A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Achieving the Goals: Goal 4 Teacher Professional Development - August 1996

The National Endowment for the Arts

* - designates programs that have a particular usefulness at the school or school district level

ArtsEdge: National Arts Education Information Network*

The Arts Endowment wants to help those involved in arts education organize and share their knowledge with each other and with others outside the arts. The Arts Endowment, together with the U.S. Department of Education, is supporting the development of a national arts and education information network called "ArtsEdge." This concept was supported by the findings of an Endowment-supported feasibility study and the recommendations of the National Arts Education Partnership Working Group (a national task force) which called for a "proactive national system for gathering and disseminating information resources." Computer-based and interactive, the network is being developed by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to: Now in its pilot phase, the network has begun to develop a critical mass of information and users; over 20,000 people visit its home page every week to see new content on educational reform, curriculum, promising programs and practices, and new research. Moreover, the content is organized along exciting and useful categories such as community connections, resources for students, and a unique Curriculum Studio for the development of new curricula in the arts. ArtsEdge has a actually entered the "fast lane" of the information highway -- it is available via the World Wide Web at <http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org>.

Scott D. Stoner
ArtsEdge: National Arts and Education Information Network
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC 20566-0001
(202) 416-8871
e-mail: stoner@artsedge.kennedy-center.org

Arts Education Fellowships*

The fellowships are intended to: recognize superior teachers of the performing, visual, literary, and media arts; strengthen teachers' knowledge of, and experience and skills in, the arts; and focus this intellectual energy toward the ultimate benefit of students in the classroom. Teachers spend four to eight weeks of summer in full-time independent study in the arts. Teachers who: (1) are employed full-time in elementary, middle, or high schools, either as arts specialists or general classroom teachers; (2) hold a master's degree or show equivalent evidence of continuing professional growth in the arts; (3) possess a record of substantial involvement and accomplishment in arts education and demonstrate a capacity for independent study in the arts; and (4) plan to continue teaching the arts in grades K-12 for at least the year following the fellowship.

One award winner in Wisconsin pursued independent study of jazz education materials and, subsequently, developed a jazz improvisation program for elementary school students. One New Jersey art teacher and ceramist studied crystalline glazes and applied that new knowledge to interdisciplinary teaching with his school's chemistry classes. A teaching sculptor created a new work based on her research into experiences of African-American women, translating her impressions of women and race into visual metaphors.

Susannah Patton and Elsa Little
Council for Basic Education (funded by National Endowment for the Arts)
Arts Education Fellowships
1319 F Street, NW, Suite 900,
Washington, DC, 20004
Phone: (202) 347-4171.

The Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership*

The National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, convened a series of three meetings during the summer and fall of 1994 known as the Goals 2000 Arts Education Action Planning Process. The purpose of this process was to develop a plan for collaboration on the national level in order to maximize the role of the arts in improving education and helping schools and students achieve the National Education Goals. The meetings produced an action plan that identified a number of critical actions in which all Americans must be actively involved at the state and community levels in order to realize the benefits of arts in education. A 32-page report from the planning process outlines how the arts can help achieve each of the eight National Education Goals and articulates why the arts are central to successful education reform.

To ensure that the action plan developed by the Goals 2000 Arts Education Action Planning Process would be implemented, the Arts Endowment, in partnership with the Department of Education, is supporting the operating costs of the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership. A cooperative agreement has been awarded to the Council of Chief State School Officers, in collaboration with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, to establish an office for the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership. This office will assure adequate resources are secured to foster communications among Partnership participants, coordinate implementation of the action plan, and hire a director who will manage the operations of the partnership.

For more information on the Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership or to obtain copies of the advocacy brochure and report, contact:

Goals 2000 Arts Education Partnership
c/o The Council of Chief State School Officers
One Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20001-1431
Phone: (202) 336-7065
FAX: (202) 408-8076

Promotion of the Arts-Arts in Education*

Encourages state and local arts agencies to develop long-term strategies to help establish the arts as basic to the education of students from prekindergarten through twelfth grade; encourages state and local education agencies to develop and implement sequential arts education programs; encourages the involvement of artists and cultural organizations in enhancing arts in education for a broad segment of the population; encourages the career development of excellent teachers and professional artists involved in education; develops and stimulates research to teach quality education in the arts; encourages the development of improved curriculum materials, evaluation, and assessment of arts education programs; fosters cooperative programs with the U.S. Department of Education; and encourages dissemination of information and research about current and past successful arts education programs. Arts Education Partnership grants, the only grant category at this time, are available for state arts agencies only. The Arts Endowment also supports a limited number of National Leadership Initiatives based on the priorities of the Agency and funds available. Several present arts education initiatives support, directly or indirectly, the professional development needs of teachers and other education service providers. Depending on the type of initiative, grants, or cooperative agreements may be made to nonprofit organizations if donations to such organizations qualify as a charitable deduction under Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. This definition includes state and local governments. Requests for proposals are issued by the NEA for most National Leadership Initiatives.

Education and Access Division
Room 703, The Nancy Hanks Center
National Endowment for the Arts
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20506
Telephone for Guidelines, (202) 682-5400
for other information, (202) 682-5438
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