey was compiled from other surveys currently in use in the United States, especially the survey prepared by the Chicago Community Trust in 2002 for the city of Chicago and ChicagoPublic Schools. The Principal Investigator for the Palm Beach Needs Assessment was part of a multiple constituent Task Force constituted after the survey results were released in order to respond to its findings.
Items were included that addressed specific issues and challenges in the field of arts partnerships today and were gathered from other similar surveys in the country. General categories included: programs provided, needs, arts specific instruction elements, arts integration elements, assessment, and planning processes. Results are reported here, with limitations addressed.
Surveys were mailed to principals in all elementary and middle/secondary schools in the county through the District Office, with a cover letter encouraging participation from the Superintendent. The principals returned 76 usable elementary surveys, or 75% of the total schools, and 33 usable middle/secondary surveys, or 53%of the total schools. Although principals were asked to complete the surveys, we also introduced the project to all arts specialists at the orientation meetings in August, 2004, and encouraged them to help principals with the necessary information. It is possible that these specialists or other staff members actually completed some of the survey sections, so we do not claim that the findings are exclusively from administrators in the schools.
The researchers made initial phone calls to 109 identified arts organizations. Initial surveys were then mailed to 77 of the arts organizations. A follow-up survey was sent to those who failed to respond after 3 weeks along with a reminder phone call. Twenty-six of the arts organizations surveyed, 33% of the total, indicated that they do provide services; 66% of the organizations either did not respond or noted that they do not work with schools directly.All groups expressed concern with “survey fatigue”, noting that they have completed similar surveys in the past few years and have not seen results from them. This may also have affected their responses in some cases.
Data were also incorporated from the District Arts Coordinator, Tom Pearson, in order to validate local school reports of arts specialists employed, time spent in arts education activities, and funded projects supported by the district that address arts learning.
Interviews, in addition to surveys, were also conducted with 20 active arts providers and 15 secondary and elementary principals in the District identified for the researchers by the District Fine Arts Coordinator. These interviews were each transcribed and coded to correspond to survey items.