November 14, 2006
Arts Education and the League of Municipalities
The New Jersey Arts Education Census Project is participating on a panel titled "The Arts and Quality Education in Your Community - Good Schools, But Much More!" presented by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the NJ State League of Municipalities at the Leagues Annual Conference in Atlantic City on Thursday, November 16th.
On the panel will be:
James Maley, Mayor, Borough of Collingswood Nina Mitchell Wells, Secretary of State David Miller, Executive Director, NJ State Council on the Arts Mark Valli, President & CEO of NJ After 3 Bob Morrison, Chairman Emeritus, Music for All
This will be the first public forum where the Census Project will be discussed. A link to the final report of the New Jersey Arts Education Census Project will go live on this site when the final report is released.
Posted by musicforall at 8:58 AM
October 11, 2006
Preliminary Results to be Presented on October 18
The preliminary findings from the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Education Survey will be presented to the New Jersey State Board of Education on Wednesday, October 18, 2006. These preliminary findings will address state arts education policies and how they are being implemented statewide.
The final complete report will be release in six weeks. Details about the formal announcement will be posted on this site!
Posted by musicforall at 12:27 PM
August 4, 2006
Survey has been Completed!
The New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Education Survey has been completed.
99.835% of School Districts have reported
98.55% of School Districts have reported for ALL schools
98.4% of all schools required to complete the survey have done so.
Total Schools Reporting: 2367
For the next two months our analyst team will be working with the survey data and all our other data sets to complete our final report.
We expect to release our report to the New Jersey State Board of Education on October 18, 2006.
Posted by musicforall at 7:54 PM
April 3, 2006
SECRETARY OF STATE WELLS AND ACTING COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DAVY ANNOUNCE STATEWIDE ARTS EDUCATION SURVEY
Trenton - New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells and Acting Commissioner of Education Lucille E. Davy announced today the launch of a month-long online survey to evaluate the status of arts education in every public school in New Jersey.
During the news conference held at the Mott Elementary School in Trenton, Secretary Wells and Commissioner Davy joined representatives from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and its planning partners to outline the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey (NJVPAE). The survey is part of a broader Arts Education Census Project, a collaborative partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the New Jersey Department of Education, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, spearheaded by the Music for All Foundation.
“We are thrilled to have achieved this milepost together and are proud to note that it is the result of true collaboration both between departments of state government and with leadership from the private sector as well,” said Secretary Wells, as she addressed more than 100 of the school’s third and fourth graders gathered for the assembly. “We expect the findings to provide us with the most comprehensive picture ever of how arts education is carried out in New Jersey public schools, and with that map we will be able to more clearly identify where resources are required to ensure a quality education for all children,” she added.
Acting Commissioner Davy said the survey marks the first time the Department of Education has collected information about the implementation of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards (CCCS) for visual and performing Arts. Last year, the department conducted a survey on the implementation of the world languages CCCS. Future surveys are planned on health and physical education.
“This survey is evidence of the high value we place on the arts as an important part of a good education,” said acting Commissioner Davy. “We know that quality programs in the visual arts, music, theater and dance challenge our students to be self-confident, creative thinkers. Exposure to the arts will enrich them for the rest of their lives.”
During the news conference, state officials and arts representatives were treated to performances by the school’s Praise Dancers, Mustang Chimers and the Mott Chorale and the Blue Drummers.
The survey is available online at http://homeroom.state.nj.us and must be completed and submitted online by every district in the state. The survey asks for information on programs in each school in the district. It will collect data from elementary and secondary schools that measures arts education courses, student participation, resources, instructional support and community resources in New Jersey schools. Surveys must be completed by April 30th and the results will be released in a final report in September of 2006.
Officials from the Department of Education said the partnership will provide schools, policymakers, and community leaders with an analysis of arts education while at the same time providing schools and communities with tools and resources to strengthen student learning in the arts. “An in-depth analysis of the school data will help the Department of Education and its project partners understand the level of student involvement with the arts, help to identify model programs across the state, and facilitate the alignment of resources to strengthen student learning of New Jersey’s visual and performing arts CCCS,” said David Miller, Executive Director of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
The New Jersey Arts Education Census Project is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding has been provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, NAMM International Music Products Association, the D’Addario Foundation for the Performing Arts, David Bryan of Bon Jovi, and the Music for All Foundation.
Posted by musicforall at 6:43 PM
March 21, 2006
Letter from Commissioner Davy
Click on the link below to view the letter from Commissioner Davy to the chief school administrators across the state:
Posted by musicforall at 4:35 PM
Memo to All New Jersey Arts Educators
Date: March 21, 2006
To: All New Jersey Arts Educators (Dance, Music, Theater and Visual Arts)
From: Bob Morrison – Music for All Foundation on behalf of the New Jersey Arts Education
Census Project Partners
Re: New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Education Survey
On Monday, March 20, 2006 acting Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy sent a letter to all public school principals, superintendents, county superintendents announcing the start of the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Education Survey (NJVPAE). This is the most intensive and comprehensive look at arts education ever undertaking in the history of our country.
The NJVPAE Survey is part of the New Jersey Department of Education’s plans to survey all core curriculum content areas not included in the statewide assessment program. The NJVPAE Survey will be conducted from April 3, 2006 through April 30, 2006. This survey is the first time the Department of Education has collected information about the implementation of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts and examined the depth and breadth of their implementation in New Jersey’s public schools.
The NJVPAE will measure course offerings, student participation, resources, policies, instructional support, and community resources in New Jersey’s schools. The survey is part of a broader Arts Education Census Project, a collaborative partnership between the New Jersey Department of Education, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, and the Music for All Foundation. The Census Project will gather, evaluate and disseminate qualitative and quantitative data regarding arts education in the state of New Jersey. This marks the first time the department has examined the depth and breadth of visual and performing arts instruction across the state.
HERE IS WHERE YOU COME IN:
In the Commissioner’s letter, she advises administrators to work with their arts supervisors. We are urging all of you to contact your principal, superintendent, and/or arts supervisor to volunteer your help in the gathering of the requested information. Your participation will help ensure we have the best possible information for evaluation.
The results of this survey will be previewed in the summer of 2006 with a final report presented in September of 2006. These results will help the New Jersey State Department of Education and our project partners understand the impact of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for the Arts on school programs, the level of student involvement with the arts, and how to align resources to areas of need.
You may preview the survey here!
The formal survey documents, instructions and online data entry will be available from the New Jersey Department of Education on April 3rd. Please check with your administrators for access information and additional guidance.
Thank you for your support and cooperation. This is a historic moment that promises to advance arts education in our state!
Posted by musicforall at 3:02 PM
March 20, 2006
Two Weeks Until Launch!
The New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey will Launch on April 3. Check back in the next week for all the final survey documents!
Posted by musicforall at 4:00 PM
February 14, 2006
The Survey Instrument
Below are the links to the PDF files for the final version of the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey to take place statewide beginning April 3, 2006. This survey has been approved by the New Jersey Department of Education, which will be conducting the actual survey using an online entry system.
If you have any questions please send an email to bob@music-for-all.org or call 908-542-9396.
To download a PDF of the Final Survey Instrument choose the following:
Elementary (K-6) Version
To download a PDF of the Final Survey Instructions choose the following:
Elementary (K-6) Instructions
The New Jersey Arts Education Census Project, and the instrument developed for the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey, has benefited greatly from the work of many individuals and organizations that have provided advice and feedback during the development of this survey tool. The lineage of this tool includes the 1997 NAEP Arts Assessment, the 1998 Fast Response Survey of the U.S. Department of Education, and the Connecticut Curriculum Survey of 2000. Scott Shuler at the Connecticut Department of Education has been generous with his time and experience. The members of SEADAE have provided valuable feedback on the portability of the model to other states.
Posted by musicforall at 4:07 PM
November 4, 2005
In an Era of Accountability … You Have to Count!
How many schools in New Jersey have arts education programs? More importantly, how many do not? How many children across the state are involved with our arts education programs? How many children do not have access to arts education at all? The answer is… we do not know!
But, we will! These and many other compelling questions will be answered as a result of the upcoming New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey, part of the New Jersey Arts Education Census Project.
New Jersey Arts Education Census Project (NJAECP) is a partnership of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the NJ Department of Education, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and the Music for All Foundation. The New Jersey Arts Education Census Project will create a 360-degree view of arts education in New Jersey schools.
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.
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 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. The final results will be housed in the New Jersey Arts Education Research and Information Center, which will be hosted on the web.
Of particular interest is the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey - a statewide school-by-school mandatory survey for the visual and performing arts. The field test of the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey has been completed and evaluated and preparations for the mandatory state-wide survey in January 2006 have already begun.
Here is how you can help:
Each NJ public school (not district) will be asked to provide information regarding the types of arts courses provided, student enrollment in each course, the number and qualifications of teachers, curriculum, etc. We are asking each of you to help gather the information for your principal so we can have the most complete and accurate data possible. You assistance will be a great help to your principal and to this project as well.
A review of the survey tool will guide you to the type of information requested in the survey. A letter to all of the principals from Commissioner of Education will arrive at your school this Winter to provide each school with a “heads up” regarding the upcoming survey and to begin the information gathering process.
By working together we will ensure we have quality information to inform all of our work so we may create an educational system in New Jersey that truly provides an arts education … for all!
Ongoing updates to the project including the current draft of the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey may be accessed by going to: http://www.music-for-all.org/NJAEC/
For additional information contact:
Bob Morrison
Music for All Foundation
(908) 542-9396
Robin Middleman
NJ State Council on the Arts
(609) 984-6130
Dale Schmid
NJ Department of Education
(609)984-6308
Posted by musicforall at 2:57 PM
September 1, 2005
Survey Update September 1, 2005
The final version of the New Jersey Visual and Performing Arts Survey has been submitted to the New Jersey Department of Education for final review and approval. We hope to have final approval by September 22, 2005. Once this is complete, the project will move to full implementation mode of the Phase Three, which includes the development of our data warehouse, the integration of other data sets, testing of all the protocols and development of the beta version of the New Jersey Arts Education Research and Information Center.
The Survey itself will be implemented statewide in January 2006. The survey data collection process will conclude on February 28, 2006.
An “early indicators” report will be release in May of 2006. The final report will be released in September 2006.
Posted by musicforall at 1:58 PM
June 24, 2005
Statewide Arts Education Census to Map Every New Jersey School
Study will document and expand access to arts education
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts has announced a dynamic initiative to document arts education in every school across New Jersey. Created in partnership with the NJ Department of Education, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and spearheaded by the Music for All Foundation, the New Jersey Arts Education Census Project will create a 360-degree view of arts education in New Jersey schools.
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
Posted by musicforall at 3:53 PM
May 28, 2005
Goal 5 – An Ongoing Program
Once the Arts Education Census, the ARMS Protocol, and the New Jersey Arts Education Research Center have been completed a key element of this campaign will be the ongoing maintenance and scheduled updates of the data. By being able to compare information developed over time to the baseline data from the census, trends will be easily identifiable and the policy implications of education reform efforts on the arts would then be able to be judged against facts and not hypotheses.
Posted by musicforall at 2:14 PM
Goal 4 – A National Model
As documented in the report The Arts and Education: New Opportunities for Research (Arts Education Partnership 2004) there is no model now available documenting the status, condition or financing of arts education in any meaningful way. This project will be developed in such a way as to maximize the ability to use this Census model and the ARMS protocol in other states with the goal being to eventually link state data together as it becomes available to create a national database of arts education information that is comparable between schools, districts, communities and states. The modular design of the ARMS protocol will enable communities to utilize the same analytical power to conduct district or region wide Arts Education Census projects, even in areas where the state may not be involved. It is the flexibility in design that holds the promise for use in other states and communities as a national model and potentially, the standard.
Posted by musicforall at 2:13 PM
Goal 3– Create New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center.
The combined Arts Education Census and the ARMS Protocol for manipulating the data will be made public through the creation of the New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center. This would consist of a web-based center to allow broad-based access to AEC data and the ARMS Protocol in a format that will allow for individual research, comparative analysis, and a wide range of queries comparing arts education data with various other data points. This type of analysis has been historically impossible.
Posted by musicforall at 2:13 PM
Goal 2 – Connect Survey Results with Additional Information.
Building on the model developed by the original Mapping Project, the survey data will be joined with additional databases to provide a more comprehensive view of each school, district, region, and the state. Connections will be made with several databases (modules) to provide greater context to the survey results including: The NJ Department of Education School Codes, New Jersey Department of Education Principal Database, The NJDOE Superintendent Database, NJDOE School Report Card Database, Municipal Databases, the 2000 US Department of Labor Census Statistics and the New Jersey Non-Profit Arts Education Survey.
This complete set of databases described and the software developed to manage, analyze, and make accessible will comprise the Arts-Ed Research Management System (ARMS Protocol). Using the ARMS Protocol, these joined databases will be able to query the school survey results in relationship to the census data and the NJ Report Card data, which provides information on length of day, student enrollment, languages spoken at home, test scores, per pupil expenditures, etc. By using a flexible, modular format we will be able to add or delete various data groups to provide additional insights and points of comparison available in the future. This is the fundamental point of differentiation for this project. The completed ARMS protocol will then be joined with a Graphical Information System (GIS) program to allow the mapping of various data points and query results for visual analysis. In addition, new indices, scores, and comparative measure may be developed through the combined data in the protocol.
Posted by musicforall at 2:04 PM
Goal 1 – Statewide Arts Education Survey
Building on the survey information from the original Mapping Project, a new state-wide survey of every school will be developed and implemented by the New Jersey Department of Education, in conjunction with the project partners, to measure arts education programs and their impact throughout the state. The project will be modeled after the successful World Languages survey which had 100% participation by the public schools. Included in the survey will be qualitative measures (arts education policies, instruction, etc.) as well as quantitative measures (student participation, enrollment, teachers, certification, etc). This will provide the community with the first complete “snapshot” of the actual level of access, equity and quality of programs between schools and communities across the state.
The 1996-98 Mapping Project survey instruments will be used as a point of departure to ensure prior data gathered will be able to be compared to the new information generated by the Census. In addition, a review of survey instruments from other states will be conducted to assist in the creation of the best possible instrument for this project and to help frame questions usable across state lines.
The survey will be conducted from April 3 through April 30, 2006 with all 2408 schools across the 619 school districts in the state of New Jersey. The estimated population covered by the survey is 1.3 million students. In addition, a separate survey of non-profit arts education providers will provide information regarding the use of these services inside the school setting and the specific schools engaging these services.
Posted by musicforall at 2:04 PM | Comments (1)
Objectives
The Objectives of the New Jersey Arts Education Census are:
1. Implement Statewide Arts Education Survey - Coordinate the creation and implementation of a survey of all schools in New Jersey to gather qualitative and quantitative data regarding arts education. Analyze the survey results and prepare a report to the field regarding the survey findings
2. Connect Survey Results with Additional Information. Economic, demographic, census, report card and municipal data as well as existing survey data from the 1998 Mapping Project will be linked to make more in-depth analysis possible.
3. Create New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center. This “center without walls” would use emerging technology to connect the completed Arts Education Census data creating an online analysis and resource center. This web-based interface will allow for broad-based inquiry and visual analysis. GIS will be utilized to allow for the visual analysis of the information. Once completed, this center would serve as a hub for related policy and practices impacting arts education, including, the Arts Education Census data.
4. A National Model. Create a national model to be replicated in other states with the goal of linking state data to create a national database of comparable information between schools, districts, communities and states.
5. Ongoing Program. Work with partners to create a strategy to collect information on an annual and/or reoccurring schedule to monitor implementation.
Posted by musicforall at 2:02 PM
The Plan
To address the very issues raised by the Arts Education Partnership, the Music for All Foundation (MFA), working in partnership with the NJ State Council on the Arts (NJSCA, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and building on the previous body of work developed through the Mapping Project, carried out by the NJSCA from 1996-98, proposes the creation of the 2006 Arts Education Census Project and the New Jersey State Arts Education Research Center.
The Arts Education Census Project proposes to gather, evaluate and disseminate qualitative and quantitative data regarding arts education in the state of New Jersey. This project is designed to build on the body of work created by the earlier Mapping Project with the goal of documenting arts education in every school in the state, combining the findings with other information to create a 360 degree view of arts education, broadly disseminating the results of the survey through new and emerging technologies, creating a model that may be deployed in other states and developing an ongoing system to update and maintain the Arts Education Census program into the future.
Posted by musicforall at 2:01 PM
The Rationale
Introduction
Federal and state laws and policies have put increased pressure on public education to hold schools accountable for student performance in curricular areas. This has not been matched, however, by government efforts to collect data that would permit analysis of the resources for, and impact of, those policies. Arts education, generally believed to be a curricular area particularly susceptible to policy changes and reallocations of resources, is a case in point. Reliable information is unavailable about student access to arts instruction, about the current and predicted availability of qualified teachers, and about student performance.
It is often asserted that arts education programs are subject to budget cuts or elimination during times of economic downturn, and when policy changes require schools to focus on specific programs or needs. Many believe that schools in urban and rural areas are likely to be hit harder during these times, and that the students in these schools lose access to arts programs more quickly than do their suburban counterparts. Unfortunately, there is no empirical data at the national level, nor consistently at state and local levels, to support or refute these hypotheses.
To move the discussion from anecdote to evidence will take rigorous and regular empirical research on funding levels for arts education in schools. The research would establish spending patterns over time for arts education, providing the basis for analyses of growth and decline relative to other school expenditures at times of policy change and relative to general economic conditions. Such research would have a number of benefits for policymakers and educators alike. For example, analyses based on empirical data would help better assess the financial impact on arts education of proposed policy changes, and would help weigh the implications before their adoption or implementation, clarifying both the intended and unintended consequences of policy decisions. Of particular importance, such analyses could monitor the distribution of financial resources and program impacts for general and special populations of students in various school settings and geographic regions. These analyses would provide guidance on how to insure equitable access to arts education for all students.
Federal government support is essential for comprehensive and regular collection, aggregation, and reporting of national arts education data. Designs, systems, and resources for similar efforts at the state and local level also are badly needed. Research on arts education is seriously hampered by the absence of these efforts.
The Arts and Education: New Opportunities for Research
Arts Education Partnership 2004
Posted by musicforall at 1:59 PM