CT Arts Education Leaders: State Missing the Boat on Arts Support

CT Arts Education Leaders: State Missing the Boat on Arts Support

A quality education cannot exist without a quality arts program. Data-driven research supports it. School children respond to it. Parents and teachers know it.

So why has the CT State Department of Education (SDE) decided not to fill the recently vacated, fully funded, critically important State Arts Consultant position? How is it that the State Board of Education (SBE) approved the new National Arts Standards but then went against its own position statement by not making it a priority to fill the very position designed to lead the standards implementation throughout the state?

After SBE Chairman Allan Taylor announced in early April that the state arts consultant position would not be filled, several of CT’s arts education leaders attended the SBE’s April 5 meeting to express their concerns.

Tracy Abbate, Director of Arts & Wellness, Hartford Public Schools, pointed out that "we need leadership at the State level to ensure [that] our district leaders and teachers have the support they need to successfully implement these standards in the classroom across all disciplines."

According to Andrew Mayo, West Hartford Public Schools Fine & Performing Arts Department Supervisor, "Only a highly trained and well-versed specialist will be able to guide school districts around the state through the process of revising curricula and retraining teachers to embrace this new vision for Arts Education.”

"Brian Frazier, Stratford Public Schools’ Coordinator of Arts, Music, Health & Physical Education, and President-Elect of CT Association of Arts Administrators stated: "This position is even more important for [the many] districts that do not have an arts leader."

Maureen Berescik, former Arts Coordinator for Bethel Public Schools and Chair of the Fine Arts Committee for the CT Association of Schools (CT’s professional organization for principals) stated, "...districts are no longer able to support arts administrators. The task is often assigned to principals, assistant principals or curriculum leaders who don’t have the knowledge and expertise of an arts curriculum."

Andrea Haas, Art educator at Wethersfield Public Schools pointed out that "...successful implementation of the arts standards in CT schools will only be possible with the training and support provided by a full time professional Arts Consultant." And Pam Murphy, Visual Arts Supervisor, West Hartford Public Schools, stated, "These standards focus on [the rigors and] development of 21st century skills such as problem solving and collaboration … skills that employers demand today."

John Prins, President of CT Alliance for Arts Education, an officer of the CT Association of Boards of Education (CABE) and a member of the Branford Board of Education, stressed that we need to "...ensure that the arts are a priority in CT's public schools." He also proposed that “…we are ready and willing to partner with you to do whatever is necessary to make a highly qualified State Arts Consultant position a requirement under the law."

While a huge step in the right direction, Prins added that the standards alone don’t go far enough. He suggested providing comprehensive support for non-arts educators to better prepare them to work together with arts educators to super-charge the benefits of the arts to everyday learning experiences.

According to Brian Cyr, Meriden Public Schools’ K-12 Fine Arts Coordinator, "The person in this position has successfully advocated for far more grant funding than this position costs the state."

In the past, there were two arts consultants, one for music and one for arts; now we have none - no knowledgeable arts education consultant in the State Department of Education.

Given the enormously positive, research-supported benefits of integrating a quality arts program into the curriculum, this vacant position, when filled, exemplifies serious ‘bang for the buck.’ Freezing this position, or choosing not to fill it, is extraordinarily short sighted.