AGENDA JULY 3, 2012 * ROOM 147B CC * LUNCH BREAK MEETING

SPECIAL  NOTE:  ALL ITEMS WILL BE BRIEFLY DISCUSSED.  BUSINESS WILL  BE DONE ON BOLDED ITEMS
I.     Call to order, short introductions, texting update
II.    Adoption of Agenda
III.   Adoption of Minutes

IV.   NBI # 1 FOLLOW UP

A.  Text of speeches/photos of speakers
B.   Caucus Thanks
C.   Mic Yielder Thanks

Arts Advocacy Resource Guide Overwhelmingly Adopted

NEW BUSINESS ITEM 1
Adopted As Modified

The NEA will advocate for arts education through these means:

Acting as a partner with fine arts education organizations, including the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA); the National Association for Music Education (NAfME); the National Art Education Association (NAEA); the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) and Americans for the Arts to collect and disseminate existing arts advocacy tools to create an electronic “NEA Arts Advocacy Resource Guide”.

Devoting portions of NEA TODAY to arts education and promoting the electronic “Arts Advocacy Resource Guide” in the NEA TODAY, on the NEA website and in social media.

The electronic “NEA Arts Advocacy Resource Guide” will address the importance of the arts in a student’s comprehensive education and the need for the arts to be represented in curriculum reform, highlight models of effective advocacy campaigns and provide specific tools for students, arts educators and supportive patrons to use as they advocate for arts education.

COST IMPLICATIONS

This NBI can be accomplished at an additional cost of $13,670.

FULL ONLINE COVERAGE

Full coverage of new business items, amendments, resolutions and other items considered during the 2012 Representative Assembly.

• Amendments
• Legislative Amendments
• New Business Items
• Resolutions
• Election of NEA Officers
• Proposed Amendment to the Policy Statement on Teacher Evaluation and Accountability

STEAM vs. STEM New Business Item

NEW BUSINESS ITEM 36

The NEA will support efforts to integrate the fine arts into the educational movement known as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); assist in reframing the related discussion to: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM); use existing means of communication to advocate for the importance of integrating arts education into the STEM movement, and creating a stronger national awareness of STEAM's importance as they advocate for arts education.

NEA FAC Introduces RA's New Business Item #1: Creating Partnerships with Education Arts Organizations & Creating the Arts Advocacy Resource Guide

Due to the wonderful work of a dedicated caucus, the NEA FAC will speak to its modification of a new business item intended to implement some of the recommendations of the NEA Fine Arts Task Force from 2010-2011.  The cost impact is .0045 cents per NEA member.  That's less than one-half of one-hundreth on once cent.

Let's hope that the budget cruch keeps doesn't blind our delegates into believing that we need not invest in anything because of a financial crisis.  The arts are encountering their own crisis nationally and we need to share tools to protect these vital program's for our nation's students.

THE RA TODAY FOR 7/2/2012 READS

NEW BUSINESS ITEM 1

The NEA will advocate for arts education through these means:

• Acting as a partner with fine arts education organizations, including the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA); the National Association for Music Educate (NAfME); the National Art Education Association (NAEA); the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) and Americans for the Arts to collect and disseminate existing arts advocacy tools to create an electronic "NEA Arts Advocacy Resource Guide".

Proposed New Business Items

2012 NEA REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY NEW BUSINESS ITEM

Work to highlight student performances during NEA events.

Develop workshops on arts education to be conducted at the NEA Regional Conferences.

Devote portions of NEA’s TODAY to the arts;

Act as a partner with fine arts organizations to disseminate existing arts advocacy information and develop additional resources that create the “NEA Arts Advocacy Toolkit.”  The NEA Arts Advocacy Guide will be posted on the NEA website.

The NEA Arts Resource Guide will contain pieces that address the importance of the arts in a student’s comprehensive education, the need for the arts to be represented in curriculum reform, highlight models of effective advocacy campaigns and provide specific tools for students, arts educators and supportive patrons to use as they advocate for students.

Promote the Arts Advocacy Resource Guide in the NEA Communique, at NEA events, on the website and in social media.

Rationale:  It is our responsibility to make sure that the arts be protected in these trying times.  Educators and community members need guidance and support to keep arts programs as a vital part of a student’s comprehensive education.

NEA Fine Arts Caucus members have researched these sites and will gladly do the legwork to assist NEA Communications in accomplishing this.

NBI 42--Fine Arts Advocacy--Narrowly Defeated

We will be reintroducing this next summer.

Fine Arts Advocacy Campaign & Advocacy Toolkit

Move that the NEA President designate a group of NEA members representing the Fine Arts disciplines of music, drama/theatrical arts, visual/media arts, dance, at the elementary, middle school and secondary level to create a Fine Arts Advocacy Task Force to develop a year-long “Arts Advocacy Campaign and Toolkit” to promote arts education and arts programs in public schools and foster collaboration between arts educators and classroom teachers.  Implement the unimplemented recommendations of the 2010-2011 NEA Fine Arts Task Force’s recommendations including:

Arts Education Advocacy Groups--NEA Fine Arts Task Force

Below is a list of organizations that actively participate in AEP's Forums.
(**Indicates NEA’s current partners)

Afterschool Alliance: The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of afterschool programs and advocating for quality, affordable programs for all children. Alliance vision of ensuring that all children have access to afterschool programs by 2010.

Calendar of National Art Events/Touchpoints

September 12-18, 2010 – National Arts in Education Week was created by resolution of the U.S. House of Representatives in July. And this opportunity for advocacy is heightened by the fact that the week coincides with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's "Courage in the Classroom" Back to School tour, which is broadly themed around education as a civil right. (retrieved from MENC’s site)

Current NEA Programs, Initiatives and Resources for the Task Force

Please find listed current NEA Programs and Initiatives that the Task Force could possibly "partner" with to elevate Arts Advocacy.

• NEA’s Priority Schools Strategic Goal and Campaign – Advocacy Campaign
• NEA’s Advocacy Core Service and Campaigns and Elections Department – Advocacy Campaign Activities
• NEA’s Student Learning Core Service – Achievement Gaps Advocacy
• NEA’s Partnership Core Service – Minority Community Outreach Partnership Advocacy Activities
• NEA Academy – Promotional Purposes
• NEA’s 21st Century Skills Initiative – Advocacy Campaign Activities
• NEA’s ESEA Campaign – Advocacy Campaign Activities Development
• NEA’s Interactive Media Department – Advertising in NEA Publication/Website
• NEA Research Department – Research Support
• NEA’s Family School Community and Public Engagement Project – Advocacy Campaign Activities
• NEA’s Quality School Programs and Resources – Advocacy Campaign Activities

New Business Item #52, An Analysis from the NEA Fine Arts Task Force

NBI 52

NEA, through UniServ and local presidents and state and national professional fine arts education associations, will contact and conduct an e-survey of its fine arts teachers. The purpose of this e-survey will be to identify changes in staffing, work conditions, and budgetary considerations for fine arts programs in districts over the past three years. NEA will report the results of the e-survey through standard means available to the NEA.

In response to NBI 52, an e-survey was sent to 6,000 teachers identified as fine arts teachers. The survey was open for 10 days and 3 reminders were sent. The final number of eligible completes was 382. Of the eligible completed surveys 206 identified themselves as music teachers and 168 identified themselves as arts teachers, while 8 indicated some other form of fine arts. The demographics of the respondents were 80% female and 20% male; 56% were over the age of 45; 87% were Caucasian; median number years of teaching was 19.6; 54% taught in elementary schools, 27% taught in middle or junior high schools; and 19% in high schools; 44% of the respondents hold Bachelor’s Degrees, 53% hold a Master’s Degree or higher, and 3% have some other form of education.

Respondents noted that there has been a decrease in staffing and funding for fine arts education over the past three years. 36% reported a drop in staffing in their district over the past three years, while a majority reported that the level of staffing has remained the same. While the amount of staffing has remained fairly constant, the amount of funding for the fine arts programs in schools has dropped. The area that has seen the most noticeable decrease has been in after-school programs. Almost all (93%) of fine arts teachers reported that they either needed to start or continue fundraising programs in order to help offset the costs of additional programs.

Despite the decrease in staffing and funding, the respondents are, overall, satisfied with their working conditions. Eighty-one percent (81%) of respondents said that they will remain a teacher until they are either eligible for retirement or are forced to retire. A majority (63%) of teachers say that if they could do it over again, they would still become a teacher. Almost all teachers (95%) believe that they are making a difference in their students’ lives.

While it seems there is high morale for the teaching aspect of their jobs, when it comes to the administration, there is some animosity. Seventy-two percent (72%) of respondents feel that there is no feeling of mutual respects between teachers and administrators in their school; while 68% feel that administrators don’t support teachers when they are having problems with their teaching. Teachers would like to see more formal recognition or receive the recognition that they deserve with 87% responding that there is little to no formal recognition for a job well done or that they receive the recognition that they deserve.
The following table shows the number of members identified as active professionals and whose subject code was identified as Art (ARTS), Music (MUSI) or Band/Orchestra (BDOR) in the NEA Interactive Membership System listed by state association for the 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011 school years.

An excerpt of “Cultural Responsiveness, Racial Identity, and Academic Success”, Mary Stone Hanley and George W. Noblit (pgs. 65-71)

Although the larger study focused primarily on African Americans the prevailing themes have broader implications. Specifically in the aforementioned excerpts the study demonstrates the power the arts have to frame cultural and self-identity and how this ultimately leads to academic achievement. The findings are based on the belief that America’s urban schools must employ a child’s culture so that the child might be motivated to learn in the face of significant adversity (i.e. conditions surrounding Priority Schools).

The Transformative Power of Arts in Closing the Achievement Gap

“The Transformative Power of the Arts in Closing the Achievement Gap” by Fred Dobb (as part of the California County Superintendents Educational Service Association Arts Initiative) http://www.ccsesaarts.org/CCSESA_FILES//The%20Transformative%20Power%20of%20the%20Arts%20in%20Closing%20the%20Achievement%20Gap(2).pdf
This study focused on the transformative power of the visual and performing arts to spark and maintain student engagement and academic achievement, and promote 21st century success (21st century skills) in and out of school. The study provides evidence that the power of the arts is most striking in the lives of youth who have been marginalized in society because of poverty, crime, immigrant status, special education placement, limited English skills, and racial discrimination (conditions mostly associated with Priority Schools), and in schools by traditional curriculum and instructional practices, narrowly focused standardized assessments (perhaps an argument in support of ESEA reauthorization), and institutional biases.

Access to Arts Education.

General Accountability Office, February 2009. The study researched the difference in arts education between school years 2004-2005 and 2006-2007
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09286.pdf

About 90% of teachers reported no difference in the amount of instruction time for arts education between the 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 school years. There was no reporting difference based on a range of school characteristics. The 90% of teachers reporting no difference in the amount of instruction time for arts education is different than the 30% of school officials reporting that instruction time for arts education in elementary schools has decreased since NCLB was enacted.

No Child Left Behind: A Study of Its Impact on Arts Education

Data collected at the end of 2008. Sponsored by the National Art Education Foundation.
http://www.arteducators.org/research/NCLB_Proj_Report_2-10.pdf

This study focused on the visual arts and did not include music educators.

Effective Advocacy: Guidelines for the NEA Fine Arts Task Force

1. Conducting Advocacy Research
A. Gather initial information about a social problem or issue. This includes beginning research to understand the problem. (A Declining Focus on the Arts in our schools)

B. Define the problem. Three step process: 1) Become aware of the issue, 2) Refine the problem within the small group/organizational context, 3) Determine problem priorities.

2. Design the Advocacy Campaign

A. Recognizing the campaign’s outlet (How will the campaign be disseminated?)—Via NEA Today and affiliates

B. Determining the systemic changes (i.e., new or modified programs, policies, and practices) the group hopes to bring about. [Include the specific changes (e.g., arts-infused curriculums) sought by the Advocacy Campaign].

C. The action steps required (Who will do what by when to bring about the specific changes to be sought)

3. Identify Resources and Assets

A. The number and kind of people who are available and committed (Identifying partners; groups or individuals w/ a shared vision)

B. The financial resources available

C. The communication technologies, facilities, and other material resources available

D. The information and ideas that could be helpful

E. Other assets that can be used to support the effort

4. Indicate Potential Allies and Opponents

A. Identify likely allies and how they will support the effort

B. Identify likely opponents and how they might resist or oppose the effort
(1) State the likely purposes of the opposition
(2) Outline tactics that may be used by the opposition
(3) Indicate how the opposition can be countered

5. Identify Targets and Agents of Change

A. Describe the targets of change in light of anticipated allies and opponents (i.e., those whose behavior should change). Indicate how conditions should be changed to affect their behavior.

B. Describe agents of change (i.e., those who can contribute). Indicate how conditions should be changed to support their engagement in the effort.

6. State the Strategies and Tactics of the Campaign

A. Identify those strategies that will be used. Based on the particular situation

B. State the specific strategic goals and tactics that will be used.

C. Review the effectiveness of the planned strategies/tactics
(1) Are available resources and allies being optimized (i.e., Does it take advantage of the group's strengths? Engage its allies? Deter opponents?)
(2) Is the campaign flexible (i.e., Does it permit adjustments with changing situations)
(3) Is it likely to work (i.e., Does it bring about the desired effect with the issue and with opponents?)

7. Describe the evaluation of the Advocacy Campaign

A. Clearly state what indicators will signify "success" (e.g., in bringing about systemic changes in school curriculums).

B. Describe how measures of success can be obtained (e.g., commissioning new studies/research and comparing with existing data).

C. Indicate how the initiative will make sense of the results (e.g., how data will be analyzed; how those affected will be involved in interpreting the information).

D. Describe how the information will be used to improve the effort (e.g., feedback will be provided to leadership and membership)

8. Implement the Advocacy Campaign!

NEA Fine Arts Task Force--Proposed NEA Fine Arts Task Force Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 Conference Call 5:00-6:00 Eastern Standard Time

Committee Members: Princess Moss, Co-Chair; Greg Johnson, Co-Chair; Andrew Corbin, Committee Member (NC);Tom McLaughlin, Committee Member (IA); Jennifer Roberts, Committee Member (SD).

Staff Liaisons: Derrick Johnson, NEA Governance & Policy, Christopher Thomas, NEA Governance & Policy

AGENDA

I. Call to Order

II. Welcome/ Introductions

III. Reviewing the NBI charge
     a) Specifying President Van Roekel’s deadline
     b) Specifying the Cost
     c) Clarifying the scope of the charge

IV. Data review and discussion (see below for these studies)
     a) Results of E-Survey (NBI 52)
     b) Other Studies
           i) No Child Left Behind: A Study of Its Impact on Arts
                       Education by F. Robert Sabol
           ii) Access to Arts Education by General Accountability
                        Office, February 2009
           iii) The Transformative Power of Arts in Closing the
                        Achievement Gap by Fred Dobb
           iv) Cultural Responsiveness, Racial Identity, and
                        Academic Success by Mary Stone Hanley and
                        George W. Noblit (pgs. 65-71)

V. Discussion
     a) Implementation plan
     b) Implementation timeline
     c) Evaluation of implementation

VI. Next Steps

Update on 2009 NBI #36--Discipline Specific Arts Certification

A formal request has been made by Tom McLaughlin, NEA FAC Chair to have the memorandum sent to us electronically.  We have also requested research finding, guidance for states on licensure endorsements, and recommendations for next steps.  Once received this information will be posted to our listserv for members to use in their state work. NEA FAC Board Member Pam Gibberman's comments are included at the bottom of this post.

NEW BUSINESS ITEM 36--2009 NEA RA
Discipline-Specific Arts Certification NEA will work with state affiliates to recognize and advocator for discipline specific arts certification/licensure (i.e. dance, drama/theatre, music and visual arts).

Completed

NEA Teacher Quality (TQ) reviewed the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) database for research, resources and information about discipline-specific arts certification/licensure requirements. This information was used to develop a memorandum from NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, NEA Executive Director John Wilson, and NEA Director of TQ Segun Eubanks to state association presidents, executive directors, and instruction and professional development contacts regarding discipline-specific arts certification. The memorandum includes research findings, guidance for states on licensure endorsements, and recommendations for next steps. The memorandum
was disseminated to affiliates in the spring of 2010.

COMMENTS BY PAM GIBBERMAN, CTA/UTLA
FINE ARTS CAUCUS EXECUTIVE BOARD

President Van Roekel, fellow delegates, I am speaking as a proud member of UTLA/CTA/NEA and the NEA Fine Arts Caucus. I am here asking for your help and support. We are not seeking a federal mandate. This is a matter of equity. Each art form has it’s own body of knowledge and skills that must be acquired by its practitioners and which must be mastered by teachers in order to instruct students. Why should music be recognized as a discrete subject, but not dance? Are visual arts more important than theatre arts?
In Los Angeles Unified School District last year there were 59 teachers hired to teach dance. 59 hired to teach theatre, and 59 hired to teach visual arts in elementary schools because of their solid background, training and experience in their respective disciplines. Veteran dance teachers were force to take PE courses several years ago in order to be deemed “highly qualified” according to the “so called’ No Child Left Behind Act.

The newest dance teachers were Reduced-In-Force had not yet done so. The theatre teachers who were RIF’d did not have the credentials to teach English but were forced to do so! Why are these art forms not worthy of recognition in and of themselves?

Please NEA help make it possible for the students of every state to receive instruction in each art discipline by teachers who are certified/licensed in dance, drama/theatre, music or the visual arts.

NBI 86--Adopted at the 2010 NEA RA

SPEECHES FROM Tom McLaughlin & John Kovalchik are included in this post.  Speeches from other speakers are pending arrival of those written scripts.

Italicized portions of this script were cut as we were alloted only 3 minutes.

Were not spoken as time ran out.

Good afternoon President Van Roekel my name is Tom McLaughlin, newly elected chair of the NEA Fine Arts Caucus and a delegate from Iowa speaking for the delegation.  I move NBI 86A as modified.   You have the new language and according to NEA management the cost has been drastically changed from $43,500.00 to $2,490.00.

At last year’s RA, the Fine Arts caucus passed a new business item that called for an e-survey to be done by NEA Research studying “the changes in staffing, work conditions, and budgetary considerations for fine arts programs in the US over the last three years.

Our NBI also asked that this information be published so that arts educators and advocates can study what we already anecdotally know about arts education in the US—in the current economic climate, arts programs are being decimated, teaching positions are disproportionally disappearing and student opportunities are being severely limited or totally eliminated.

Last year's e-survey results came to the Fine Arts Caucus at this RA just a few days ago.  The results, however, were not published for our members and colleagues to use in designing strategies and interventions to save arts programs in our schools. And the survey was done before the drastic educational job cuts from this spring.

Our students make it clear that they want and value arts education more than many of our school districts do. In a recent Scholastic poll asking students whether schools should be required to offer the arts in schools: 93% of the elementary respondants--nearly 20,000 of them said YES. But anecdotally we have heard about an English colleague who got a new classroom (an empty band room) and where are the instruments? Gathering dust in locked closets not in the hands of our children. We have heard about the total elimination of all art and music programs in a slash a burn manner. Now is the time for advocacy. The Goals 2000: Educate America Act and ESEA call the arts an essential part of the core curriculum.

Just a few weeks ago the front page of the Des Moines Register let us know that nearly 1/3 of the teaching jobs that were being cut were art and music teachers. Think about the impact of that to teachers in K-5 situations who many times rely on specials for spotty bits of planning time. Think about the members that we are losing, the dues dollars that are disappearing for our state and our nationa organization. But, most importantly, think about what we are stealing from our students. And when we steal from this from them, what do we lose?

Here’s some of what we lose:
Kids who have an arts education for more than three hours a week are four times more likely to win an award for academic achievement. They are three times more likely to be elected to class office. They are four times more likely to participate in a math or science fair. The are three times more likely to win an award for attendance and four times more likely to win an award for writing. Involvement in the arts increases academic success in all socio-economic groups.

The arts also stimulates and develops the imagination and critical thinking, and refines cognitive and creative skills.  Arts education has a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven to help level the "learning field" across socio-economic boundaries.


Strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement and school success.
Studying the arts develops a sense of craftsmanship, quality task performance, and goal-setting—skills needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond.


Arts education programs teach children life skills such as developing an informed perception; articulating a vision; learning to solve problems and make decisions; building self-confidence and self-discipline; developing the ability to imagine what might be; and accepting responsibility to complete tasks from start to finish.

They also nurtures important values, including team-building skills; respecting alternative viewpoints.
Arts education is also vital to the success of our nation's economy.  The US Department of labor says that by 2018 there will 2 million jobs that require a background in the arts. It’s our economy. Every year the non profit arts community generates 166.2 billion dollars.


Ninety four percent of adults surveyed believe in the value of arts education but only less than 30% of our elementary students have more than 3 or 4 times a week. 40% of elementary schools don’t even have an art teacher.


This year the Fine Arts Caucus is asking for our colleagues to join us again in creating an e-Fine Arts Task Force that is charged to design--with the NEA staff liaison—an arts advocacy program to be communicated to our members in the NEA Today and other appropriate e-publications. External advocacy tools that can be shared with state and local leaders are a necessary result of this task force. The Fine Arts Caucus, its officers and steering committee are interested in being part of this task force and this discussion. We need our colleagues to help us advocate for the arts.

John Adams once said, “I must study politics and war, that my children may study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, (dance and drama).”

Please join us in allowing members of the Fine Arts Caucus and others in creating an e-Fine Arts Task Force to save arts programs in our nations schools for our nations children.

JOHN KOVALCHIK--MUSIC EDUCATOR FROM PENNSYLVANIA

I am John Kovalchik from Pennsylvania, speaking in favor of New Business Item #86.

The fine arts caucus believes this item to be a relatively inexpensive way to draw attention to the parts of a well-rounded education that were left behind after the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act formerly known as “No Child Left Behind”. I think the fine arts might have been left behind because there are no standardized tests for them. This NBI will also complete what was started by last year’s NBI #52 that requested that a survey be taken to assess the condition of arts education. A survey was taken, but not yet published.

The fine arts caucus is turning hope into action with the help of NEA by establishing a permanent liaison between the NEA executive board and the fine arts caucus. NBI #86 will help our caucus to work more efficiently. This item also will help us to fight for a segment of our association that is suffering an inordinate number of cuts in program and staff.

We ask your help and support for reminding legislators and the public that a student’s education is more than just reading, science and math, as at least one legislator in Pennsylvania would have you believe. State Senator Jeff Picola’s proposed changes to Pennsylvania’s Educational Empowerment Act would force any school to limit their curricula to those three subjects, reading, science and math.

In April Sec. of Education Arne Duncan spoke at an Arts Education National forum and stated, “Now, as we move forward with reauthorizing the ESEA Act, is the time to rethink and strengthen arts education”. Please help us put these words into action. Please support new business item 86 and prove that a child is more than a test score.

Thank you.

NEA Fine Arts e-Survey Results from the 2009 RA

NBI 52:NEA, through UniServ and local presidents and state and national professional fine arts education associations, will contact and conduct an e-survey of its fine arts teachers. The purpose of this e-survey will be to identify changes in staffing, work conditions, and budgetary considerations for fine arts programs in districts over the past three years. NEA will report the results of the e-survey through standard means available to the NEA.

In April 2010 an e-survey using Survey Monkey was sent to 6,000 teachers identified as fine arts teachers. The expected response rate was 10%. The survey was open for 10 days and 3 reminders were sent. The final number of eligible completes was 382. Of the eligible completed surveys 206 identified themselves as music teachers and 168 identified themselves as arts teachers, while 8 indicated some other form of fine arts. The demographics of the respondents were 80% female and 20% male; 56% were over the age of 45; 87% were Caucasian; median number years of teaching was 19.6; 54% taught in elementary schools, 27% taught in middle or junior high schools; and 19% in high schools; 44% of the respondents hold Bachelor’s Degrees, 53% hold a Master’s Degree or higher, and 3% have some other form of education.
Respondents noted that there has been a decrease in staffing and funding for fine arts education over the past three years. 36% reported a drop in staffing in their district over the past three years, while 72% reported that the level of staffing has remained the same. While the amount of staffing has remained fairly constant, the amount of funding for the fine arts programs in schools has dropped. The area that has seen the most noticeable decrease has been in after school programs. Almost all (93%) of fine arts teachers reported that they either needed to start or continue fundraising programs in order to help offset the costs of additional programs.
Despite the decrease in staffing and funding, the respondents are, overall, satisfied with their working conditions. 81% of respondents said that they will remain a teacher until they are either eligible for retirement or are forced to retire. A majority (63%) of teachers say that if they could do it over again, they would still become a teacher. Almost all teachers (95%) believe that they are making a difference in their students’ lives.
While it seems there is high morale for the teaching aspect, when it comes to the administration, there is some animosity. 72% of respondents feel that there is no feeling of mutual respects between teachers and administrators in their school; 68% feel that administrators don’t support teachers when they are having problems with their teaching. Teachers would like to see more formal recognition or receive the recognition that they deserve with 87% responding that there is little to no formal recognition for a job well done or that they receive the recognition that they deserve.