Myran Parker-Brass

In 2009, the Boston Public Schools (BPS) committed to building and deepening arts education for all students K-12. They created the Arts Expansion Initiative (AEI). This commitment of the district, local funders and partners has resulted in:

• increased numbers of certified arts teachers in our schools;
• increased percentage of K-8 students receiving weekly arts instruction from 67% to 87%;
• an increase of high school students receiving any arts instruction from 24% to 56%;
• increased capacity for arts partners supporting arts education in schools.

We have made significant and steady progress in building back arts education as evidenced by the quality of our programs, the changing culture in our buildings, and the broad parent and community advocacy for arts education. So, as happens with all good work, we have “peeled back the onion” on our success, on the lessons learned and questions developed, and the next phase of our arts expansion is focused on building sequential pathways for our students to achieve mastery in an art form.

The questions we’re asking as we gather data and research to inform our discussions are:

• How are we defining mastery;
• How do we ensure appropriate weekly dosage/frequency of arts education is provided;
• How many/which arts disciplines should our schools offer;
• How do we deepen the role of schools and arts partners in this sequential pathway

No small issues here and we are approaching this phase, like all of our AEI work, with working groups and focus groups drilling down on each question, gathering survey data and using local and national research. We had not had a significant student voice represented in our data collection and we felt it was important for this phase to understand what our students are thinking, what do they currently do in the arts, what they want to do and what do they define as “arts”.

In Spring 2013, working with Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf of WolfBrown and Associates, we conducted a survey of over 1200 demographically representative BPS students. From this data we know that:

• 67% of students in grade 4 and 5 said they would like to receive “a lot” more arts instruction;
• 47% of students in grades 6-8 and 59% of students in grades 9-11 would like additional arts instruction.

Students want contemporary and culturally specific forms of the disciplines, they are interested in “popular” genres such as manga, cartooning, and graffiti, students want to learn to DJ. They are interested in spoken word, poetry, and rap, participating in dance teams, learning hip-hop, stepping, or Latin dances. We are using this information to inform our sequential instruction.

When asked why they wanted more arts learning our secondary students offered insightful reasons including:

Student’s Speak! The Arts Advantage From A Youth Perspective

• Wanting better arts skills
• Wanting new experiences; enjoying learning new things
• Learning a profession
• Making school more interesting

Their responses help us understand how much they value imaginative, expressive, and collaborative activities. Over a third of the students reported engaging in the arts in their own free time. We are focusing on how to deepen the connection between their in- and out-of school learning opportunities. The entire report, Student’s Speak! The Arts Advantage From A Youth Perspective is on our website, www.bpsarts.org.

The larger arts and arts education community in Boston is also engaged in the discussion on youth arts mastery. Funded by The Barr and Klarman Foundations in Boston, Dr. Wolf and her team of arts researchers have been investigating the pathways that Boston’s young people take to arts mastery. In December 2014, Ms. Wolf and her team presented their framework and key findings to date. They have also engaged in defining mastery and are proposing this broad definition:

Arts mastery can take many forms: artist, performer, playwright, director, curator, critic, set designer, teacher, mentor, parent advocate, arts advocate. Youth arts mastery, across disciplines, is more than craft and technique; it includes habits of mind, self-presentation, learning the business of being an artist or a performer, and learning to put your art to work in your community.

The research team also identified six issues, or opportunities, that Boston’s young people encounter as they pursue arts mastery. They include: 1) access to in-depth pathways; 2) access to safe creative spaces; 3) learning and working opportunities; 4) learning how to use the Boston as a campus for arts learning. (The full report “Youth Arts Mastery in Boston: Building Pathways for the Next Generation”, will be available in March 2015, for additional information contact Dennie Palmer Wolf at WolfBrown and Associates.)

This timely, local research reinforces much of our BPS data and is providing additional insights for our discussions and planning.

We don’t have it all figured out yet, we are still answering our questions and working to understand what sequential pathways to mastery can and should be in our district. We do, however, know that this is the next important piece in completing our goal for the AEI, ensuring that every BPS student, K-12, has access to quality, sequential arts education. I look forward to continuing to share our process and our plan.