“Chula Vista Elementary School District launched an arts education expansion and teacher hiring spree this summer unlike any that local arts educators have ever seen,” reports Mary Plummer on Friday (8/28) on California’s KPBS Public Broadcasting. “The district serving 30,000 students hired about 60 new arts teachers in the span of a few months, and 16 arts instructor spots still remain open. … The district’s unprecedented investment in arts instruction was made possible by $15 million in funding approved by the Chula Vista school board in June.… The goal is ambitious as well: to raise student engagement, boost attendance and improve academic performance among students who are struggling.… In recent decades, arts instruction had all but disappeared.… Then the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory started an after-school program in 2010 and things began to shift. Along with partners that included the VH1 Save the Music Foundation and La Jolla Playhouse, the symphony worked with the district and slowly increased music instruction in the schools.… When the symphony’s after-school programs started showing improvements in areas like student achievement—fourth graders, for example, had reading scores more than 10 percent higher than their peers—minds began to change.”
Posted September 3, 2015
