Arts learning – which includes dance, music, theatre, and visual and media arts – is an essential part of a comprehensive education for all students, pre- K-12, to prepare them for college, career and life.
Arts education teaches students to cultivate a global perspective, as they experience arts that are culturally and linguistically responsive and relevant.
Arts education supports the social and emotional learning of every student, building greater self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making, lifting and promoting student voice.
LACOE Resources
- View LACOE's Board Resolution on Arts Education Month
- Visit LACOE's Arts & Steam website
- View LACOE's Art Funding website
- Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
- Share #LAArtsEdMonth2024 on Social Media
- LA County School Districts are encouraged to tag LACOE in their social media posts that celebrate the arts this month. Use #LAArtsEdMonth2024 in your comments!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
https://nafme.org/student-opportunities/music-in-our-schools-month/
Music In Our Schools Month® or “MIOSM®” is NAfME’s annual celebration during March which engages music educators, students, and communities from around the country in promoting the benefits of high quality music education programs in schools. Music In Our Schools Month® began as a single statewide Advocacy Day and celebration in New York in 1973 and grew over the decades to become a month-long celebration of school music in 1985.
https://schooltheatre.org/programs/tios/
The Educational Theatre Association and the International Thespian Society have partnered with the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE) to sponsor Theatre in Our Schools to raise public awareness of the impact of theatre education and draw attention to the need for more access to quality programs for all students.
Visit the Theatre in Our Schools website for valuable resources, tools, and more!
https://createca.org/student-voices/
Create CA’s Student Voices program puts youth at the center. They support students fighting for education equity and access to an arts education in their schools and communities. Check out the website for more information!
The Student Voices program has three ways to participate:
Student Voices Challenge
Student Voices Leaders
Student Voices Advocates
The California Arts Education Framework Resources for Implementation Hub, includes handouts and infographics that can serve as centerpieces for short but meaningful conversations around key arts education topics such as state and federal education policy, benefits of a standards based education, meaning making in the arts disciplines, and more. These one-page documents can be used in meetings and professional learning events and when advocating for arts education. We encourage you to take a few minutes this month to download these resources and facilitate some conversations about arts education in your community.
As our California arts education curriculum framework states,
“The arts are a necessary and required component for all California students to develop as well-rounded, lifelong learners who contribute to the prosperity and quality of life for local and global communities. An education in the arts (dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts) develops engaged, creative, expressive, responsive, and artistically literate citizens. Artistic literacy is the ability to understand, create, perform/present/produce, respond, and connect through the arts, and transfer knowledge and skills learned from authentic experiences in the arts that transcend historical, cultural, and societal contexts. Achieving literacy in the arts is joyful, inspirational, and creates a lifelong appreciation of the arts; it also prepares students for the twenty-first century workforce and plays a critical role in developing well-rounded citizens. A standards-based arts education in all five disciplines with equitable arts learning experiences available to all students furthers students’ academic goals, increases student engagement, enhances parent and community engagement, and improves school culture and climate.
The California Arts Standards for Public Schools, Prekindergarten Through Grade Twelve Arts Standards (arts standards), adopted by the State Board of Education in 2019, map a pathway for a standards-based arts education in dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. The intention of the arts standards is that they are equitable and accessible to each and every California student. The California Arts Education Framework for California Public Schools: Transitional Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve provides guidance for implementation of the arts standards.”
California State PTA and Create CA teamed created the Parents’ Guide to Arts Education in California Public Schools. This newly revised version of the VAPA Guide has been updated to include the areas of digital and media arts, based on the California Department of Education’s 2019 guidance for arts standards in California. The guide provides an overview of what your child will learn in each arts discipline by the end of each grade level.
