Showing papers in "Arts Education Policy Review in 2003"

Preface to The Lyrical Ballads

Abstract: (2003). Preface to The Lyrical Ballads. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 105, No. 2, pp. 33-36.

The Theories and Practices of Visual Culture in Art Education

Abstract: The initiating point of this paper was an article in AEPR by Peter J. Smith in March/April 2003. At the end of the article, Peter J. Smith provides a short answer.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—Arts Partnerships in Canadian Elementary Schools

Abstract: (2003). The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly—Arts Partnerships in Canadian Elementary Schools. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 104, No. 6, pp. 11-20.

Visual Culture Studies versus Art Education

Abstract: (2003). Visual Culture Studies versus Art Education. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 104, No. 4, pp. 3-8.

The “Grand Paradox” in Teacher Preparation and Certification Policy

Abstract: cw educators must feel tired and confused. Over the past few years they have suffered under a mind-numbing barrage of teacher preparation mandates (hat have had a severe impact on correctly advising education majors. Students ,rlmost need an attorney to make c,ert:iin that all state-mandated requirenieiirs are met, so that they will be cleared for graduation. The process of meetinp, requirements becomes more difficult each year. Making all this even more corruplicated, states and school district3 have increased shortcut alternative routes and temporary certification options iii response to the overall teacher h)rtage in most subject areas. All of thu:se changes have occurred because 01’ questions about the quality of teacher’ preparation and the subsequent effcm on student learning. All teachers need to find a balance between their knowledge of a discipline and their knowledge of how to dispense it effeclivctly to specific groups of students, Finding such a balance, between the ”what“ of subject matter and the “how” 01’ teaching, is the goal of good undergraduate and graduate education programs. Much of the current national, state, irncl local teacher preparation debate comprises a wide range of contending views about how to approach this age-old question about the “what” (a teacher’s subject competence) and the “how” (a teacher’s competence in communicating that subject). Both are essential to good teaching. 1 have been a faculty member in a college of education for the past seven years and this experience has sotnewhat changed my perspective on these issues. But I can distinctly remember that I enjoyed-as an undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral student-art and art education courses much more than the educational foundations and methodology courses in the college of education. When the argument is made about teachers needing a strong background in the discipline and content area, and perhaps needing fewer education courses, I do not necessarily disagree. The elimination of educational methods courses should not, however, include eliminating study of methods in the discipline, though many of these courses in some programs could be analyzed on a functional basis. What should teacher certification programs consist of? In a School Arts teacher interview (2002a). I stated that alternative certification is one of the major issues in teacher preparation today. In certification courses that I teach for degree-seeking and certification-seeking students, there is generally a mix of both of these student populations. Many certification-seeking students are art majors; they know content, or what to teach. They need to learn methods o f instruction, or how to teach. Although many of the certification-seeking students niake significant contributions, many also approach these required courses as something that they enroll in at the last minute and need to earn only a C in, and accordingly they put forth an average amount of effort. Generally speaking, based on their studio abilities, writing skills, overall interest, and attitude, it has been my experience that undergraduate and graduate art education majors are much better prepared than certificationseeking students to teach art in ou r public schools. We should not, therefore, advise students to get an art degree first and then add on certification. This inherently devalues preparation in how to teach and may have a detrimental effect on student learning. Teacher preparation policy-an emphasis on what or how to teachchanges on a daily basis, but I try in this article to provide a good overview of the topic. My analysis is organized to cover U.S. Department of Education mandates, State of Florida Education mandates, a Florida Higher Education Arts Network position paper, arguments for and against alternative certification and traditional teacher preparation, and what I call “the research rumble.” I conclude with a list of policy recommendations. Running through all the policy

The Status of Arts Assessment: Examples from Music

Abstract: (2003). The Status of Arts Assessment: Examples from Music. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 105, No. 2, pp. 11-18.

Where's the Art in Today's Art Education?

Abstract: A dvocates for art education have long been striving to establish the visual arts firmly as a subject of study in school curricula. In recent decades. they have made inroads toward that end 111 both the national and state levels. Ttr all those who value art, this may seerib like good news, at least from a distanw!. On close examination, however, thei‘r is cause for deep concern, for, whilv, many schools have been taking steps to integrate art education into their curricula. serious art of high quality has bwn rendered more and more marginal 11) the content of their programs. 1 1 1 many cases, i t is being displaced by often trivial works of popular art, as we~ll as by cultural artifacts of all kinds, seilected more for the hidden sociopolir ical messages that can be wrung from them than for their expressive powar or esthetic value. The grcwp that has been most influential in promoting K-12 education in the visual arts i s the National Art Education Asrociation (NAEA). Founded in 1947. i t iiow draws members not only from all ofthe United States and its possessions ilw from Canada and twentyfive other foreign nations as well. Aim-

Quest for Excellence: The Transforming Role of University-Community Collaboration in Music Teaching and Learning

Abstract: (2003). Quest for Excellence: The Transforming Role of University-Community Collaboration in Music Teaching and Learning. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 105, No. 1, pp. 5-12.

Beyond the Evidence Given: A Critical Commentary on Critical Links

Abstract: n wIiLi1 sense are the links summarim1 in C’ri/ic,n/ Links: Lerrvriing in rhtz 11 1’1,s trnd Student Aiutlwiic m d So( ,ill/ Dc~i~rlopnzr~tit actually “criticiil” ’ Art. they critical in the scientific sen\\&; o f that word, meaning “characterizc‘tl hy careful and exact evaluation and ~jutlptiient“’! Or “critical” meaning “essentiai. hu t in short supply“’?’ In ~ h ; i i I’ollows. we compare some of the swc‘cping claims that some of the voluinc‘. cas;ys make with the more nuanced ~.ummaries of the actual studies on whiclil those claims are based. The claims pi beyond the evidence summarized i i i (’ri/ku/ Links. We urge the reader 10 examine carefully the results describe i n each study summary. along with the I , ommentary provided. In those two seci 1,)ns readers can usually learn about I ~ C . limitations of each study. We intend ~ I , I criticism of the studies by pointing out that they have limitaticins--.-all studies. even the most rigorous, limited. Our concern is that interprcliic claims have been made about tht. studies that ignore important Iiniitatioii\\. As a result, casual readers may conic to believe that a small dose of the arts I-, d l that is needed to improve students‘ thinking skills, social skills, school 1-1; tention. and academic selfconce[)i. \\uch a conclusion is simply not scicni I tically based. The pi’‘ ililems begin in the introductory essay by Richard Deasy (iii-iv). We read that the essayists “agree that the Compendium studies suggest that wellcrafted arts experiences produce positive academic and social effects” (iii). The reader should note that a causal claim is being made here-the claim that studying the arts causes academic and social skills to improve. But a carefu l reading shows that many of the studies neither claim nor support a causal relationship. as we discuss below. In the bookend to Deasy’s opening, the volume‘s concluding essay, entitled “The Arts and the Transfer of Learning,” James Catterall states that the studies chosen for this compendium met strict criteria for “their ability to make causal suggestions” ( 154). Respectfully, we must disagree. Both of us participated in the crcatjon of the Criticd Links by selecting and summarizing the dance, visual arts, music. and multi-arts studies. We included all studies that we believed were well-enough designed to shed light on the relationship between arts learning. on the one hand, and academic and/or social learning, on the other. But some of the studies selected were well-designed mid purely correlational. A correlation between some form of study (here, the arts) and some kind of outcome (here, social or cognitive) offers no intormation about causality. Of course, two factors that are correlated may be related causally. though we cannot know whether or how: A may cause B (arts study may enhance skills); B may cause A (that is, students with strong skills may choose LO study the arts). But two correlated factors may also be causally unrelated, since a third factor may cause both. For example, parents may push their children to work hard in academic classes and to study the arts, or schools with good arts programs may also have good academic programs, leading to students excelling in both. The closing essay goes on to state that the studies “all” show evidence or transfer (154). Let us take a close look at the claims laid out in Catterall’s figure 1 ( 1 52-53) and then look hack at the studies summarized. Causal connections have indeed been demonstrated in some areas; music enhances certain kinds of spatial reasoning but not others; and classroom drama enhances an array of verbal abilities. Our concerns are with the claims made for the transfer effects of exposure to visual arts, dance, and multi-arts programs.

Policy Issues in Arts Assessment in Canada: “Let's Get Real”

Abstract: here is a widely accepted and politically supported interest in testing students in Canada. By testing, using generally T accepted terminology, I refer to large-scale measures of student achievement and the use of the data for public dissemination, comparison, and accountability across the Canadian nation. Students write provincial exams in selected subjects either as a graduation requirement or to demonstrate levels of competency at intervals throughout school years and take part in national testing programs such as the School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP) and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The province of British Columbia provides a typical rationale for large-scale testing. The purpose of the British Columbia Provincial Examination Program is to accomplish the following five goals:

The Impact of Philanthropy on Arts Education Policy.

Abstract: he philanthropic community consistently has played a significant role in school reform efforts in Chicago. These efforts have included supporting policies and initiatives that strengthen arts education programming in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS).’ Of course, Chicago is not uniquely situated in this regard, as philanthropic organizations have been active in educational initiatives in cities throughout the United States.* Chicago serves as the case study for this article due to a new philanthropic initiative to improve arts education in Chicago’s public schools currently underway and led by the Chicago Community Trust (the Trust). This initiative is particularly relevant to the readers of this journal as it was instigated by research-the results of a survey study of the status of arts education in CPS-and focuses on creating an educational policy agenda that would facilitate the implementation of comprehensive and sequential K-12 arts education in every Chicago public school. The initiative is steered by the Chicago Community Trust Arts Education Task Force, of which I am a member. It was through my involvement with this task force that I became interested in the impact of philanthropic organizations on the development of educational policy and the issues and possibilities engendered in this involvement. In this article, I will explore several issues and possibilities, related to philanthropy’s role in the development of arts education policy, that I have culled from a review of the literature on philanthropy and arts education, from discussions with key stakeholders in the Chicago Community Trust initiative, and from my own experience working in arts education. As a result of this investigation, it seems most important that philanthropic organizations focus their efforts on the following: (a) funding research, both quantitative and qualitative studies, that provides causal evidence of the value of arts education and an illustration of high quality arts education in practice; (b) promoting this research with key policymakers; (c) funding pre-service teacher training programs, for both generalists and arts teachers, that follow successful practices identified through research; and (6) considering carefully the kind of educational philosophies that philanthropic initiatives promote. These ideas will be expanded upon throughout the paper in relation to the following four issues that I have identified as a framework for this discussion:

Sociology and the Ends of Arts Education

Abstract: (2003). Sociology and the Ends of Arts Education. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 104, No. 5, pp. 3-13.

Community Involvement in Arts Education: A Case Study

Abstract: (2003). Community Involvement in Arts Education: A Case Study. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 105, No. 1, pp. 13-24.

Uncritical Pronouncements Build Critical Links for Federal Arts Bureaucracy

Abstract: rilicul Links: Learning in the Arts rinrl Stirdent Aciidemir w i d Social Drvelopment was released last May with the C usual Capitol Hill interarts agency i d i r e . Criticd Links was published h! the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) i n answer to the charge by its own research {ask force to create such a compendiuni I n a I997 report the AEP Task Force OII Research had “applauded’ the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and thc 6l.S. Department of Education (USDOE) for their commission of the 1995 rrpt,ni “Schools, Communities and the Arts’ and recommended that more such reu;irch compendiums be produced. The NEA and USDOE in turn “respontfid positively” to the recommendatiori of the AEP task force and “awardcct funding to the AEP to commissicm and publish the next compendium.”’ Wi8th cosponsorship by the NEA and US1 IOE, publication by the AEP, and praise froni the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the National ,Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA). and Americans for the Arts, it appears that everybody who is anybody in government arts agrees about thc great significance of Critical Links. Sui;h round robin feting and interagency funding is the modus operandi of the fedeul arts club: after all. the AEP is admi n i st ti red by the CCSSO and NASAA through a cooperative agreement with the NEA and USDOE. while Americans for the Arts, funded in part by the NEA and USDOE, serves as the lobbying arm for the whole bunch. Criticul Links, in sum, is the federal arts bureaucracy’s latest attempt to influence public policy and enhance its own political standing by way of channeling arts education funding and research toward math, reading, and social service programming. The stated purpose of the compendium is to “recommend to researchers and funders of research promising lines of inquiry and study suggested by recent, strong studies of the academic and social effects of learning in the arts” (iii). A “parallel purpose” is to influence designers of arts education curriculum and instruction to attend more specifically to “the arts learning experiences that are required to achieve those effects” (iii). Dressed up as serious research, Critical Link.\\ is in actuality just one more item in a long line of publicly funded federal arts advocacy reports and public relations packets. Open your eyes as it prances by, and it is easy to see it for what i t is: an unabashed attempt to portray methodologically weak studies as “strong” research or, in other cases, to transform tenuous correlations into highly significant ones that might, if no one thinks too much about it, be accepted as causative. Critical Links also serves as a vehicle for another purpose, that is, the advancement of the federal arts’ bureaucracy’s decades-old practice o f using arts education as a means to sustain political support and public funding. Whereas public arts subsidies are always in question and supporting them may be viewed as a political liability, n o politician has been heard to say that education in the arts for young people is unworthy of support. Thus, high profile with “bringing the arts to America’s children”-while attaching the purpose of such programming to whatever social or educational cause is currently revving up the media-is a smart and effective means to generate political goodwill. Advocacy publications such :is Criticd Links are useful in legitimiling such maneuvering and posturing. Transformation of public and political perceptions about the usefulness of the arts is imperative when the goal is to place “arts education firmly within the national discussion of how schools can best help every child reach the levels of achievement needed for academic and social success.”? Transfonnation of perceptions about the role that arts education plays in universal academic and social success is also imperative for public arts agencies and non-profit arts organizations struggling to alter perceptions of their own social relevance and

Strategies for Improving the Status of Theatre in Secondary Schools

Abstract: (2003). Strategies for Improving the Status of Theatre in Secondary Schools. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 104, No. 4, pp. 25-28.

Cognitive Transfer and Art Education: A Critique

Abstract: wing the past two decades or so discussion of the relationship between learning in the arts and the transfer of learning to other academic subjects has heeu lengthy and at times heated. Debates among researchers and scholars about the relative merits of studyiiig art reinforce enduring questions that John Dewey and others have posed feu. some time: What is the appropriate role for arts education in schooling? Shwld art education be pursued primariI!l on intrinsic, aesthetic, instrumental, o r expressive grounds? Even assuming that arts education appears to promote transfer of learning to other subjects. who among the approximately 90 percl.int of all students enrolled in public \\L: hools-increasingly discussed in terms c)f “minority” and “majority”-should hc its principal beneficiaries? In t~li ia brief essay I have three goals. First, I u’ant to scrutinize the concept of transfer and suggest that in the vast number 01’ 1:mpirical studies there is an absence ( : I f analytical balance; there is far too muclv emphasis on art’s instrumental utility iiriil value. Second, I want to argue that to rclstore balance researchers need to addre34 aesthetics; those conducting empirical research on the transfer of learning rieed a better grounding in aesthetic Iheory, in the essence of art and the response.; it produces. Here my point of departure is Paul Willis’s new book, Ethnographv and Imagination, in which aesthetics is understood in everyday, culturally grounded terms.l Third, I will briefly discuss the normative gains of art education for students in the global context of the twenty-first century and suggest that it is poor students of color, whose experiences of public schooling are in dire need of imaginative pedagogy, who particularly could benefit from education in the arts.

Thou Shalt Worship the Arts for What They Are

Abstract: (2003). Thou Shalt Worship the Arts for What They Are. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 104, No. 3, pp. 3-7.

Pascal's Pensées: Introduction

Abstract: he thinker of these \"thoughts\" ---that is what PmsPes means -was a humanist and a scientist, a specialist and a generalT ist, a shrewd observer of the social world and a spirit consumed by religious passion. This extraordinary c0mbinitl;ic)n of traits and powers would be hard io match. The Pmse'es form a comprehunive portrayal of this singular mind ml personality. They ;ire also a unique work in that it is not ii collection of polished maxims but a set of notes, jotted down haphazardly, f(ur a projected treatise on the nature. !he mind, and the life of Man, whose position in the cosmos. Pascal believed, must necessarily lead to a belief in Christ. The grroup of notes that follows comes from the tirst section of what has become a classic of some 275 pages, and these opening thoughts constitute what might be called Pascal's psychology, the basis of his ethics, which in turn is the basis of his theology. The use and value of even these few pages to anyone today who is engaged in teaching or learning, or in ponderiirg and judging current opinion, will appcar in a moment. Because they are rootiid in Pascal's experience of life, they dew-ve a note on that life. When Pascal, aged thirty-three, began his jottings in 1656. he had been for over a decade famous as a physicist and mathematician and as the inventor of the first calculating machine. He had recently astonished the literary world by contributing to a public debate on ethics and religion a polemical work full of wit and devastating arguments. It was directed against one of the contestants. the Jesuit order. The public, convinced and entertained, no doubt expected more from Pascal's pen. But he was very ill and had already decided to withdraw from the social world and give all his time and mind to a comprehensive work justifying the Christian religion. By the end of the next six and final years of his life he had amassed a great body of \"thoughts\" and had incidentally solved one more problem in mathematics. The importance of these memos he had written to himself was at once felt to justify publication. They were put in ordered groups and some were altered to suit certain prejudices of his family and his time. But the originals survived, and after a number of different classifications by various scholars, they have reached the present sequence and textual accuracy. What is today their particular relevance'? The first striking point, in an age of specialization such as ours, is the range of Pascal's concerns and abilities. The spectacle of his all-embracing mind is a lesson in itself. Next is his insistence on what is native and spontaneous, individual and diverse. His own time was one of stiff formality and of rules intended to fashion a single social type. I t encouraged pretentiousness, unreality by verbal abstraction, and falseness generally. Pascal calls for the concrete and the particular. His often quoted remark that in reading a book one wants to find a man, not an author, is the perfect sample of his attitude toward man and society. Today also, the pressure is to conform to a single social type, the \"democratic.\" We have discarded forinality and made compulsory its opposilc. the casual and undemanding. Everybody is to be no better than anybody else. A third teaching i n these penshes is the distinction between the geometrical and the intuitive mind. There is only one species of human mind, but it can think in radically different directions. Pascal gives the definition of each and to make it unmistakable repeats the features and examples of the contrast. Since his own mind worked brilliantly in either direction. he is the best witness to the errors and dangers of' failing to learn how they differ and what consequences follow from ignoring the fact that they do. Today, the distinction has been lost. Under the sway of science, common opinion takes i t for granted that the geometrical, numerical, mechanical outlook is the only reliable, all-purpose means of satisfying our needs and solving our difficulties. This quasi-religious faith breeds the habit of denying the existence

Missing Links: On Studying the Connection of Arts Education to the Public Good

Abstract: nwnf iiiytructs us in the hazards of avoidin!!, rather than engaging with. that quc.%.iion. Critirul Links is a federally fundci I pro.ject that identifies and presents rrc.ent arts education research focusliir, on the academic and social effects 1 1 1 arts learning. As reported in the irltrc rduction, the project’s organizers aclolwd that focus to contribute “to the niititrnal debate over such issues as how t c ~ t”tiable all students to reach high levels ot iictideniic achievement, how to improw overall school performance, and hou io create the contexts and climates 1 1 1 1 schools that are most conducivc to learning” (ii) . Were our schools-and our nation, for thai i iiittter-convinced that academic achic wnient includes acquiring the skills ititeded to make, understand, judge, :ilid eti.joy the arts, documented achieverticnt in teaching about art would be percciived a s integral to academic success. I n that case. we could adopt an instruniaitnlist approach to arts education aiid yet also maintain rhe primacy Stuclr. t I I , I ( .LidPtTI i t . ~ t l d SOC~U I De VeIOr) of aesthetic values. The main question for empirical research would be whether specific approaches to. and techniques for, arts teaching improve aesthetic learning. Those pedagogical strategies proven to do so would, by that achievement alone, be warranted as advancing the public good. De facto. however, many states construe arts education as, at best, marginally academic. (Text-based arts such as fiction. drama, and poetry are an obvious exception.) Given the current climate, we can understand why a focus on arts education’s contribution to academic achievement would be concerned primarily with whether the arts improve students’ basic reading and calculating skills. The proposition that significantly influences the Criticrrl Links project is that learning to create and/or appreciate arts can result either in directly acquiring skills applicable to basic reading or calculating or else in being better motivated to acquire those skills. Thus, as it is represented in this project, empirical research into the cognitive influence of arts education appears to have suffered from such a tunneling of vision in regard to the link between arts learning and other learning. As the table of contents and concluding essay (by coordinator James Catterall) both make evident, once this focus is used to filter existing research in arts education, some artistic media have more success than others. So in Criticcil Links we find few studies suggesting that the visual arts and dance contribute to reading and calculating. as compared with many studies that attribute those powers to drama and music. The document contains seven summaries of dance research, and four of visual arts research, compared t o nineteen of’ drama, seventeen of multi-arts (which often include drama o r music), and fifteen of’ music. There is no reason to think other than that these proportions reflect the distribution of rescarch in the field-that is, of research fitting the project’s notions about art‘s contribution to the public good. True, privileging drama and music a s socially beneficial is of long tradition. Aristotle enthusiastically endorsed the elevating effects oi drama ( i n the Poetics), and Plato grudgingly admits (in The Lciws) to music’s power to induce orderliness. Yet such partiality is less than helpful in a visual society like ours that increasingly relies on graphic representations, especially in the absence of any theoretical basis that accounts for or justifies it. Catterall characterizes this imbalance as a “vacuum” waiting to be tilled by researchers looking for new research topics ( 157). What is unclear. however, is whether the disproportion is attribut-

Fine Arts Deans, Tenure, and K-12 Education

Abstract: (2003). Fine Arts Deans, Tenure, and K-12 Education. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 104, No. 5, pp. 15-20.

Responding to Paul Duncum

Abstract: Selected writings on the postmodern, 1983-1998. London: Verso. Kan, Koon-H. 200 1. Adolescents and graphiti. Art Educution 54 ( 1 ) : 18-23. Kingery, David, ed. 1996. Learning .from things: Method and theory of material cultural studies. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Klein, Sheri and Faith Agostinone-Wilson. 2001. Souvenirs and art education: Becoming a critical tourist. National Art Education Association Conference, New York. Lai, Alice and Eric L Ball. 2002. Home is where the art is: Exploring the places people live through art education. Studies in Art Education 44 (1 ): 47-66. Manley-Delacruz, Elizabeth. 1999. Folk art as communal culture and art proper. Art Education 52 (4): 23-24, 33-35. Mirzeoff, Nicholas. 1999. An introduction to visual culture. London: Routledge. Myers, Fred. R. (ed.) 2001. The empire of things. Santa Fe, N.M.: School of American Research Press. Pearce, Harold. 1997. The artist meets the Mounties. NSCAD Papers. 6-13. Pearce, Susan. M. 1997. Foreword Words and things. In Experiencing material culture in the western world, edited by Susan M. Pearce. London: Leicester University Press. Petroski, Henry. 1990. The pencil: A history of design and circumstance. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Petroski, Henry. 1993. The evolution of useful things. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Pistolesi, Edie. 2002. The Elvis icon. Art Education 55 (3): 4047. Prown, Jules David. 1996. MatenaYculture: Can the farmer and the cowman still be friends? In Learning fmm things: Method and theory of Material Culture Studies, edited by David Kingery, 19-30. Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution Press. Schlereth, Thomas. J. 1985. Material culture and cultural research. In Material Culture: A research guide, edited by Thomas. J. Schlereth. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas. Stanley, Nick. 1999. Being ourselves for you: The global display of cultures. London: Middlesex University Press. Stokrocki, Mary. 1997. The aesthetics of the foolish and ghoulish: An exploratory study of Halloween antics and preferences. Collaborative Inquiry in a Postmodem Era: A Car’s Cradle 2 (2): 41-51. Stuhr, Patricia, and Christine BallangeeMoms. 2001. Multicultural art and visual culture in a changing world. Art Education, 54 (4): 6-1 3. Sturken, Marita. and Lisa Cartwright, 2001. Practices of looking: An introduction to visual culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sullivan, Graeme. 2002. Ideas and teaching: Making meaning from contemporary art. In Contemporary issues in art education, edited by Yvonne Gaudelius and Peg Speirs. 23-38. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Taylor, Pam. 2000. Madonna and hypertext; Liberatory learning in art education. Studies in Art Education 41 (4): 376-389. Tavin, Kevin and David Anderson. 2003. Teaching (popular) visual culture: Deconstructing Disney in the elementary classroom. Art Education 56 (2): 21-24, 33-35. Toko, Masami. 2001. What is manga? The influence of pop culture in adolescent art. Art Education 54 (2): 11-17. Wagner-Ott, Anna. 2002. Analysis of gender identity through doll and action figure politics in art education. Studies in Art Education 43 (3): 246-263. Williams, Raymond. 1983. Culture. London: Fontana. Wilson, Marjorie. 2000. The text, the intertext, and the hypertextual: A story. International visual arts conference: Art education and visual culture. 89-107. Taipei: Taipei Municipal Teachers College.

Merging the Ideal with Reality: Reflecting on the NAEP 1997 Arts Assessment and Looking toward 2008

Abstract: he NAEP 1997 Arts Assessment in dance, music, theatre. and visual arts was a landmark in the arts community. It was T ,also innovative insofar as it included. for the first time, the assessment of dance and theatre. Prior NAEP arts assessments administered in the 1970s induded music and the visual arts only. Forthe 1997 arts assessment. moreovri'. the steering and planning committees envisioned an assessment that rnenrured student abilities in each of the four arts disciplines holistically. Rather than assessing the creation or performance of one dance, one artwork, one dram41 scene, or one piece of music, the steeruig and planning committees advocatecl concurrently assessing several areas crf creating and performing (in addition to areas that could be assessed using ;I niultiple-choice format) SO that various t'xets of arts achievement could be measured. Nevenlreless, the NAEP 1997 Arts Assessment encountered a range of criticism. In particular, the music education community expressed dissatisfaction that finditigs were reported on an itemby-item hwis for creating and performing rather .than through an average score of overall music achievement. From an educational measurement perspective. it was difficult to create an assessment that met tlir needs of the music community for authenticity that would also meet the statistical requirements for any large-scale assessment. What made the NAEP 1997 Arts Assessment simultaneously both innovative and difficult was the time needed to administer items that involved students' creating and performing in their respective art forms. The NAEP 1997 Arts Assessment provided leadership to states and test developers interested in assessing the arts. To date nine states have passed legislation mandating that assessments be administered in the arts (Yan and Rieder 2001). An additional eight states encourage arts assessment through professional development materials for arts educators, arts assessment enterprises, or both (Yan and Rieder 2001 ; Yap et al. forthcoming). Accordingly, as we look to the administration of the NAEP 2008 Arts Assessment, it may be advantageous for the ar t s community to review the concerns expressed about the assessment from the measurement perspective. There may be larger issues to address regarding the NAEP Arts Assessments both past and future. The purpose of this paper, however, is to review the technical issues associated with item development and scaling that resulted from striving to provide the arts community with an authentic assessment of students' abilities in the arts. I will also suggest some possible solutions, along with topics for further thought. Although I will deal here only with the NAEP Arts Assessment in music, most of the issues I will discuss are also applicable to the disciplines of dance, theatre, and the visual arts. To begin, it is necessary to review the NAEP Arts Education Assessmrrir Frumework (National Assessment Governing Board 1994) and the National Staridards jbr Arts Education (Music Educators National Conference 1994). The Framework for the music assessment comprises three main types of music achievement: responding, creating, and performing. The Framework was developed in conjunction with the national standards in music: singing, performing on instruments, improvising. composing and arranging, reading and notating. analyzing, evaluating, music connections, and history and culture. As may quickly be seen, standards based on singing, performing on instruments, improvising, and composing and arranging are most commonly associated with the public's perception of musicmaking. Therefore, these standards quite naturally fall into the performance-based item category. This occurs because performance-based assessments require persons to create, write, sing, or construct a response rather than simply select an option to an item or test

Variety of Links: Academic, Aesthetic, and Political

Abstract: tir5t learned about the so-called Mwart effect from an item in one of [lie news media that reported thal students who had listened to a feu1 minutes of Mozart performed better on exams. Although doubting the credibility of the claim, I considered that ilnslhing that might possibly increase the market of Mozart and other classical Lwmposers was all to the good. Certainl) an album of Mozart concertos has pridc of place in my music library, although I don’t play Mozart to rev up for intell)n research or public relations. The ehtent of the interest in the kind of studies discussed in Critical Links had escaped me until, while still editor of the Journal of Aesthetic Education, I was approached with a proposal to publish the results of another project, the Reviewing Education and the Arts Project (REAP).2 Directed by Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland under the umbrella of Harvard Project Zero, REAP’s investigators assessed studies purporting to show that work in the arts could improve not only reading and math skills but also spatial reasoning-in short, that transfer effects from arts to non-arts cognition and learning are both possible and desirable. The directors of REAP concluded, however, that, with few exceptions, little support for such effects had emerged and that therefore such claims should be muted until more solid evidence became available. REAP’s conclusions, understandably controversial, attracted media attention, were the subject of AERA sessions, constituted the content of a symposium in Arts Educution Policy Review,3 and prompted the Getty Center to sponsor a conference that discussed the matter and suggested ideas for further e ~ p l o r a t i o n . ~ The executive summary of the REAP report was also distributed by the National Art Education Association in its series on the relations of theory to practice.s REAP obviously touched a nerve, and as this symposium reveals, its conclusions continue to rankle. Critical Links, then, examines “Mozart”-like studies that assert arts education’s potential for improving nonarts cognitive skills and social development. It does not concern itself with ways in which the young gain an understanding and appreciation of’ the intrinsic values of the arts. In addressing the major emphasis of the report, contributors to the symposium thus have much to say about transfer of learning from arts education to nonarts domains. They examine not only the wisdom of pursuing certain avenues of study and the validity of some of the research undertaken, but also the cultural politics that energizes the entire undertaking. They further point out that the opposition of intrinsic and instrumental values should not be an issue, for philosophical explorations of the relations of learning and the general welfare have a venerable history. From Plato to Dewey to the present, philosophers have assumed that understanding the arts constitutes understanding of some of the basic principles that unite individuals and the state. It has also been assumed that artistic activities and products must be comprehended within the context of theory if they are to have any force.5 One important observation made by some contributors to the report and to

Cal Poly Arts in Education Projects: Changing Pedagogy and Cultivating the Arts in Rural School Districts

Abstract: (2003). Cal Poly Arts in Education Projects: Changing Pedagogy and Cultivating the Arts in Rural School Districts. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 105, No. 2, pp. 3-9.

Looking for the Keys: Unlocking Critical Links (A View from the Inside Looking Out)

Abstract: fter spending the past two years reading, reviewing, and consolidating much of the published and unpublished literature o n dance educatioiu. I iini reminded of the joke about tlrc drunk looking for his keys under ii 5rreetlight. Another man comes up to h in i ;tnd asks him what he is doing: “Looking for my keys.” he replies. ‘‘Wherii, did you lose them?” the second guy .isks. “They were over there, by the car.” comes thi: answer. “Well. then, why are you looking over here?“ second guy asks. The clrarnk says, “I can see over here; this is whcre the light is.” I feel ;I lot like the second man. I wonder why \\ [) much arts education research explorLb\\ where i t is easier to see rather than wliei:c the answers are likely to be. 1 wit5 involved in the preparation o f Critical / . inks. One of the challenges that I liiucd when reviewing the dance studies fcwr Criricd Links was that the original yrlection of studies (there were seven) wrre not necessarily selected from the IJroadest possible panorama. nor wei-cb they representative of the range of what I iknew to be available. Since the publicatiowi of the document, the National Danc.t. Education Organization has compleietd the first phase of a comprehensivc swrch for all the research in dance education (Research in Dance Education, funded by the U.S. Dept of Education Office o f Education) and has compiled almost 2,500 articles. dissertations, and theses. Of these. at least sixtyfive are pieces of research methodology and efficacy that meet Essential Research Characteristics as defined by the project. Our report to the nation will be forthcoming by summer 2003. Because of the Research in Dance Education database. when Criticwl Links is redone or updated, choosing appropriate studies will be infinitely simpler. The pool will be far larger and more comprehensive. Even so, at least three of the seven dance studies in Criti c d Links were semiiial pieces of research. Although three studies do not provide the reliability of a larger cohort, the purpose of Critical Links was not to be comprehensive so much as exemplary-to see what evidence existed and which methodologies produced results that were useful.

The (Proper) Place of Popular Culture in Liberal Education

Abstract: M y topic this morning is the proper place of popular culture in liberal education. Is that an oxymoron? Does popular culture hiive any place in liberal education, much less a proper one? My answer (4,o as not to keep you in suspense) ib ;I qualified yes. Now. here’s the qualification. When I look a1 h6,)w popular culture is currently studied ahid taught in the academy, my answer heconies an unqualified no. Of the two dominant approaches to the subject, conirriunications theory and cultural studieh. neither does much to help us understarid what is really wrong and right witlr popular culture. This i‘i not to say that communications theclry and cultural studies have nothing t o tell us. But neither addresses the must ierious problem facing popular culture c(rclay, namely, the democratization, now’ on a global scale, of what I call “pcrwrse modernism.” My calk is in three parts. First, I will explain ~il iat I mean by perverse modernism ant i how it went from being part of the elile arts culture to being part of the ~ U I I U I Y I I mainstream. Second, I will talk about the two dominant approaches to popular culture in the academy. And third, I will sketch what I believe to be the proper place of popular culture in liberal education. I begin with perverse modernism. Another name for it is “the culture of transgression.” I t grew out of older modernist movements, like German Expressionism, Italian Futurism, Dada -all of which shared the anarchist belief that the right outrageous gesture, made at the right moment and magnified by the media (a century ago this meant newspapers), will cause the repressive social order to implode. Roger Shattuck has traced this strain of modernism to late 19th-century Pans, where anarchists assassinated prominent citizens and exploded bombs in public places. One such figure, a young man named Vaillant, threw a nail bomb into the Chamber of Deputies. No one was killed, but Shattuck recalls the tribute paid by the literary critic Laurent Tailhade: “What do a few human lives matter, si le geste est beau?” This revolt6 impulse was dampened by two World Wars. But in the 1960s it sputtered back to life, as a new generation of artists proclaimed their hatred of commercialized culture and vowed to explode bourgeois complacency. One of these, the Viennese “actionist” Hermann Nitsche, staged performances in which the blood of a freshly slaughtered animal was poured over the nude trussed bodies of fellow artists. Others, like Rudolf Schwartzkogler in Austria and Gina Pane in France, took the logical next step of public self-mutilation. If this sounds esoteric, it is. But soon this style of performance was crossing over to popular culture. Helped along by Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Malcolin McLaren, and other visual artists who admired the subversive popularity of rock, perverse modernism became the guiding aesthetic of the so-called cutting-edge of popular culture. Scratch the surface of the old shockrocker Iggy Pop (as Iggy Pop himself routinely did), and you’ll find Gina Pane, hacking herself with razors “to reach an anaesthetized society.” Peer down Hannibal Lector’s throat, and you will find the poorly digested remains of Hermann Nitsche. The r&voltC impulse has long been severed from any expectation of political result. Indeed, at the heart of today’s transgressive culture, there’s a vacuum where the old anarchist dream once resided. Nevertheless, a great inany people still believe, consciously or unconsciously, that sudden disruptive shock is the purest essence of creativity. This is the real source of the contemporary compulsion to “push out the envelope” of sex and violence: How

The Use and Abuse of Aestheticism

Abstract: (2003). The Use and Abuse of Aestheticism. Arts Education Policy Review: Vol. 104, No. 5, pp. 23-27.

Wordsworth and the End of the Arts

Abstract: Editor's note: This essay is the seventh in an occasional series on past treatments of major issues in arts education policy from antiquity through the twentieth century. Future essays will appear as occasion arises.