A DOE tool for reflecting on your music program
This is a 27-page pdf file of another colorful and beautifully-designed DOE document that teachers and administrators and others can use to reflect on the practice of teaching and learning music in their schools (click the picture to download it). This link is to the Music Reflection Tool for elementary schools, but there are equivalents for upper grades as well.
It’s organized into four areas:
- Organizational Practice: School Environment: including the school’s physical resources/space, staff/instructional time, teacher support, arts data use
- Instructional Practice: curriculum, teaching and learning
- Student Outcomes: student engagement, demonstrated arts skills, knowledge and understanding
- Arts & Cultural Service Providers: school’s use of in-school residencies, exhibitions and performances
The Music Reflection Tool is made available for your download and perusal from the Office of Arts & Special Projects webpages, where you can also download the Blueprint for Teaching & Learning in Music, and learn about upcoming professional development events.
NYC DOE Resources
Teaching of music in NYC schools is supported and directed citywide by the The Office of the Arts and Special Projects, in the Department of Education’s headquarters in Tweed Courthouse on Chambers Street. Dr. Barbara Murray is the Director of Music Education.
The Office of the Arts and Special Projects is set up to support and enhance instructional programs in art, music, dance and theater, in grades preK-12. Each school receives a budget line for arts education based on pupil enrollment. How these funds are spent is determined by the school’s principal, in accordance with established guidelines. During the reorganization of the Department of Education, budgeting is a far more transparent process than it was in the past, and a great deal of information about how schools spend money is available publicly, on-line.
The OASP site is an on-line source for several critically-important documents:
the curriculum guide Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts (it’s a PDF file, heavy in color and graphics: not practical for downloading and printing). Note: The Blueprint “strands” on Music Education are also available in a more practical poster format (available only by purchase; see below).
Getting the Blueprint:
the school’s principal can order it through FAMIS: E-Catalog:Internal Services. Use the following item numbers:
TLAR10032- Music Blueprint Book- $7
TLAR10033- Music Blueprint Poster- $3
Include specific contact information on the purchase order for the delivery of materials. The necessary funds should be scheduled in Object Code 0998.
The DOE’s brief Benchmarks for Music Learning can be examined online — a series of general statements that summarize expectations for children’s learning and abilities in grades 2, 5, 8 and 12.
In addition, the OASP page offers much valuable information on ArtsCount. This is the Department of Education’s program to ensure that arts education is not overlooked in the drive toward accountability in city schools (see post below). Components of this program include the Annual Arts in Schools Report, the Learning Environment Surveys, and Annual Compliance Review. Some of this information can be accessed on each school’s DOE-hosted website, if you click on the link to “Statistics” on the left column.
The OASP site offers links to many other valuable resources including grant sources and activities for students. The Keys to Achievement Grant offers 85% of the cost of an elaborate keyboard lab for elementary schools (click on the word “grant” to see the guidelines).
Learning Support Organizations
Each school is associated with one of the Learning Support Organizations (LSO). Music teachers should seek to contact the arts coordinator for their school’s LSO, and to be aware of any workshops or other LSO initiatives to promote arts education.
Music Teachers Professional Development series
Collaborative Inquiry for Effective Music Teaching: Asking Questions and Finding Answers to Improve Student Achievement in Music
The 2009-10 school year once again offers a series of three professional development events for music teachers in New York City public schools. As with last year’s series, this must be paid for by the school at the pleasure of the principal, and participants must register on-line using the Pro-Traxx website, for which you’ll need to register, and then log in.
The cost of the series is $300 per participant for the full workshop series (3 days) to be paid by the school.
The workshops will take place at Long Island City High School in Queens on November 3, 2009, and Monday, February 1 and Thursday, June 10, 2010, from 8:30 AM — 3:00 PM.
This series of workshops proposes to “examine our strategies for teaching music and the results we subsequently get. Working in small collaborative groups based on level, specialty area, and experience, we will draw upon our own experiences and talents to determine lines of inquiry for teaching music and improving student mastery. Building on the assessment work we did last year, small cohorts will establish areas of inquiry or need, share what works, provide evidence of how they know it works, exchange strategies, and support each other to improve outcomes for all our students.”
“P” In-Service courses for Music Teachers
The New York City After School Professional Development Program offers a selection of “P” In-Service courses that are designed to equip educators (teachers, secretaries, and other school-based personnel) with the skills and abilities to increase student achievement. Course offerings are high quality, low-cost alternatives to traditionally offered college courses. Available across all content areas, courses may be applied toward salary differential requirements and meet the New York State 175-hour Professional Development requirement. (ASPDP classes do not offer academic credits toward fulfillment of licensing requirements.)
Summer “P” course registration will begin on June 2nd after 4 PM. Mark your calendar for the Fall 2009 registration which begins on August 4th after 4 PM. Fall courses begin meeting on Sept 21st. Visit the ASPDP website to view the catalog of courses. For additional information contact Helaine Schwartz, Director at 718-935-5753 or via e-mail at aspdp@schools.nyc.gov
Past offerings that may be of interest to music teachers included Using the Recorder in the Classroom, Composing with Garage Band, Technology Through Music and Other Arts, and The American Musicals Project – History, & Literature through the Arts.
(Click on the last title to see a description of the course.)
Resources for School Leaders
Principals and school leaders approach arts education from a wide variety of backgrounds and understandings. Some may have actual professional or amateur experience as musicians, painters, or dancers. They may take an active role in shaping and supervising arts learning in their classrooms, or they may prefer to leave it in the hands of their staff.
In elementary schools, generally speaking, the visual arts are taught by a full-time staff, while music, dance and drama may be taught either by in-school staff or else through a series of visits by a “teaching artist,” who comes through a contracted vendor or partner organization. Decisions about scheduling of classes, purchase of materials, field trips to concert halls, or in-school performances by visiting artists are all made by the school leader.
As part of its effort to support arts education in New York City public schools — including music — the Department of Education recently put together a set of resources to educate school leaders about what kinds of arts education should be happening in their schools. The Arts Tool Kit for School Leaders includes a several components that can be downloaded from the OASP site, and examined. While these resources are not specifically intended for teachers, they provide a lot of valuable information that can help teachers advocate effectively for the arts within their school communities.
The main documents included are copies of each of the Arts Blueprints and their various accompanying wall-charts.
The Learning Walk-Through for the Arts describes what a supervisor should look for as they evaluate the facilities and activities in place for arts learning at a particular site. For music, this might include the kinds of space available for lessons or activities, as well as equipment, instruments, etc.
The Arts Education Manual for School Leaders is the administrators’ complement to the arts Blueprints. It describes all the programs and resources in place to support effective arts instruction.
Finally, the kit includes DVD of a short film called “Quality Arts Education in New York City” that’s meant to assist school leaders in implementing and enriching arts programs in their schools. You can watch it on YouTube.
The ArtsCount Guide for Principals (not included) summarizes the various accountability measures included in the ArtsCount program. Included are the various categories of expenditures for the arts: arts staff, partnerships, professional performances, field trips, transportation, professional development, equipment and/or repairs, per-session activities, and supplies.
Assessment of Music Learning
In 2008-09 the NYCDOE Office of the Arts & Special Projects chose assessment as the focus for its year-long series of professional development events for music teachers. Following the most recent meeting in the series, participants received copies of a 42-page booklet published by Hal Leonard, The Ultimate Music Assessment and Evaluation Kit. The book isn’t an academic discussion of issues in assessing music learning, but provides a lot of examples for teachers who want to explore formal tools for assessing and evaluating their students’ work. There are a lot of examples of rubrics and grade cards, and there’s a fairly up-to-date bibliography of articles from MENC publications, and some things by Howard Gardner.
New York City Music Teachers’ Percussion Workshop on May 8
The DOE and New York Pops will offer a one-day workshop on percussion for music teachers from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, May 8 in Manhattan at a location to be determined. Participants will be offered sessions on basic battery, mallet, tympani, world percussion, classical percussion, toy/hand percussion and drum set. Attendees will receive class percussion supplies, resources, handouts, concert tickets and door prizes. The cost for this full-day workshop is $150 per participant to be paid by his or her school. Teachers should register via ProTraxx by using activity code 051-09-022-008 no later than Wednesday, March 18. Space is limited. School payment is due by Friday, March 20. For further information on this workshop, click HERE
Registration for this workshop is now closed.
“Blueprint 2.0″
In the spring of 2008 the Department of Education’s Office of Arts and Special Projects published a revised second edition of its Blueprint for Teaching & Learning in the Arts for music.
There’s a link for teachers to download the document as a .pdf file from its website, but hundreds of music teachers received printed copies at the Chancellor’s Day PD event in June at Fiorello LaGuardia High School. A quick peek at the new Music Blueprint shows great improvements both in content and design. (Although the font sizes are still small, the new layout makes it much easier to use.)
The Blueprint is meant to guide the teaching of music across 14 years of early childhood and young adulthood, including college prep. It’s based on the idea that music cannot be taught in isolation from the rest of the curriculum, and that along with performance and aesthetic appreciation, teaching and learning of music must emphasize music’s role in our daily lives and communities, including the world of work. Nearly half the bulk of the new edition is comprised of material excerpted from another document that was distributed to music teachers several years ago, Music From the Inside Out: A Resource Guide for Music Teachers. This consists of extensive essays compiled by WNYC’s John Schaefer on music through history and around the world.There’s also a pretty extensive list of resources, including books and recordings as well as on-line materials.
Assessment
Since the Blueprint is a forward-looking document, this second edition is still an early stage in in its development. And this is made pretty clear early on, on page 9, in the introduction: “The new plan. . . will, as it evolves, provide clear and rigorous forms of assessment based on the best practices offered in the field.” The phrase “as it evolves” suggests that there is more work to be done. There are examples of “Wraparounds” — templates for planning lessons based on a piece of musical repertoire so as to include all five of the Blueprint strand. These pages do refer to assessment. However, evaluating learning outcomes is not dealt with very directly in this document.
The Blueprint is not the place to find a critical look at the fundamental problem faced by anyone who wants to make broad improvements in the teaching and learning of music in New York City’s public schools: scheduling and staffing are entirely up to the principals in each school, and these decisions are based on fluctuating enrollment and class sizes. Many schools cannot guarantee every child will have weekly music instruction throughout each of his or her seven years in elementary school. In some schools, one out of the four kindergarten classes will simply do without music; sometimes the whole fourth grade will have two science classes per week — at the expense of one weekly period for music. In addition, some New York City students change schools several times during their elementary careers.
Under these circumstances, consistent achievement (and assessments) for second and fifth graders throughout a given school, or across the whole city will be wildly impractical and difficult to ensure. Since the Blueprint document isn’t the place to address this problem, readers are left alone with the question: “What will my students learn, and how will I know they are learning it?”
How Much Music Should Our Students Have?
The ongoing re-organization of New York City’s public school system has had some dramatic moments in the past year. One of these came when it was announced that Project Arts funding would no longer be earmarked for arts education, but would simply be a part of each principal’s budget, to be spent as he or she deemed best for the school.
There was an outcry from people who feared many principals given the choice might divert that money to literacy and math instruction for children who were not meeting standards. Enough that the Chancellor saw fit to issue a special Chancellor’s Message on the Arts in the February 27, 2007 Principals Weekly re-affirming his commitment to arts education for all children.
Then, on June 23, 2007, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a further measure to ensure that arts education will not be threatened during the undergoing re-organization of schools. The program — called “ArtsCount”— was given a sketchy description in the The New York Times the following day: it is basically a system of accountability for arts education that can be applied to schools and principals as a part of the overall school quality reviews and school “report cards.” The Department of Education’s announcement provides more detail.
Meanwhile, the Office of Arts and Special Projects issued a scary-looking document that sifted existing New York State regulations and the City’s own standards to come up with a formula for what constitutes acceptable levels of arts education, in terms of instructional hours distributed over the course of a school year.
Following is the OASP’s description of the New York State requirements for arts education at the elementary levels in New York City schools. Click here to download the full MS Word document (2 pp.).
NYSED Guidelines Grades 1 – 3
“In grades 1-3, 20% of the weekly time spent in school should be allocated to dance, music, theatre and visual arts” (Summary of Arts Provisions, pg 3)
In New York City, this is the equivalent of approximately 186 hours throughout the entire school year allocated equally between dance, music, theater, and visual arts, with approximately 46.5 hours per year in each discipline.
(186 Instructional Days/Year; 5 instructional hours/day = 930 total instructional hours/year in grades 1 -4. State guidelines recommend 20% of total instructional time to be spent in the arts for grades 1 – 3, which is the equivalent of 186 hours/year.)
NYSED Guidelines Grade 4
“In grade 4, 10% of the weekly time spent in school should be allocated to dance, music, theatre and visual arts” (Summary of Arts Provisions, pg 4)
In New York City, this is the equivalent of approximately 93 hours throughout the entire school year equally allocated between dance, music, theater, and visual arts, with approximately 23 hours per year in each discipline.
(186 Instructional Days/Year; 5 instructional hours/day = 930 total instructional hours/year. State guidelines recommend 10% of total instructional time to be spent in the arts for grade 4, which is the equivalent of 93 hours per year.)
