CTL included in national policy brief on arts education

March 21, 2007

Before any program can advance toward improvement, it is critical to know first where it stands. This was the motivation behind a 2005 survey conducted by CTL and funded by the Kentucky Arts Council to determine the status of arts education programs in Kentucky’s 176 county and independent school districts.

The survey was the first of its kind in Kentucky and one of a growing number of similar status studies carried out in states nationwide. The aim of such surveys is to inform planning for arts education program improvements in schools and districts. To view a pdf copy of the Kentucky survey report, see Status of Arts Education in Kentucky Public Schools.

As a result of its work on the Kentucky survey, CTL was invited by the Washington, DC-based Arts Education Partnership (AEP) to participate in a 2007 seminar in Chicago to produce a research and policy brief showcasing five states that have done comprehensive studies on the status of arts education in their schools. The brief, called From Anecdote to Evidence: Assessing the Status and Condition of Arts Education at the State Level, was recently released and can be downloaded (pdf) free of charge from the AEP website.

An excerpt from the publication’s Introduction states that “This research and policy brief draws on the experiences in five states, each of which has been the subject of a comprehensive arts education survey in recent years. The states are Illinois, Kentucky, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington. Distilled from the 'lessons learned,' the brief provides 20 principles designed to inform and guide new and continuing arts education data collection and survey research at the state level. A primary audience is those who may be involved in advancing such efforts in their own states.”

For more information, contact:
Dennis Horn
v: 502.895.9500 x329