Bloomy launches arts education program

In order to improve the arts education that students receive in New York City Schools, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the creation of the strategy system ArtsCount.
&#8220An excellent arts education is essential to the creative and intellectual development of our students,” Bloomberg said. &#8220ArtsCount ensures that all New York City students can take advantage of the city's unparalleled cultural resources while participating in an arts program that enriches their lives. Our students live in one of the world's best arts cities and they deserve nothing less than a world-class arts education.”
This new guideline will go into effect this coming September. It will include giving learning environment surveys to parents, students and teachers, quality reviews, and an annual compliance review.
Students will also have the opportunity to earn Arts-Endorsed Regents Honors Diplomas if they pass visual arts exit exams that are already in use or newly created music, drama, and dance exit exams that will be used beginning with the 2007/2008 school year.
Also included in the guidelines is &#8220The Annual Arts in Schools Reports.” These reports &#8220will collect and synthesize data on arts participation, spending, staffing, and instructional programming to provide a comprehensive view of arts education in city schools.”
&#8220We demand results in math and English and now we are demanding the same in arts as well,” said Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein. &#8220We have already set clear standards for what students should know and be able to accomplish in the arts, but we still have work ahead to ensure that all schools and students meet those standards. With ArtsCount we are taking arts education to a new level and holding schools accountable for providing all students with the arts instruction they need and deserve.”
An Arts Education Task for has also been formed in order to &#8220help guide the Department of Education as it works to improve arts education for all students.”
&#8220The Arts Education Task Force will work closely with the DOE to develop a disciplined approach to ensure the quality of arts education - from the art that children experience in our museums and concert halls to the process of creating and thinking about art in the classroom with arts teachers and artists,” said Andrew Ackerman, the Executive Director of the Children's Museum of Manhattan.