Amber Harper Recognized as Illinois Art Education Association Administrator of the Year!

Amber Harper, IAAE board member and superintendent of Leepertown School District, was recognized November 7 at at awards ceremony at the Illinois Art Education Association conference in Lisle. Her acceptance speech can be read here.

Neuqua Valley High School Recognized by Kennedy Center!

Congratulations to the Neuqua Valley Fine Arts Department who were recently chosen as one of five John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts National Schools of Distinction in Arts Education award winners for the 2008-2009 school year. The award recognizes schools that have made the arts an essential part of their students’ education.  Each school will receive a monetary award to support their arts education program. NVHS was the only public high school in the nation to be recognized this year, and was nominated by the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education. The full press release has more information on all the honored schools.

Leepertown Schools part of "On Location: Spotlight on Your Community program"

On Location: Spotlight On Your Community brings students the opportunity to tell the story of the arts in their community—and share that story with the rest of the world through their own documentaries shared through the Web site. Ten schools from around the country will participate in this years’ program. A Thomas Built bus, part of the Daimler family of transportation, outfitted as a "media studio on wheels," will visit each school for three weeks. Leepertown will be the 5th stop on the tour from March 29 – April 14. News article here.

Troubled Teens Explore Their Artistic Side

This article from Edutopia examines a San Francisco program for juvenile offenders that fosters creativity, literacy, and freedom of expression through hip-hop. More details here.

Six practical reasons arts education is more than a luxury

A recent conference on “Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts and the Brain, ” co-hosted by Johns Hopkins University and the Dana Foundation, brought together researchers looking at educational implications of brain research on the arts and cognition. Daniel Willingham explored 6 reasons the arts are more than a luxury. More details here.

NEA and NEH Chairs Named

On August 7 the U.S. Senate confirmed Broadway producer Rocco Landesman to serve as the next National Endowment for the Arts chair and former Congressman Jim Leach to serve as National Endowment for the Humanities chair. The Americans for the Arts site has full information on arts news.

NAEP Results Released

On June 15, for the first time in 11 years, the federal government released a national report card on achievement in the arts among 8th graders.  This long-awaited report finds that since 1997, our nation's students have not made significant progress in developing their skills and knowledge in the arts. Americans for the Arts reports that a nationally representative sample of over 7,900 eighth grade students from public and private schools participated in the NAEP Arts Assessment in 2008. Students were measured on their ability to create and respond to the visual arts; whereas, the study scaled back on music questions and only measured a student's ability to respond and identify music.  Unfortunately, theatre and dance skills were not assessed at all due to budgetary and data collection constraints, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The full report is available at the NAEP website.

The Arts and the Economic Recovery

Read this article by Americans for the Arts on their impact on the economic recovery.

Arts Education Touted as Key to U.S. Innovation Agenda

A majority of U.S. voters agree that building students’ imaginations to equip young people with the ability to innovate is as important as teaching them the academic basics, according to a poll commissioned by an advocacy coalition for education in the arts. Click here for the article and here for the poll (in .pdf format)