Do You Really Want to Know? Elementary Music Personnel and Potential in Utah

This is the second of two articles reporting the results of a study by the author regarding the status of elementary music education in the state of Utah. This article focuses on the qualifications of Utah's elementary music teachers (music certified, elementary classroom certified, artists-in-residence, volunteers, and paraprofessionals) and the conditions under which they teach. Interactions among teacher qualifications and teaching status are explored. Paraprofessionals play a significant role in Utah's elementary music programs. While over 90 percent of elementary schools in the United States provide regular music instruction taught by certified music specialists, less than 10 percent of Utah's elementary population receives such instruction. Nearly half of the elementary students in the state receive no designated music instruction beyond that provided by their regular elementary classroom teacher. The influence of school funding, No Child Left Behind and other accountability measures, high-stakes testing, urban/rural populations, and leadership are highlighted. Policy considerations are discussed.     

Undergraduate Music Program Alumni's Career Path,Retrospective Institutional Satisfaction,and Financial Status

The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate music education and performance alumni's career path, retrospective institutional satisfaction, and financial status. Data for this study were drawn from respondents from the 2010 administration of the nationwide, multi-institutional survey conducted by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP). Regarding career path, nearly half of the music performance degree graduates reported performing as their current job, and slightly more than half of the music education degree graduates reported working in K–12 schools. Participants were generally satisfied with their institutional experiences, although relatively low levels of satisfaction were reported for networking and career advising services. The respondents reported being most satisfied with aspects of their current jobs that reflected the intrinsic benefits of contributing to a greater good, satisfying personal interests and values, and opportunities to be creative. The majority of the sample reported accruing student loan debt ranging between $10,000 and $30,000; however, no significant differences were found between groups, and 40 percent of the participants reported having accrued no debt at all. The reported annual income of the participants varied significantly, with music educators reporting higher earnings than performers.     

Bridging the gap: How the National Core Arts Standards forge the divide between the arts and assessment-based learning

ABSTRACT

This article is a review and thematic analysis of the 2014 National Core Arts Standards (NCAS). Historically, there exists a gap between the arts and assessment-based educational practices. Thematic analysis of the NCAS reveals a policy striving to bridge the gap between the way arts educators envision arts in schools, and the current reality of assessment-based schooling in the United States. This policy could become the foundation for the recognition of the arts as academically rigorous subject matter, capable of existing and thriving in an assessment-oriented world; it remains to be seen as to how and if arts educators will use and adapt NCAS. Is the NCAS merely a symbolic policy or does it have the support behind it to be a material policy that truly creates change in the educational system?     

Access to Music Education with Regard to Race in Two Urban Areas

This quantitative study examined access to school music instruction with regard to race in two urban areas: Detroit, Michigan, and Washington, DC, in 2009–2010. We found significant differences in the provision of music instruction between schools with high and low proportions of nonwhite enrollment, in categories including curricular offerings, extracurricular offerings, and resources. In the Detroit area, only 31 percent to 60 percent of schools with high percentages of nonwhite students offered any music instruction at all. We contrast our findings with those of a National Center for Educational Statistics report to demonstrate how regional and national averages can obscure information that should guide policy, such as the influence of location and racial demographics of schools on the provision of public school music instruction. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of using flawed data in the creation of policy and suggestions for more comprehensive and accurate data collection and analysis.     

Arts Education Partnerships: Informing Policy through the Development of Culture and Creativity within a Collaborative Project Approach

Arts education partnerships have become an important means for developing and sustaining school arts programs that engage students, teachers, and communities. Tapping into additional perspectives, resources, and support from arts agencies and postsecondary institutions, arts education partnerships strengthen arts education infrastructure within schools and develop a web of sustainable relationships whereby stakeholders mutually benefit. This article provides a snapshot of an arts education partnership in action that develops creative and cultural competencies in middle school students through a theme-based collaborative project approach. This article informs policy by recommending support for arts education partnerships that develop social and creative capital among schools and postsecondary institutions and within the communities surrounding these institutions.     

South–South Comparisons: A Syntegrated Approach to the Teaching of the Arts for Primary School Teacher Preparation in South Africa and Australia

In light of the tendency to present the arts in an integrated fashion in many education systems worldwide, this article examines the consequences of integration for discrete art forms. In particular, we investigate the advantages of adopting a syntegrated approach to the facilitation of arts in teacher preparation. A specific comparison between the implementation of arts curricula in South Africa and Australia is made. The disjuncture between policy and practice in arts education that has been reported internationally needs constant monitoring. We conclude that the heart of curriculum transfer and transformation lies in the classroom.     

Abstract Nature Forms

Abstract

This article is the introduction to the special issue about Evaluation, Educational Policy Reforms, and Their Implications for Arts Education. A summary of all the articles comprised in the special issue is reported, mainly featured, on the one hand, by a discussion about how the education policy reforms shape a particular approach to evaluation that ends up conforming education and arts education and, on the other hand, it shows some magnet examples of arts curriculum evaluation combining both standardized assessment with qualitative strategies pertinent to the nature of arts content and experiences. The article also discusses how it could be possible to move from the current scope of school arts education most of the authors depict to the development of another way of evaluation and curriculum development where the experiential process is taken into account. While these signals might be still scarce, for some other authors could be the opportunity to overcome at least partially the current demise of school arts curriculum.     

On Art Education and Testing in a Period of Educational Reform

This interview deals with arts education in Iran. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a drastic change occurred in arts education. In terms of aim, arts education in Iran assumed a teleological orientation according to which art should be a process aimed at appreciating the manifestation of God's beauty in the world. As for curricular subjects, some branches of art such as dance are prohibited or used in modified and restricted forms. Arts education has a marginalized position in Iran for two reasons: one, which is more or less global, is that science and mathematics are widely granted a superior position in education, and the other is based on a religious understanding of some arts being inherently associated with sinful activities prohibited in Islam. However, a development in this religious understanding has led to a critical approach according to which the alleged association with sinful activity is denied and thus the prohibited forms of art can be allowed under some conditions. This new approach may have different educational consequences in the realm of arts education.     

Metal Craft Problems

Although goals change and reflect the issues of the time, two primary goals of education in a democracy have remained constant over time. The first goal is to educate for vocational competence and the second is to produce caring, intelligent, and wise citizens. Articulating the connection of design education concepts to the economy and social responsibility is beneficial in educating K–12 students. This article illustrates the ways in which design education fosters the skills needed in the global twenty-first century to help students make a better life for themselves and their community and improve the world. I articulate ways to incorporate design as an essential component into a comprehensive visual arts program.     

Hierarchies of evolutionary radiation in the world’s most species rich vertebrate group,the Neotropical Pristimantis leaf litter frogs

The Neotropical leaf litter frog genus Pristimantis is very species-rich, with 526 species described to date, but the full extent of its diversity is much higher and remains unknown. This study explores the phylogenetic processes and resulting evolutionary patterns of diversification in Pristimantis. Given the well-recognised failure of morphology- and community-based species groups to describe diversity within the genus, we apply a new test for the presence and phylogenetic distribution of higher evolutionary units. We developed a phylogeny based on 260 individuals encompassing 149 Pristimantis presumed species, sampled at mitochondrial and nuclear genes (3718 base pair alignment), combining new and available sequence data. Our phylogeny broadly agrees with previous studies, both in topology and age estimates, with the origin of Pristimantis at 28.97 (95% HDP =21.59 – 37.33) million years ago (MYA). New taxa that we add to the genus, which had not previously been included in Pristimantis phylogenies, suggest considerable diversity remains to be described. We assessed patterns of lineage origin and recovered 14 most likely (95% CI: 13–19) phylogenetic clusters or higher evolutionary significant units (hESUs) within Pristimantis. Diversification rates decrease towards the present following a density-dependent pattern for Pristimantis overall and for most hESU clusters, reflecting historical evolutionary radiation. The timing of diversification suggests that geological events in the Miocene, such as Andes orogenesis and Pebas system formation and drainage, may have had a direct or indirect impact on the evolution of Pristimantis and thus contributed to the origins of evolutionary independent phylogenetic clusters.