Lynn Tuttle
*Editor’s Note: Updated information can be found in this post.
In response to the interest around the Common Core State Standards initiative, and to the technological changes the arts and arts education have undergone in the last 15 years (I wasn’t blogging 15 years ago, were you?), the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) convened a meeting of national arts education stakeholders on May 11-12 to determine if the time is right to develop a new set of national arts education standards. The resounding answer was “YES!”
One of the first steps in the process is to find out how you – arts educator, teaching artist, cultural organization, school administrator – use the current version of national arts standards in your teaching, curriculum, and programs.
SEADAE, in collaboration with the National Dance Education Organization, the Educational Theatre Association, the National Association for Art Education and MENC: the National Association for Music Education, is creating an online survey to obtain your input, ideas and suggestions.
Look for the release of the survey this month – Americans for the Arts will announce the survey via the Arts Education Network listserv and through Arts Watch, the organization’s free weekly cultural policy newsletter. Click here to learn more about ways to stay connected via Americans for the Arts.
As we work toward the new version of National Arts Education Standards, I invite you to be an active participant in the process. You may view the first national meetings from May here: http://nelae.wikispaces.com/DC+May+2010. To learn about all the partners at the table, and for updates on the project, bookmark and visit www.seadae.org.
Congrats, Lynn and SEADAE! This is a wonderful leadership and support-building effort and we’re grateful to you for initiating and managing it.
Remembering Heisenberg – please don’t forget that a little room to move around in is important for any national standard. Uncertainty can be a principle.
Our field needs to support a framework for accountability and incentives that speaks to the comprehensive nature of our arts content standards. Our standards are much more expansive on paper than in common practice. I find many students (and teachers) are rewarded and celebrated for creating/performing, but rarely for sharing their skills in analysis and interpretation of the meaning in works of art.