Administration
Developing a District Arts Education Plan Dennis H. Argul NJMEA Administration Chair dennisargul[at]gmail.com
On Friday, February 4, 2022, Dr. Laura Bassett, Supervisor of Arts Education, Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District, presented to the NJMAA membership on the importance of developing a district arts education plan. Her presentation included a discussion of the NJ Department of Ed Arts Education Survey of 2021, district arts program goals, the process of developing an arts education plan, using the data collected in the plan development, surveying the key constituents of the district, providing resources, strategies, and recommendations for next steps, and finally, sharing the benefits of the process in her district. What follows is an interview I held with Dr. Bassett on Tuesday, 3/8/22, as a follow up to her presentation and to possibly dig deeper in some areas.
members of my team. This was not something I did alone. This was a large committee that included the music teachers, teachers of other subjects, and additional administrators. So, part of this was a reaffirmation of ideas that were already out there. Things that come up at department meetings or are discussed on a yearly basis. This process helped us support that, and in some cases helped us look at it a little bit differently than what we initially thought. There were some new ideas and discoveries. An example would be looking at the demographics of a program or a group and seeing the story in that data. It was also interesting to get feedback from the stakeholders across the community. Hearing from students was useful information. How often do you get to have ‘big picture’ feedback from students? It made us go from saying ‘we think this is what’s happening’ to ‘our students are telling us this is what’s happening.’ We asked students to give feedback on their music classes and programs, tell us what they participate in and why (or why not), and tell us what they find most engaging. We also asked students what classes or opportunities they would be interested in that we don’t currently offer. A really powerful piece of this was asking our elementary students if the music they learn about in school includes music from their culture or music in the language they speak at home. The information we found here was a real driver to the discussions and work we did and are continuing to do. We spent a great deal of time finding and analyzing data that would help us in this work - from the qualitative survey data to quantitative student information. Districts analyze data all the time, but sometimes that practice can seem disconnected from what we are doing in the arts. I would argue that they never really are disconnected, but it can feel like that if the conversations are not built in a way that allows arts educators to be a part of that conversation. This process allowed my team to look at data that districts usually look at - like student performance and student demographic information - but then we were able to disaggregate it and look at the students in our programs to find out who we have but also, and probably more importantly, who we don’t have. The data analysis helped to tell the story of our programs in our district. I also think it was helpful for the teachers to see the relationship in the data as well. Our findings during this analysis continue to drive our discussions and planning.
DA: What is the importance of developing a district arts education plan? Dr. B: The NJ Department of Ed Arts Education Survey asks districts to indicate whether or not there is a “written arts education plan.” This question was certainly the impetus within the group to be able to support administrators in terms of what a process like this can look like, if it is something they hadn’t done before. Think about our programs and the responsibility we have as supervisors. We are managing the day to day, but also always thinking about the big picture and long term goals of a program and how it serves the students in our district. Essentially, this was an example of a process or a framework that can be used to think through what you want to do, why you want to do it, and what it would look like to get there. For me personally, processes like this help me to find the path towards enacting a plan or vision. When you have something concrete, with buy-in from your team, stakeholder input, and a clear set of steps to take to move forward, then even when there are unexpected changes - like a pandemic! - or transitions, the plan can remain in place as a guide. DA: Did this work re-focus any of the work you were doing in your district, or did it help solidify the work you were already doing and tell you that you were on the right track? Dr. B: I think a little bit of both. There were parts of this process that helped reaffirm ideas that I already had from observation and anecdotal evidence, mostly from talking to and learning from TEMPO
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MAY 2022
