High Quality Education in the Arts
Arts educators are often called upon to be proponents of their disciplines. While individuals outside of the sector may think the arts are important, many feel they lack the level of comfort necessary to clearly articulate the importance of the arts to others in a meaningful way. Of those individuals, many are parents who may not have had experiences that provide them with these insights. The creation of state standards added an additional level of stigma to those trying to maintain appropriate expectations for students in the arts. With an understanding of the predicament of these parents, the Arts Education Collaborative began to look for a way to provide parents with a tool that would better equip them to go into their children’s schools and determine the quality of the education that was offered there.
Combining the efforts of more than 20 arts educators, administrators, and professionals in the region over the course of two years, the AEC sought to create a product that would provide parents with an introduction to the Pennsylvania Standards for the Arts and Humanities. The resulting Parent Handbook, High Quality Education in the Arts: A Handbook for Parents, seeks to serve as a guide to demonstrate how these standards might be implemented in a school’s curriculum and to help them assess the degree to which the school provides opportunities for children to meet the standards. Endorsed by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania PTA, and the Division of Standards and Curriculum, Bureau of Teaching and Learning Support of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the handbook also includes information about how parents can support, improve, and advocate for arts programs in the schools.
For more information on how to obtain copies of High Quality Education in the Arts: A Handbook for Parents for your PTA, PTO, PTG, Booster organization, department, or other group, please contact the AEC at info@artsedcollaborative.org or 412-201-7405.
Samples from the Parent Handbook
Below are links to a few pages from the Parent Handbook.
- Parent Handbook Introduction (PDF)
- Excerpt of Grade 3 (PDF)
- Excerpt of Grade 6 (PDF)
- For the Parent Handbook front and back cover (PDF)
To hear and view performances of the musical pieces referred to in the parent handbook; go to the Video/Audio page of the website.
