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Below, an opinion piece that sums it all up: NCLB, the role of arts
and liberal arts in society...
the survey they mention by the Council for Basic Education can be
found here
http://www.c-b-e.org/PDF/cbe_principal_Report.pdf
press release: http://www.c-b-e.org/news/nr040308.htm
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OPINION: Academic Atrophy
The liberal arts are being squeezed out of the public school
curriculum, write Raymond "Buzz" Bartlett and Claus von Zastrow.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/ew_printstory.cfm?slug=30bartlett.h23
Education Week
American Education's Newspaper of Record
April 7, 2004
Academic Atrophy
By Raymond "Buzz" Bartlett & Claus von Zastrow
Education Week
Examining the condition of liberal arts in America's public schools.
>> Scratch the surface of nearly every educator and you will find someone
>> who believes that every child should be taught the liberal arts. They
>> may call it by another name-a "well-rounded" course of study, for
>> example-but the concept is the same: A first-rate education has
>> breadth as well as depth. Young people should learn more than just a
>> handful of fundamental skills. In fact, they should pursue the whole
>> range of studies commonly said to constitute a liberal education,
>> including not just reading, math, and the sciences, but also writing,
>> literature, history, civics, geography, the arts, and foreign
>> languages.
>>
>> Increasingly, however, the nation's educators are being forced to
>> squeeze and trim the curriculum, abandoning the shared ideal of a
>> well-rounded education in order to fit the requirements of the No
>> Child Left Behind Act. Faced with budget cuts, competing demands for
>> time, and pressures for compliance, educators have backed away from
>> implementing a truly comprehensive vision of educational excellence,
>> one that includes all the subjects of the liberal arts. In the absence
>> of such a vision, our most powerful reform efforts are pitting
>> fundamental academic disciplines against each other in a struggle for
>> scarce resources in which the big losers are students.
>>
>> Because it holds schools accountable for student performance in just
>> three areas-mathematics, reading, and eventually science-the federal
>> No Child Left Behind legislation creates a powerful disincentive to
>> teach other subjects. And with the states' fiscal crises ongoing, the
>> pressure only becomes more intense for schools and districts to
>> abandon whole parts of the curriculum so as to focus their scarce
>> resources on test-related topics.
>>
>> Yet aside from the occasional media report of cuts to arts and
>> foreign-language programs, the danger of curricular erosion has
>> received scant attention from researchers, journalists, or the public.
>> Until recently, there has been little research to confirm or allay
>> fears that students are beginning to miss out on the intellectual
>> foundations of civic life, art, culture, and more.
>>
>> To address this concern, the Council for Basic Education recently
>> conducted a study to determine how much access our nation's students
>> now have to a complete curriculum in the liberal arts. With support
>> from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and substantial help from
>> the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National
>> Association of Secondary School Principals, and the American
>> Association of School Administrators, the council surveyed public
>> school principals in Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, and New York
>> about what is happening to the curriculum in their own schools. (
>> "Principals' Poll Shows Erosion of Liberal Arts Curriculum," March 17,
>> 2004.)
>>
>> Roughly 1,000 principals responded to the survey, providing ample
>> evidence that the assessment and accountability regimen required by
>> the No Child Left Behind law has indeed begun to undermine the
>> schools' commitment to a number of core fields of study, including the
>> arts, foreign languages, and elementary social studies, civics, and
>> geography.
>>
>> The overall curriculum in public schools appears to be narrowing at an
>> alarming rate.
>>
>>
>> On a positive note, three-quarters of principals reported that
>> instructional time for reading, writing, and mathematics has
>> increased, while a similar majority also reported increased
>> opportunities for teachers to hone their skills and knowledge in these
>> areas. Close to half the principals reported increased instructional
>> time for science, and even larger numbers project such increases over
>> the next two years.
>>
>> However, while these courses are receiving greater emphasis, the
>> overall curriculum appears to be narrowing at an alarming rate. For
>> example, elementary school principals reported decreases in
>> instructional time for social studies, civics, and geography. Nearly
>> three in 10 principals overall (29 percent) reported decreases in time
>> for social studies, compared with 21 percent who reported increases.
>>
>> The most troubling evidence of curricular erosion occurred in schools
>> with large minority populations, the very populations whose access to
>> a full liberal arts curriculum has been historically most limited.
>> Nearly half (47 percent) of principals in high-minority schools
>> reported decreases in elementary social studies. More than four in 10
>> (42 percent) anticipated decreases in instructional time for the arts,
>> and nearly three in 10 (29 percent) foresaw decreases in instructional
>> time for foreign language.
>>
>>
>> These findings raise the specter of a new kind of opportunity gap in
>> which low-income minority students are being excluded from the liberal
>> arts curriculum that their more privileged counterparts receive as a
>> matter of course. In our effort to close achievement gaps in literacy
>> and math, we have substituted one form of educational inequity for
>> another, denying our most vulnerable students the kind of curriculum
>> available routinely to the wealthy.
>>
>> The Council for Basic Education's study did identify a few promising
>> trends, particularly in higher grades. Principals in middle and high
>> schools are allotting more instructional and
>> teacher-professional-development time to social studies, civics, and
>> geography. Principals interviewed for the study suggested that events
>> such as 9/11 and the Iraq war have strengthened schools' commitment to
>> these subjects. Such signs of schools' devotion to urgent priorities
>> that receive little support from the current accountability system are
>> truly heartening.
>>
>> In the long run, however, we must make the entire liberal arts
>> curriculum our priority. Though some educators might argue that
>> persistent underperformance in basic reading and mathematics warrants
>> a particular concentration on those two areas, such arguments should
>> not lead us to treat the arts, foreign languages, and other subjects
>> as expendable.
>>
>> Indeed, at a time when the explosion of multimedia technologies
>> compels us to expand our very notion of literacy to include visual and
>> even auditory literacy, the arts have become particularly relevant.
>> And in an era of both global trade and global terror, it should go
>> without saying that our students must become proficient in foreign
>> languages.
>>
>>
>> Life in the 21st century has become very complex, and the educational
>> requirements for success have grown accordingly. No one can dispute
>> the magnitude of changes we will see in the course of any student's
>> lifetime. Job skills are changing at an accelerating rate. Political
>> and economic events across the globe have a profound effect on our
>> prosperity and security at home. Because the liberal arts span the
>> domains of human experience, they afford the best foundation for the
>> diverse challenges that confront us in this rapidly evolving world.
>>
>> At the same time, a liberal arts education returns us to first
>> principles, fostering an understanding of what it means to be human,
>> an understanding that transcends limiting conceptions of occupation,
>> social class, race, or nationality. An education once reserved for the
>> most privileged has therefore become a necessity for all. As soon as
>> we sacrifice one or more academic subjects to budgetary constraints,
>> apathy, or the demands of an assessment and accountability regimen, we
>> limit students' opportunities after graduation. In a society founded
>> on equality, such sacrifices are unconscionable.
>>
>> Meanwhile, research clearly demonstrates that social studies and
>> civics content can enhance elementary reading instruction by
>> developing beginning readers' comprehension skills. By establishing
>> relevant and engaging contexts for reading and mathematics,
>> high-quality instruction in all the liberal arts subjects supports
>> learning in those fundamental skill areas.
>>
>> Educators and policymakers can take specific measures to protect the
>> complete curriculum without abandoning the objectives of the No Child
>> Left Behind Act. They can integrate the liberal arts into strategies
>> for raising students' mathematics and reading scores. They can better
>> equip teachers to carry out this integration in the classroom. They
>> can begin developing long-term plans for incorporating strong
>> standards and challenging assessments in all the liberal arts subjects
>> to assure the integrity of the curriculum.
>>
>> Most important, educators and policymakers must maintain an explicit,
>> comprehensive vision of educational excellence and track progress
>> toward that vision. Despite its potential to narrow the K-12
>> curriculum, the No Child Left Behind law has actually laid much of the
>> groundwork for this vision. For one, the law has helped establish the
>> need to hold all students to high academic expectations as a civil
>> rights issue. Furthermore, it has publicly confirmed the importance of
>> paying careful attention to all students' progress toward those
>> expectations, lest we turn a blind eye to persistent educational
>> inequities.
>>
>> Yet, the No Child Left Behind Act may turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory
>> if we define its vision for achievement too narrowly and thus
>> institutionalize long-term academic mediocrity and inequity.
>>
>>
>> Raymond "Buzz" Bartlett is the president and Claus von Zastrow is the
>> director of institutional advancement at the Council for Basic
>> Education, in Washington.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>> © 2003 Editorial Projects in Education Vol. 23, number 30, page 48,38
>>
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