Teacher Contract/Seniority Defended on Lopate Show

There's a discussion going over arts education on the Leanard Lopate show on WNYC over a report showing that arts education improves student performance. One of the guests talked about how the stress on reading and math (he didn't say the test prep) has affected arts education. It would be much worse if not for the no layoff clause in the contract. If not for that "arts teachers would have been blown away." Blown away indeed.

Lopate asked, "Are charter schools doing any better in offering arts education?" The guest guesses probably not.

20% of the high schools don't have one certified arts teacher, yet students must have a certified arts teacher to get the credits they neeed to graduate.

So he asks, "How are they graduating?"

Look behind the magic BloomKlein curtain.

Arts Education and Graduation Rates

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A new study by the Center for Arts Education has found that schools that have increased access to arts education programs also have higher graduation rates. We’ll talk with Richard Kessler, CAE's Executive Director, and Doug Israel, Director of Research and Policy.

Read the report here.