IEA Newsletter for Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Welcome to the Institute for Education and the Arts weekly newsletter for May 2, 2007. The newsletter is published each Wednesday morning to the IEA listserv and is archived here on the IEA blog.

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REPORTS
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WRITING NEXT: EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE WRITING OF ADOLESCENTS IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL
Alliance for Excellent Education
“Along with reading comprehension, writing skill is a predictor of academic success and a basic requirement for participation in civic life and in the global economy. Yet every year in the United States, large numbers of adolescents graduate from high school unable to write at the basic levels required by colleges and employers. Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High School, commissioned by Carnegie Corporation of New York and published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, discusses eleven specific teaching techniques that research suggests will help improve the writing abilities of the country’s 4th- to 12th-grade students.”
Read more

THE AUTONOMY GAP
Fordham Institute and the American Institutes for Research, 4/11/07
“Public school principals encounter a sizable gap between the autonomy they believe they need to be effective and the autonomy that they actually have in practice, especially when it comes to hiring, firing, and transferring teachers. That's a key finding of this report from the Fordham Institute and the American Institutes for Research, which is based on a series of interviews with a small sample of district and charter-school principals. Regrettably if understandably, many district principals have also come to accept this "autonomy gap" as a fact of life. They learn to work the system, not change the system.”
Learn more

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP STUDY: DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL PRINCIPALS
Stanford University in conjunction with The Finance Project
”Principals play a vital role in setting the direction for successful schools, but existing knowledge on the best ways to prepare and develop highly qualified principals is sparse. To fill in the gaps, a major research effort is underway to determine what is known about principal preparation and development, what works, and how to create scalable models that can bring effective leadership to all America's schools. The research project, "School Leadership Study: Developing Successful Principals," was commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and undertaken by Stanford University in conjunction with The Finance Project. This research began in Fall of 2004 and will continue over the next three years.”
Read the report

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DEVELOPING AN ARTS ADMINISTRATION CAREER
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THE STATE OF ARTS FUNDING
Jennifer Guerra, Michigan Radio, 4/30/07
”Earlier this month, Governor Granholm issued a freeze on all state-sponsored arts grants. On top of that, the Senate has proposed to cut three-point-six million dollars in arts funding for the next fiscal year. But, as Michigan Radio's Jennifer Guerra discovered, it's not just the various programs that will be hurt by the cuts...young leaders who are looking to build a career in the arts could feel the pinch, too.”
Hear the interview

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TEACHING RESOURCES
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FREE TEACHING MATERIALS ONLINE
“OER Commons is a teaching and learning network of shared materials, from K-12 through college, from algebra to zoology, open to everyone. Open Educational Resources, or OER, offer new ways to engage with free-to-use learning content. Find college courses or K-12 lesson plans. Search lectures, labs, or syllabi that are open to adapt for your own use. Browse the Categories or Collections for what interests you. Many of the resources we point to are published using a Creative Commons license. Create a free login to tag, rate, review, comment, and save favorites to your own portfolio. Post to discussion, blog, and wiki areas about teaching and learning issues and see how others are using OER.”
Learn more

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BUILDING A CREATIVE COMMUNITY
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CULTURAL PLANNING TOOLKIT
Creative City Network of Canada
“The Cultural Planning Toolkit is a guide for the process of cultural planning in a community. It includes an adaptable model and practical checklists for navigating and charting progress. Background material and additional details are provided on this companion website. The toolkit has been developed to encourage community leaders, planners and local government staff to explore the potential of cultural planning. In particular, we hope to demonstrate how cultural resources can support the delivery of a spectrum of community priorities.”
Learn more

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SHAKESPEARE PODCASTS FROM THE GLOBE THEATER
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SHAKESPEARE ON PODCAST FOR PUPILS
BBC News, 4/17/07
”A recording of the play [Much Ado About Nothing] at the Globe Theatre in London is available as a free download from the Department for Education and Skills. The comedy … can be downloaded as an MP3 file, to be played back on for music players. It also includes interviews with actors and the director. This podcast project aims to deliver the play in a format that will be familiar and easy to use for the iPod generation.”

Read the BBC article
Visit the Much Ado site to hear podcasts and cast interviews

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OUTSTANDING TEACHING IN THE ARTS
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MUSIC TEACHER WINS NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR
Associated Press/CNN.com, 4/26/07
“When Andrea Peterson landed her first teaching job, she faced the daunting task of creating a music program with almost no money for supplies in a climate where music was seen as just providing a break for students and teachers. Her creativity in overcoming those challenges is being honored with her recognition as national teacher of the year … Peterson is only the second music teacher to receive the award in the 57 years it has been given by the Council of Chief State School Officers. Recipients are selected from the state teachers of the year.”
Read more

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