New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the city’s plans to add accountability in arts education to the measures principals will be graded on for the success of their schools. This announcement follows months of concern that the Department of Education was more concerned about releasing the funds that had been dedicated to the arts and less concerned with the arts themselves.
I wrote about this in the blog entry Not on the Test so I am keenly interested in how this plays out.
Through the research we have been doing around the nation it is clear that Mayor Bloomberg is correct: Money doesn't make the difference… Accountability does!
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city’s Department of Education will require all schools to maintain arts programs, and that principals will be rated in their annual reviews on how well they run those programs.
The announcement came just months after the department infuriated arts groups by eliminating a multimillion-dollar program to finance arts education.
Under a new set of city standards, the arts curriculums will be judged for comprehensiveness, and potential pay bonuses for principals could be affected.
“An excellent arts education is essential,” the mayor said at a news conference at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.
Bloomberg Announces Plan to Shore Up Arts in Schools – New York Times
Related Articles:
SCHOOLS BRUSHING UP ON THE ARTS | By CHUCK BENNETT | New York Post
Bloomberg Arts Initiative To Grade Schools' Performance – July 24, 2007 – The New York Sun
New city-wide program emphasizes art in schools – SI Advance Newslog
