- Kline Asks GAO to Examine Race to Top States' Progress on Teachers, from Education Week
- Making Schools Work, Op/Ed from The New York Times
- U.S. May Require College Language Programs to Get Special Accreditation, from The Chronicle of Higher Education
Arts Education
Grantmakers in the Arts holds arts education as one of its core funding focus areas. GIA is committed to invigorate funding and support for arts education within federal policy and defend that every resident has access to the arts as part of a well-rounded, life-long education. In 2012, GIA formed the Arts Education Funders Coalition (AEFC), an interest group within GIA, to address identified needs in comprehensive arts education and to strengthen communication and networking among arts education funders. Advised by a committee of Coalition members, GIA engaged the services of Washington, DC-based Penn Hill Group, a firm with education policy expertise and experience working with diverse education groups to research, develop, and promote educational policy strategies.
Most recently, GIA worked with Representative Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) on the development of the Arts Education for All Act, the broadest arts education policy bill ever introduced in Congress.
In Spring 2021, GIA influenced the U.S. Department of Education to highlight the importance of equitable access to arts and culture to the process of reopening schools and to make explicit how racialized this access was prior to the pandemic and that addressing this inequity is essential to effective reopening.
Grantmakers in the Arts is delighted that in 2020 Congress passed the Supporting Older Americans Act, including our recommendations that the Administration on Aging include the arts in the issues to be identified and addressed and be included among supportive services for older Americans.
GIA has successfully lobbied to include arts-related provisions in the Child Care for Working Families Act, which proposes to better help low-income families pay for childcare and expand high-quality state preschool options.
GIA is extremely proud of our work over the past several years on raising the visibility of the arts in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in its legislative form. GIA and Penn Hill Group continue these advocacy efforts around the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), guiding GIA members and their grantees in advocating for new or expanded arts programs at their local schools and districts.
May 21, 2012 by Steve
May 2, 2012 by Steve
- Ed. Department Offers States Feedback on NCLB Waivers, from Education Week
- Why the Student Loan Interest Rate Debate Matters, from Huffington Post
April 27, 2012 by Steve
- White House threatens to veto student loan bill, from Associated Press
- More Negotiated Rule Making Planned, from Inside Higher Ed
- With G.O.P.’s Ear, Rubio Pushes Dream Act Proposal, from The New York Times
April 24, 2012 by Steve
- Effort afoot to restore art in California schools, from San Francisco Chronicle
- Lawmakers Want Rural Focus in District Race to Top, from Education Week
- Concern Abounds Over Teachers' Preparedness for Standards, from Education Week
April 23, 2012 by Steve
Presidentially-appointed artists Chuck Close, Yo-Yo Ma, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kerry Washington, Forest Whitaker, Damian Woetzel and Alfre Woodard to work with schools in eight states as part of the program
See also, GIA Executive Director Janet Brown's response to this announcement.
Today the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities announced the launch of a new arts education initiative to help turn around low-performing schools, developed in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education and the White House Domestic Policy Council. The Turnaround Arts initiative is a new public-private partnership designed to narrow the achievement gap and increase student engagement through the arts. Working in some of the nation’s lowest-performing elementary and middle schools, this program will test the hypothesis that high-quality and integrated arts education boosts academic achievement, motivates student learning and improves school culture in the context of overall school reform, announced the committee’s co-chairs, George Stevens Jr. and Margo Lion.
Turnaround Arts will work in eight “turnaround schools” across the country—public schools in the lowest-achieving five percent of their state that are receiving School Improvement Grants through the U.S. Department of Education. Over the course of two years, Turnaround Arts will bring intensive arts education resources and expertise into these schools and support the school leadership in using the arts as a pillar of their reform strategy. An external evaluation of the program will measure the impact and effectiveness of this approach.
April 23, 2012 by Steve
Today, Janet Brown, the executive director of Grantmakers in the Arts made the following statement regarding the announcement on school turnaround and arts education by the President's Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The Arts Education Funders Coalition, a project of Grantmakers in the Arts, is seeking to expand the role of arts education in federal education policy.
April 19, 2012 by Steve
- Graduate Schools Need to Improve Career Counseling, Report Says, from The Chronicle of Higher Education
- States' Waivers Weak on Extended Learning Time, Report Says, from Education Week
April 11, 2012 by Steve
The April 3 GIA Web Conference Arts Education: Local Impact of Federal Policy was presented by Alex Nock of the Penn Hill Group.
A recording of that webinar is now available on this website.
April 11, 2012 by Steve
- How Micromanaging Educators Stifles Reform, from The Atlantic
- , from
- When Test Prep Requires Test Prep, from The New York Times