According to David Miller, NJSCA executive director, “This pioneering initiative represents a partnership that can have a profound effect impact on increasing access to quality arts education for New Jersey pre-K through grade 12 students, and giving clarity on where to invest public and private resources so as to assure quality arts education for all New Jersey public school students. Technology will enable us to have a 3-dimenstional picture of arts education throughout the state, connecting the data with GIS mapping software. When completed, we will have created not only a model for New Jersey but for the country.”

The initiative encompasses five objectives that include implementing a statewide survey on the current status of arts education in New Jersey public primary and secondary schools, connecting the survey results with additional demographic information, creating a New Jersey Arts Education Research Center, developing a national model that will link data, and creating a process to annually update the data.“This is a groundbreaking partnership, harnessing the resources of two public agencies, a private foundation and two nonprofit arts organizations,” explained Jay Doolan, Director of the Office of Academic and Professional Standards for the Dept. of Ed. “The research will help guide resources and improve the services and programs that each of the partners provide.” In addition to the partners mentioned, the State Office of Information and Technology and Americans for the Arts will provide technical assistance and guidance.

Spearheaded by the Music for All Foundation (MFA), the research will quantify student enrollment in arts education programs for each school, establish spending patterns over time for arts education, providing a basis for analyses of growth and decline of enrollment and spending relative to other school programs. In addition, economic, demographic, census, school report card and growth forecasts will all be linked together to provide context regarding additional factors that impact access to arts education in a community. Robert Morrison, chairman of MFA, said, “Such research will have a number of benefits for policymakers and educators alike. It can monitor the distribution of financial resources and program impacts for general and special populations of students and provide guidance on how to insure equitable access to arts education for all students in all of our schools.”

The project will move through several phases. Research and development will take place in the winter of 2005. By spring the survey field test will be developed, with the actual survey to take place in late fall 2005. In the winter of 2006 the data processing and evaluation will completed for the mapping model and data integration to take place by spring 2006.

Once completed, the Census Project findings will be serve as the centerpiece of a New Jersey Arts Education Resource Center. The Resource Center will be created to serve as a central clearing house for statistics, research, policy, best practices, and tools for use by educators, administrators, policy makers, arts advocates and citizens alike.

For more information on the New Jersey Arts Education Census and Mapping Project please contact NJSCA Arts Education Coordinator Robin Middleman at 609-292-6130 or Robert Morrison at the Music for All Foundation at 908-542-9396.

The New Jersey State Council on the Arts is a division of the New Jersey Department of State. It receives funding through the Hotel/Motel Occupancy Fee as direct appropriations from the State of New Jersey and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Since 1966, its volunteer board members and professional staff have worked to improve the quality of life in New Jersey for its people and communities by helping the arts to flourish. Further information regarding the State Council on the Arts is located on its web site www.njartscouncil.org. For more information on the arts in your community call 1-800-THE-ARTS, or visit www.jerseyarts.com