Arts thrive as region bucks national trends in education
Arts thrive as region bucks national trends in education
At the Carnegie
Jasmine Goldband /Tribune-Review
About the writer
Ken Fibbe can be reached via e-mail.
Western Pennsylvania is bucking a national trend depicted in a recent study showing a lackluster picture of arts education, advocates say.
"Pittsburgh routinely outperforms national trends in arts participation," said Mitch Swain, CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. "This area has been great at recognizing that the arts is key to the development of creative skills."
A survey of 7,900 eighth-graders by the National Assessment of Educational Progress found they are taking fewer field trips to art museums, a finding underscored by a broader conclusion: there are vast racial and socioeconomic differences in arts learning.
About 16 percent of students said they visited an art museum or gallery at least once with their class last year, down from 22 percent when the survey was last conducted in 1997.
But the number of students and chaperones visiting the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History in Oakland increased 16 percent between 2007 and 2008, said spokeswoman Ellen James.
"Last year was a robust one with the reopening of the 'Dinosaurs in Their Time' exhibit, and attendance has been great again with lots and lots of kids returning this year," James said.
The survey tested the respondents' knowledge of the arts and found that non-Asian minorities and students from low-income families scored 30 points lower than whites and Asians.
Cornelia Davis, who coordinates the arts and humanities curriculum for Pittsburgh Public Schools, said instructional opportunities are equally available at local schools.
"We keep the amount of art programs and art classes available to kids in wealthy areas on the same scale as kids in poor areas," Davis said.
Davis said art education thrives here, in part, because of widespread support from arts organizations and school officials.
"I have seen arts education in numerous states and countries first hand, and I found that very few places have a unified, collaborative arts education effort from administrators, teachers, museum directors and school boards, like we do here," she said.
Heinz Endowments recently gave $120,000 to Propel Schools to help two of its charter schools start an arts education program that promotes racial tolerance through the arts.
Sarah Tambucci, director of the Downtown-based Arts Education Collaborative, said there is still room for improvement.
"Many times in Pennsylvania schools the only people certified to teach theater classes are the English teachers, so we have still certification issues we need to address," Tambucci said.
Tambucci said arts education could improve with a statewide standardized test.
"The only way we can see how we are doing is to start a formal assessment and once the results are made public, then appropriate funding, and support would follow," Tambucci said. "But sadly, there just isn't a great deal of importance put on art."
The Pennsylvania System of State Assessments, which defines what primary and secondary students should learn each year, tests students in math, reading, writing and science.
Lois Clark, the art and music department chair at Kelly Elementary School in Wilkinsburg, said community interest in the school district's music program has skyrocketed since March, when it received a $90,000 grant from VH1's Save the Music Foundation.
Clark said the money was used to hire a band director, buy more musical instruments and expand the marching band to include fourth- through sixth-graders.
"We now have a new impetus to improve the quality and quantity of our music program, something that is always needed," Clark said.
posted by Progressive Music at 11:52 AM
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