MAEC Position Paper: The Role of the Arts in Developing 21st-Century Skills

The Massachusetts Arts Education Collaborative (MAEC) has taken a keen interest in the new recommendations to reform education in Massachusetts for the development of 21st-Century Skills.  We commend the Task Force for including the arts as an important domain of learning for advancing many of these critical skills.  It is widely recognized that the current accountability system for education rests primarily upon the MCAS test, which is a limited vehicle for assessing educational progress.  Areas superbly developed through artistic training and not easily assessed on MCAS—such as creativity, analytical thinking, leadership, self-direction, teamwork, media literacy, oral communication, and problem solving—are needed for high-school graduates to prepare for the work place as well as college.  Additionally, the arts can play a significant role in opening new windows onto other curricular areas (English, math, science, etc.) as well as demonstrate and document student learning—particularly for non-traditional learners and students with learning disabilities, cognitive disabilities, or other learning challenges.  With these thoughts in mind, MAEC makes the following six policy recommendations.

Recommendation 1—Sequential Arts Instruction by Licensed Instructors.  MAEC strongly endorses regular, sequential, and rigorous instruction during the school day by licensed arts instructors in music, dance, visual art, and theatre.  MAEC lauds the 21st-Century Task Force’s recommendation to place 1000 scientists and artists in classrooms; however, it cannot be in lieu of having professional arts educators teaching every child on a regular basis.

The Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework’s first guiding principle states, “An effective arts curriculum provides a sequential program of instruction in dance, music, theatre, and visual arts for all students beginning in preschool and continuing through high school.”  Two central components of this sequential learning enable students to “apply both imagination and rational thinking to the making of art; and to understand the value of reflection and critical judgment in creative work.”  The Framework continues to note that “students must acquire literacy in the arts. The term ‘artistic literacy’ means the ability to use and understand symbols and structures of dance, music, theatre, and visual arts. Artistic literacy thus complements linguistic literacy, which is the ability to use and understand language.”

The National Art Education Association makes a distinction “between curricular and non-curricular arts education... Curricular education is defined as that which is planned in sequential order and takes place in an organized program of study over a period of time. Non-curricular education is that which is achieved through random personal experiences.  Clearly, both are learning components that complement the other, but cannot substitute for the other.”  The NAEA continues by listing and differentiating between four forms of arts learning:
•    Arts Entertainment—Casual engagement with any form already known, such as art in magazines, advertisements or on radio and television.
•    Arts Exposure—Engagement structured to produce a new experience with the arts, such as a school field trip to a museum, theatre, or performance facility without prior study.
•    Arts Enrichment—Engagement or experience crafted to support an educational activity, such as school visits by an artist(s) after study of the art forms, media or style of the visiting artist(s).
•    Arts Education—Engagement with the discipline as a body of knowledge and skills to be acquired and applied by the student, such as learning to create 2- or 3-point linear perspective drawings after the study of Renaissance art; or to read a simple melody at sight.
With these descriptions in mind, MAEC strongly endorses the promotion of Arts Education, since this leads to artistic literacy—a vital 21st-Century skill.

Recommendation 2—MA Arts Curriculum Framework Revision.  Because the arts play such a critical role in developing 21st-century skills, the MAEC recommends that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) restarts the revision process for the Arts Curriculum Framework as soon as possible and sets a timetable for completion.

Recommendation 3—Massachusetts Board of Higher Education:  The MAEC recommends that the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education adopts the MassCore recommended sequence of high school courses—including minimally one credit of fine or performing arts—as admission requirements into the University of Massachusetts and the state college system.

Recommendation 4—Model Arts-Centered School Programs.  MAEC recommends that the ESE examines, publicizes, and encourages others to duplicate exemplar programs around the Commonwealth which have intensive arts programs of study.  Some examples (this is not an all-inclusive list) include the Worcester Arts Magnet Elementary School, the Burncoat Middle and Senior High Arts Magnet Programs in Worcester, the Walnut Hill School (an independent high school for the performing and visual arts in Natick), the Boston Arts Academy, and the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School (a high school which has made AYP continuously since 2000 in aggregate and subgroup scores).  Most of these schools have extraordinary success in graduating nearly all of their students in these programs, with a high college admission rate.

Recommendation 5—Model Arts Partnership Programs.  MAEC recommends that the ESE examines model arts partnerships from across the state as delivery models for arts enhancement or arts integration opportunities.  In addition to the highly acclaimed MCC arts residency programs listed in the 21st-Century Task Force Report, there are numerous other models we would cite (this list is not exhaustive, but representative):
•    the Worcester Arts and Humanities Educational Collaborative which partners some 19 cultural institutions with the Worcester Public Schools
•    the National Arts and Learning Collaborative (NALC) in Natick, which sponsors student mentors from independent high schools with Boston elementary public school classes in providing arts-infused interdisciplinary learning projects
•    the Kennedy Center Partners in Education Program between the New Bedford Public Schools and Zeiterion Theatre which provides and develops teaching artists to work with teachers on arts-integration techniques
•    VSA Arts of Massachusetts which has the Statewide Teaching Artists Program pairing teaching artists and general and special education teachers to address both arts learning and elements of the general curriculum
•    the ArtWorks for Kids Coalition (funded by the Hunt Alternatives Fund) which networks over 30 arts organizations to support at-risk youth throughout the Boston metropolitan area

Recommendation 6—Professional Development Models and Hubs.  MAEC recommends that the ESE examines the five-district regional structure of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association as a model for discipline-based professional development through instructional and presentational hubs.  Additionally, the MMEA is in the process of developing a Higher Education Consortium of eight (8) colleges, universities, and conservatories to develop mentoring strategies for new teachers, to provide professional development for experienced teachers, and to examine issues of rigorous teacher preparation, recruitment, licensure, and retention.

The MAEC Leadership Team hopes that policy makers will find these recommendations helpful.  We appreciate this opportunity to make these suggestions in strengthening the important work of implementing 21st-century skills across our great state.