A personal connection with the arts

My parents were musicians.

Mom was a concert pianist and organist. One of her gifts was that she could read any piece of music put in front of her. She loved playing Debussy, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bach, and Franck. She was frequently called upon to accompany vocalists and instrumentalists for upcoming recitals and auditions.

Dad was a sax, clarinet, and boom-chick piano-player who played in a dance band in high school, gigging on weekends with pals from his small town school. One of his gifts was that he could play anything by ear. He played at the piano during down time, weekends mostly, after he had finished chores with my younger brothers in tow. He enjoyed writing original vocal and instrumental compositions, including vocal arrangements for his barber shoppe quartet and for the religious in the convent on the far side of the fairgrounds in the small rural coal-mining town in Pennsylvania where we lived until I was ten.

I grew up in a time when arts education was the pride of every community, whether in public schools or in the public square, and I was encouraged to participate in all of it: music; drawing and painting; poetry and creative writing; dance; photography. I began with piano lessons in first grade. Over time, I added to my portfolio the needle arts; calligraphy & book arts; ceramics; cooking; costumery; collaborative arts. When I had worked for a while on a calligraphy project, a writing project beckoned; after working on that for a time, a knitting or sewing project next.

We moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio when I was ten, into a bigger pool of arts offerings, with more and different things to try. I was in my element. We moved again when I was fourteen, just before beginning high school, from Ohio to Massachusetts. The nascent arts and music programming in the school was lacking, left me wanting, and my heart sank as I came to realize that I wouldn't be expanding my arts education there. I felt defeated and frustrated and, initially, resentful, what with no big choruses to sing in or musicals to perform in.

But what ended up happening was that I became part of the group that built and led the music program there. Singing in newly established a capella and concert choral groups and learning to play a range of styles and instruments: piano in jazz band; oboe in concert band; trombone in the marching band. I took every music elective that was offered and invited others to join me. Ultimately, we took part in every musical we were finally able to produce in my last two years. I became student conductor for concert band and took to arranging and transcribing Bach two- and three-part keyboard Inventions for brass and woodwind ensembles. I sang in District and All-State Choruses and was a founding member of an elite ensemble of high school vocal and instrumental musicians that met every Sunday at Northeastern University for an afternoon of rehearsing original arrangements that were then performed in Symphony Hall and in other venues across the Commonwealth.

The affect the arts has had on me throughout my life has been boundless, but it was in those early, formative years that I developed an attachment to the arts and they became a lifeline to me as we relocated from the rural mountains of PA, to urban, central OH, and then to the quiet, reserved community in MA. Despite the paucity of music and arts programming offered in my high school (lo those many years ago), what was offered got me up and to school on the rainiest of days.

And, that still holds true today. Since the November 2016 election I have sat at my piano nearly every day, finding solace in patriotic and popular songs, and in the compositions of Debussy, Bartok, Haydn, and Bach. (I now have a little set that I would consider playing before a small group of friends).

A personal connection with arts, culture, or creativity has an immeasurable impact on one's life and well-being, place, and view of community. Among other things, my engagement has taught me patience, perspective, sequencing, problem-solving, persistence, and the joy of self-expression.

But, children in many public schools and communities are losing so much, whether due to shrinking budgets or the focus on standardized testing in schools or loss of national and state funding for community arts programming. The arts are designated a core academic subject, yet access to arts education in our schools is eroding. And this at a time when parents, employers, and civic leaders are demanding improvements to teaching and learning that will make our schools places where each learner will access a complete education and opportunities to succeed.

Our children will need to be creative thinkers and makers prepared to face and solve the challenges awaiting them in their future. To help them get there they will need many things, including an arts education. 

The brain, poverty, and education

In 2006 I attended an Americans for the Arts evening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. William Safire delivered the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy. He talked of a three-year study begun by The Dana Foundation to examine whether early arts training by young children can cause changes in the brain that enhance other aspects of cognition. The goal was to find correlation between the two. Safire was chairman of The Dana Foundation at the time. (Results showed plenty of causation but no correlation. Check out the subsequent report about the Learning, Arts, and the Brain (Neuroeducation) Summit).

Anyway, that was when I first heard of The Dana Foundation and their work in neuroeducation. I signed up for their publication, "Brain in the News" - a digest of published studies, articles, commentary, etc. about the brain. (My interest in brain research stems from a college project on the topic involving a halved cauliflower, labeled "Left" and "Right", as a visual aid.)

This summer, "Brain in the News" published a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Researchers reported a direct correlation between poverty and the brain development of children: poverty hampers the growth of gray matter, impairing their academic performance. Poor children tend to have as much as 10% less gray matter in several areas of the brain associated with academic skills (study published in JAMA Pediatrics).

Now, poverty is no longer "just a social problem".

One of the most challenging and troubling aspects in education and public policy is poverty. President Lyndon Johnson declared "war on poverty" more than 50 years ago and introduced a set of social programs to combat it, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965.

Poverty among children younger than 18 began dropping even before the war on poverty:

• 27.3% in 1959
• 23% in 1964
• 14% by 1969

Since then, however, the childhood poverty rate has risen, fallen, and, since the 2007-08 financial crisis, risen again.

Today, a majority of children in US public schools live in poverty. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 is a response. Within the law is a "community eligibility provision" which allows districts and schools with high poverty rates (40% or higher) to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students. Breakfast in the classroom, along with summer learning, early learning, and expanded learning time are strategies known to have a positive impact on children in poverty and their learning.

While it's an improvement for students to receive these meals, and in spite of the fact that there is no real change in poverty status, the student low-income data (i.e., free and reduced lunch) used in the foundation budget calculation, in the allocation formulas for other state and federal grant programs, and in our school and district accountability system must transition to other income data sources to determine what it means to be poor in Massachusetts.
- - -
Researchers make 5 recommendations for standardized test designers

Why We Fail to Address the Achievement Gap

Addressing the College Readiness Challenge in High Poverty Schools

Annual Accountability

President Obama on Poverty

The Real 21st-Century Problem in Public Education is Poverty

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday - it's four days long and (most times) I'm able to spend it with my children and extended family.

I'm grateful for family.

Coming when it does - at the end of November, long after the audaciousness of leaves, when most have fallen and what remain on branches are crisped and brown, bronze, and russet - it's a reflective time.

I'm grateful for seasonal change.

There's so much that's scary and challenging in the world right now. And, while many parts of the world have been living this reality for too long, more and more people are waking up every day, committing to changing hearts and minds in communities.

For that, I'm grateful.

I'm sharing the Paul Simon youtube here because I've loved "American Tune" since I first heard it and it's something of a Thanksgiving Day classic in our house. His lyrics capture the heart of America - the impact of each individual, hard work, imperfection and compromise, heartbreak, poverty, struggle, immigration "in the age's most uncertain hour".

I'm grateful for the poets.

"Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe", shared with me by a longtime friend and artist in Virginia, is a happy little piece. It reminds me of the Hallowe'en party seven of us went to at that button factory in New Hampshire when we all dressed as the "Finalist Dance Troupe". Great memory - I want to live in this film's landscape because of it.

I'm grateful for faraway friends (and memory) and the abundant technologies available to me that keeps us connected.

And, finally, I'm sharing another song sent by a friend in Nova Scotia - it's Adele singing "Hello", accompanied by Jimmy Fallon and folks from SNL playing classroom (do they mean simple percussion?) instruments.

This joyful expression reminds me how grateful I am for teachers, the availability of public education in the US, and, especially, of the importance of making the arts available to all of our children.

I'm grateful for all of the artists who share their gifts and visions and hopes and dreams.

What are you grateful for?

NASBE Pre-Conference::Visit to Halstead Academy::Baltimore County Public Schools::Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Maryland is organized into 24 public school districts. Members of NASBE visited the Halstead Academy of Art and Science, a preK-5 magnet school in Towson MD, part of the Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS, @BaltCoPS). School data is HERE.

Recent 3rd grade study of Gustav Klimt...

...inspired artwork that beautifies the hallways

Halstead is also a district "lighthouse school" piloting the county's instructional digital conversion program known as Students and Teachers Accessing Tomorrow (S.T.A.T.). The name "stat" (proposed by a group of students) conveys the urgency of the work: learner-centered, not led by technology, and future-focused, not based on tradition.

Theory of Action - BCPS' North Star

Framework is based on Danielson & P21

As Massachusetts has been wrangling with its decision about how to assess students now that the state has aligned frameworks with common core state standards, something I've been asking in state board meetings is: What's our vision for 21st c learning? If we're saying that we need "next gen" assessments, what are we doing to ensure that our school and classroom environments, curriculum, professional development, instructional practice, and so on are also next gen? What do students need today to meet tomorrow's (unknown) demands?

Not only have they asked the questions and forwarded a vision, BCPS has a plan. The digital conversion is in its third year of a comprehensive five-year strategic plan that includes system-wide changes in everything from budgeting, physical facilities, policies, and communications to professional development, curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Learning is changing with intention and buy-in from all stakeholders in BCPS schools, with everything from how classroom furniture is arranged, to what is being taught, to how the school day is structured. Ultimately, as the S.T.A.T. program progresses, all BCPS schools will have:

• digitally-enhanced curriculum supplemented with engaging, adaptive digital resources;

• digital devices for every student and teacher;

• educator, student, and parent access to information and resources through the BCPS One platform;

• wireless and broadband infrastructure.

District policy review process

Instruction-driven approach to tech

S.T.A.T. evaluation tool

During our site visit, we met first with the instructional technology team for short presentations on the above, then visited classrooms, talking with students and teachers. Fifth grade classes were on a field trip; I spoke with children and adults in their K, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classrooms. I observed respectful learning environments, engaged students, small group instruction, collaborative and parallel learning, and student-directed learning:

Third grade parallel learning

Kindergarten whole group instruction

Second grade small group math (at whiteboard table) 

Third grade class expectations 

Third grade small group literacy

First grade collaborative learning

Second grade collaborative learning

Pro tip: Include FTE needs in the RFP for leased devices! BCPS included 89 FTEs as district-wide Instructional Coaches who support all educators. Coaches observe and offer feedback through the use of guiding questions focused on the teacher, the learning environment, and the student:

• Teacher: What teacher behaviors contribute to a learner-centered environment for all students?

• Space: How does the physical space reflect input from all students and facilitate a learner-centered environment?

• Student: How are all students (by race, gender, English language competency, or disability) acquiring, developing, using, or producing knowledge, information, and skills?

Learner-Centered Environments: Professional Learning Tool

Here's the take-away: The district developed a comprehensive plan to integrate technology SIDE-BY-SIDE with teachers, school administration, the local school board, families, and the public. Eight areas were identified for conversion: communications, budget, policy, infrastructure, organizational development, assessment, instruction, and curriculum. Budgets are realigned and reallocated to support the district's implementation of the BCPS THEORY OF ACTION - - $207 million over 5 years (for necessary infrastructure), then settling into the operating budget at $67 million each year thereafter. Substantial investment has been made in BCPS - and beginning returns on that investment expect to be evident this year, three-years into the plan.

See more in My Storify

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Whereas Arts education comprises an array of disciplines including dance, music, theater, media arts, literature, design and visual arts; and

Whereas Arts education can help students develop a variety of skills such as