Federal Intervention in Arts Education

Education is the responsibility of the states because it is not specifically identified as a function of the federal government. The Tenth Amendment specifies: “Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” It is from this clause, called the Reserved Power Clause, the authority of the states to establish and maintain public education is derived. The federal government, however, does intervene in education. The earliest federal educational legislation was the Northwest Ordinance of 1785, which specified that a section of each 36-square-mile township was to be used for education. The Northwest Ordinance set the stage for funding schools through land grants in the 1800s. Further federal aid to education was provided infrequently for such purposes as vocational and agricultural education programs and facilities, rehabilitation and training of war veterans, school lunch programs, and health service education. In the mid twentieth century, the weaknesses in of American education induced the federal government to become more deeply involved in it than ever before.

The Cold War Period

The perceived deficiencies of the United States educational system became particularly apparent because of the Cold War, and especially the early superiority of the Soviet Union that was demonstrated in 1957 with the successful launching of Sputnik I. Education became a national defense issue. Until 1953 the Federal Security Agency was responsible for administering the minor role that the federal government played in education. A new cabinet-level agency, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was created to administer the many education reform laws that the government was preparing to pass. The United States Office of Education (USOE), one of the three branches of the new department, established a new connection to American schools. With the creation of USOE, it became clear that the federal government was going to take on a more prominent role in education, and in the following years many Congressional acts were administered by USOE.

Laws and Projects

The National Advisory Committee on Education Act of 1954 established a committee charged with the responsibility of recommending areas of national concern that might be addressed by USOE. Music was identified as a "critical subject" of national concern and was thus eligible to receive support from the National Defense Education Act of 1958.

The Commission on National Goals, appointed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, issued a report called "National Goals in Education" in 1960. In 1961, John F. Kennedy established the White House Panel on Educational Research and Development as an advisory board to the USOE, the National Science Foundation, and his own science adviser to help improve American education. During Kennedy's administration the arts and humanities branch of USOE was instituted, but it seldom controlled substantial amounts of money.

The Cooperative Research Branch of the USOE distributed $10 million a year from 1956 to 1971 for 407 research projects. The National Science Foundation awarded $159 million in 1960, of which $34 million went to teacher improvement institutes that served 31,000 teachers. The Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963 provided grants and loans for new educational facilities, including electronic music studios. The National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities was created in 1965. The National Endowment for the Arts is a component of the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities, but it has provided little funding for music education.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 authorized more than $1.3 billion to be channeled into classrooms to achieve several education goals. The section most significant to music education was Title I, under which school districts received funds with which to establish programs to equalize educational opportunities for children of low-income families. Some of the programs sponsored in music included the Yale Seminar, the Juilliard Repertory Project, and the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Program (MMCP). The current re-authorization of ESEA is the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The International Education Act of 1966 provided grants to institutions of higher education to establish and operate centers for research and training in international studies. Under it, several colleges and universities founded institutes for comparative music education.

The Education Professions Development Act of 1967 amended and extended Title V of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The act had the effect of attracting top quality people capable of improving education during assignments in the profession. Through the Teacher Retraining Authorization of the EPDA the Interdisciplinary Model Programs in the Arts for Children and Teachers (IMPACT) was established in 1970. Four arts education associations, including MENC, established a plan of operation for IMPACT.

The National Alliance for Arts Education was established in 1973 by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the USOE. The Alliance was created in response to a congressional mandate that the Kennedy Center become a vehicle for strengthening the arts in education. The purposes of the Alliance are to give young people access to the Kennedy Center as performers and audience members, to make the center’s performances and services available to people all over the country, and to help the center become a vehicle for strengthening the arts in education at the national, state, and local levels.

The "Back to Basics" Period

The American public’s concern with educational deficiencies had returned by 1980. The National Commission on Excellence in Education issued A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. This publication listed numerous defects in the educational system, reporting on problems in curriculum, time in class, teaching, and subject matter content. A Nation at Risk, although it supported arts education, did not identify music and the other arts as part of the basic curriculum.

In 1994, the Goals 2000: Educate America Act was passed. This federal legislation recognized the arts as core subjects, “as important to education as English, mathematics, history, civics and government, geography, science, and foreign language.” The National Standards for Arts Education was created in line with this legislation. The music content standards are as follows:

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertory of music
2. Playing instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertory of music
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines
5. Reading and notating music
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music
7. Evaluating music and music performances
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress

The need for a national assessment of education became apparent in the early 1960s, when the education reform movement was well under way. In 1963 Dr. Francis Keppel, U.S. Commissioner of Education, initiated several conferences to explore ways of obtaining the needed information. The result was the formation of a committee called the Exploratory Committee on Assessing the Progress of Education (ECAPE) in 1964. ECAPE decided that ten areas of education would be covered initially--art, career and occupational development, citizenship, literature, mathematics, music reading, science, social studies, and writing. The committee in charge of the project was called the Committee on Assessing the Progress of Education (CAPE). CAPE began its work in 1969 under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation, but later in the same year, control was shifted to the Education Commission of the States. The U.S. Office of Education (USOE), now the U.S. Department of Education, provides funds and monitors the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The Goals of NAEP

1. to measure changes in the educational attainments of young Americans
2. to make available on a continuing basis comprehensive data on the educational attainments of young Americans
3. to utilize the capabilities of NAEP to conduct special interest "probes" into selected areas of educational attainment
4. to provide data, analysis, and reports understandable to, interpretable by, and responsive to, the needs or a variety of audiences
5. to encourage and facilitate interpretive studies of NAEP data, thereby generating implications useful to educational practitioners and decision makers
6. to facilitate the use of NAEP technology at state and local levels when appropriate
7. to continue to develop, test, and refine the technologies necessary for gathering and analyzing NAEP achievement data
8. to conduct an ongoing program of research and operational studies necessary for the resolution of problems and refinement of the NAEP model.

Methodology of NAEP

The first NAEP asked questions or respondents at four age levels; the second queried respondents at three age levels. Each question reflects a previously defined educational goal or objective. The exercises are administered to scientifically selected samples that take into account demographic factors--the size of the community and socioeconomic status of the respondents--as well as ethnic categories. Respondents from all parts of the country are included. Students are sampled at three age levels that represent educational milestones attained by most students: age 9, age 13, and age 17.

NAEP does not score or rank the individual respondents. It determines how groups at each age level perform on specific exercises and, within each level, how groups of individuals perform, taking into consideration demographic and sociological variables. Most exercises exercises are multiple-choice questions; there are also open-ended exercises that require responses from a few words to a long essay. NAEP exercises are administered either to individuals or to small groups (not larger than twelve) by specially trained personnel.

NAEP in Music

Prior to constructing assessment instruments for each subject area, NAEP had to specify its objectives. Basic guidelines were set up for the development of objectives:

1. objectives must be acceptable to scholars in the discipline of each locale, most educators in that locale, and to thoughtful lay citizens
2. objectives must be stated in behavioral terms

The broad categories of objectives for the first assessment were as follows:

1. Perform a piece of music
2. Read standard musical notation
3. Listen to music with understanding
4. Be knowledgeable about some musical instruments, some of the terminology of music, methods of performance, some of the standard literature of music, and some aspects of the history of music
5. Know about the musical resources of the community and seek musical experiences by performing music
6. Make judgments about music, and value the personal worth of music

The objectives of the first assessment were revised for the 1978-79 assessment and were as follows:

1. Value music as an important realm of human experience
2. Perform music
3. Create music
4. Identify the elements and expressive controls of music
5. Identify and classify music historically and culturally

Recent Arts Assessments

In 1997, NAEP administered an arts assessment to approximately 6480 students at grade 8. The national sample accessed 268 schools. The assessment measured students' knowledge and skills in music, theatre, and visual arts. In 2008, the assessment was again administered to students at grade 8. The 2008 assessment only measured skills in music and the visual arts.

External links

NAEP Arts 1

References

Mark, M.L. (1999). Music education since mid-century: The role of the Music Educators National Conference. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 33(3), 79-92.

Mark, M.L. (1989). Contemporary Music Education. New York: Schirmer Books.

Mark, M.L. and Gary, C.L. (1999). A History of American Music Education. Reston: The National Association for Music Education.