[Dixielandjazz] Music & Art Instruction lags in primary schools

[Stephen G Barbone]

We've got work to do.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

June 16, 2009 - NY TIMES - By Sam Dillon
Study Finds Instruction in Art Lags in 8th Grade

Music and art instruction in American eighth-grade classrooms has  
remained flat over the last decade, according to a new survey by the  
Department of Education, and one official involved in the survey  
called student achievement in those subjects “mediocre.”

The survey, released on Monday, was conducted as part of a nationwide  
test of music and arts achievement administered last year. As the  
first federal effort since 1997 to examine instruction and measure  
student achievement in music and the arts, the survey has added new  
evidence to the debate about whether American schools are cutting back  
on the subjects they teach to concentrate on improving students’ basic  
skills.

In the test, formally known as the National Assessment of Educational  
Progress in Arts, administrators at 260 public and private schools  
were asked how much time they devoted to art and music instruction,  
and 7,900 eighth-grade students were tested on art and music concepts,  
a small sample compared with other federal assessments. For example,  
in 2007, the department tested 700,000 students in reading and math,  
and 29,000 in history.

The small number of students tested, and the 11-year gap since the  
most recent federal arts test, limited the assessment’s usefulness for  
reaching conclusions about achievement trends, federal testing  
officials said.

But one indicator showed a clear decline in student exposure to the  
arts: 16 percent of students reported having gone with their class to  
an art museum, gallery or exhibit in the last year. That was down from  
22 percent in 1997.

Ellen Weiser, a classical pianist and former member of the Michigan  
State Board of Education who sits on the National Assessment Governing  
Board, which oversees the test, said that only about half of eighth  
graders who listened to a passage of George Gershwin’s classic  
“Rhapsody in Blue” were able to identify the solo instrument as a  
clarinet.

“Unfortunately,” Ms. Weiser said in a statement, the results “do not  
provide a good sense of the level of student achievement,” although  
some answers were revealing.

“For example, about half of eighth graders could identify a  
Renaissance painting,” she said. “A little more than half could  
identify a half note. While these results are mediocre, not dire, they  
are disturbing signs for this musician.”

Previous studies have contradicted one another. Some found that art,  
music, history and other classes were being taught less frequently as  
schools focused on reading and math, since the federal No Child Left  
Behind law holds schools accountable for test results in only those  
subjects. But a study by the Government Accountability Office reported  
in February that the time devoted to arts instruction had remained  
constant in recent years.

Stuart Kerachsky, acting commissioner of the National Center for  
Education Statistics at the Education Department, said budget  
considerations last year had limited the number of students tested as  
well as the questions posed, rendering it impossible to determine the  
percentage of students achieving at the advanced, proficient, basic  
and below basic levels, indicators used to report on reading and other  
national assessments.

But the results did allow federal officials to conclude that in music  
and art, white and Asian students scored higher, on average, than  
African-American and Hispanic students, girls outscored boys, and  
private schools outperformed public ones.

Patrice Walker Powell, acting chairwoman of the National Endowment for  
the Arts, said the findings reflected “evidence about issues of  
concern in arts education.”

“Why are we seeing lackluster levels of student achievement?” Ms.  
Powell asked.