Yesterday, the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Arts and Special Projects shared the attached memo with the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable regarding the continuation of remote learning services.
As it relates to our community’s ongoing advocacy work, the memo states:
“…Arts services that are provided remotely in collaboration and in support of schools’ remote teaching plans, and fulfill mandated services and/or New York State graduation requirements can continue to be offered.
DOE managers will ensure that invoices for services rendered to schools and central offices prior to April 1st, as well as any services which meet the above criteria offered after April 1st, will be paid accordingly.”
For questions about Arts Partnership Grants, please reach out to Audrey Cox, Director of Arts Partnerships at ACox16@schools.nyc.gov. For any other questions, please reach out to ArtsAndSpecialProjects@schools.nyc.gov.
Our Suggestions
Based on our understanding of this memo, the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable offers the following suggestions:
- Review your Purchase Order(s). How can your organization provide contract deliverables remotely? How do these activities and objectives align with city/state arts learning standards and/or standards in other academic subjects?
- Be prepared to justify why your program(s) fulfill mandated services. Highlightrequiredarts instruction hours, graduation requirements, arts support for student sub-populations (i.e. students with disabilities, ENL students) and arts education’s impact on student learning, health, and wellbeing. **See helpful research links below.
- Advocate directly to the school principal with these points clearly laid out (and ‘CC partnering educators, arts liaison, and other support staff). Give them what they need to make the case for your services. Be clear on PO deliverables in digital space, provide program rationale, and attach the memo from OASP.
It is our understanding that it will ultimately be up to each individual principal to justify and advocate for the continuation of arts vendor services. Given the current uncertainty about the future landscape of in-person education, we hope you can use these suggestions as a way to continue building relationships that will carry into the next school year.
Research / Policy
We hope you can use the below policies and studies as a jumping off point to advocate for your programs now and in the future.
- ******Required Arts Instruction******
- Arts & Student Sub-Populations
- Worlds together… words apart: An assessment of the effectiveness of arts-based curriculum for second language learners (AEP)
- Increasing the school engagement and oral language skills of ELLs through arts integration in the primary grades (AEP)
- The Use of Music to Enhance Reading Skills of Second Grade Students and Students With Reading Disabilities (AEP)
- The effects of creative drama on the social and oral language skills of children with learning disabilities. (AEP)
- Students with Disabilities and the Core Arts Standards (VSA)
- The Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education: Exemplary Programs and Approaches (VSA)
- Arts & Student Health/Wellbeing
- The Arts in Early Childhood: Social and Emotional Benefits of Arts Participation (NEA)
- Culture’s Contribution to Social Wellbeing & Neighborhood Vitality (UPENN)
- New Study Shows How Arts and Culture Improve Health, Safety and Well-being in
New York City’s Less Prosperous Neighborhoods (UPENN via NYCT) - Investigating Causal Effects of Arts Education Experiences (Houston’s Arts Access Initiative)
- Arts & Student Learning
- New Opportunities for Interest-Driven Arts Learning in a Digital Age (Wallace Foundation)
- Preparing for Learning, Work and Life Through STEAM Education (ECS)
- Beyond the Core: Advancing student success through the arts (ECS)
- Preparing Students for the Next America (Arts Education Partnership)
- Review of Evidence: Arts Education Research through the Lens of the Every Student Succeeds Act (Wallace Foundation)
Our Next Steps
The NYC Arts in Education Roundtable would like to thank our community members who helped advocate for these written assurances from the NYC Department of Education. It will be a long road ahead, and there is more work to be done. The Roundtable will continue to advocate on behalf of our membership to address the challenges that lie ahead and to ensure #ARTSareEssential in the “new normal”.
We hope you will join us on Wednesday, May 13 from 10:30am – 12pm for A Roundtable Conversation: Advocacy in Action to discuss how we can use our collective impact to move the field forward from here.