IEA Newsletter for Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Welcome to the Institute for Education and the Arts’ weekly newsletter for July 18, 2007. The newsletter is published each Wednesday morning to the IEA listserv and is archived here on the IEA blog.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
REPORTS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BEYOND THE BASICS: ACHIEVING A LIBERAL EDUCATION FOR ALL CHILDREN
Chester E. Finn, Jr., and Diane Ravitch, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 7/11/07
“History offers many explanations for why people should acquire a broad, liberal-arts education … In the era of No Child Left Behind, however, liberal learning is on the defensive. Federal law mandates academic gains only in reading and math, and its sanctions and interventions are triggered only by failure to make gains in those two areas. States, school districts and individual educators have understandably responded by ramping up the time spent teaching those two sets of core skills and prepping students to take tests in them, to the detriment of ‘broad’ and ‘liberal’ and ‘arts.’ Recent months have brought yet another challenge to liberal learning, as well-meaning business leaders and policy makers, rightly concerned about American competitiveness, are pushing "STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) training. Yet America's true competitive edge over the long haul is not its technical prowess but its creativity, its imagination, its inventiveness. And those attributes are best inculcated not by skill-drill but through liberal arts and sciences, liberally defined.”
Learn more>>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SCHOOL FUNDING
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SCHOOLS TURN TO PRIVATE DONORS
Zlati Meyer, Detroit Free Press, 7/5/07
“Mini-grants for additional supplies and trips are among the educational extras the Woodhaven-Brownstown School District may see in the coming months. After years of belt-tightening, the Downriver school system has found a way to secure cash: create a school foundation. By doing so, Woodhaven-Brownstown joins dozens of other Michigan school districts that have these nonprofits. Once limited to colleges and private schools, reliance on private donations has become part of the public K-12 experience, complete with gala fund-raisers and old-fashioned merchandise peddling. According to the National School Foundation Association's most recent data, $31.5 billion was donated to education nationwide to fund everything from playground overhauls to scholarship endowments.”
Read more>>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NEW PUBLICATION
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

ENGAGING ART:
THE NEXT GREAT TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA’S CULTURAL LIFE
Curb Center, Vanderbilt University, ISBN-13 9780415960427; ISBN-10 0415960428
Publisher: Routledge
“Engaging Art explores the many ways that Americans participate in the arts today—from museum attendance to music downloading. Commissioned by The Wallace Foundation and independently carried out by the Curb Center at Vanderbilt University, this volume is an attempt to address the question of how to better understand the changing landscape of cultural participation. By bringing the perspectives of multiple scholars and experts to the table, the volume offers a new framework for understanding the momentous changes to impact America's cultural life over the past fifty years. This volume offers suggestive glimpses into the character and consequence of a new engagement with old-fashioned participation in the arts. The authors in this volume hint at a bright future for art and citizen art making. They argue that if we center a new commitment to arts participation in everyday art making, creativity, and quality of life, we will not only restore the lifelong pleasure of homemade art, but will likely seed a new generation of enthusiasts who will support America’s signature nonprofit cultural institutions well into the future.”
Learn more>>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ARTS UNDER THE BIG TOP
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

MINN. CIRCUS SCHOOL HELPS KIDS FLY HIGH
Amy Forliti, Associated Press/Washington Post, 7/7/07
“Zach Morgan sits on the edge of a plank nearly 40 feet in the air, terrified by what he's about to do. He has no safety net, just a specially rigged bungee rope looped around one wrist. But when he gets his cue, he'll count to three and step into space _ free-falling more than 20 feet until the rope catches, leaving him hanging by one hand. Morgan is among the advanced students at Circus Juventas, a performing arts circus school that teaches young people how to tumble and twist through the air, while also learning the self-confidence, discipline and teamwork required to do amazing high-flying tricks.”
Read more>>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CHILDREN’S LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NAP TIME AND PLAYTIME AND TIME TO LEARN FARSI
Delphine Schrank, Washington Post, 6/24/07
“At 2 years old, Lanah Boissy has perfected the art of linguistic one-upmanship. Perched in a highchair at dinnertime in Sterling, she will say something in Farsi, wait for a look of bafflement from her Senegal-born parents and dissolve into giggles when they are forced to ask if she would please translate into English or their native French. In Ashburn, Cenna Cripe, 21 months, will pucker up on cue, but only if her English-speaking mother, Christie, says "hati bossa" -- an Arabic request for a kiss. And in Annandale, Sasha Geisinger, 2, disappointed her mother somewhat when one of the first words out of her mouth was "dudu." Then Narra Geisinger learned that Sasha was using the Urdu word for milk. Children such as these in the polyglot Washington region often surprise their parents with language feats learned in day care. The large number of foreign-born care providers in the area enables many parents to kick-start their children's knowledge of a second or even a third language from among a growing babel that includes Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, Pashto, Hindi and Amharic, in addition to French and Spanish. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement, providers and parents say. Some immigrant women find that running a day-care center offers steady income, allowing them to work at home while imparting their culture and language to young children.”
Read more>>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
NON-PROFIT BOARDS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NONPROFIT GOVERNANCE IN THE UNITED STATES: FINDINGS ON PERFORMANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Francie Ostrower, Urban Institute, 6/25/07
“Nonprofit boards are increasingly a focus of those interested in greater accountability and transparency, including policymakers, media, and the public. To help inform current policy debates and initiatives to strengthen nonprofit governance, in 2005 the Urban Institute conducted the first ever national representative survey of nonprofit governance, with over 5,100 participants. This report presents survey findings, discussing: relationships between public policy and governance, factors that promote or impede boards' performance of basic stewardship responsibilities, board composition and factors associated with board diversity, and recruitment processes, including the difficulty experienced by many nonprofits in finding members.”
Learn more>>

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
GRANTS, FUNDING, CONTESTS, AND AWARDS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SAMSUNG’S HOPE FOR EDUCATION GRANTS
Deadline: 7/22/07
Hope for Education will award up to $200,000 to reduce the technology gap in schools. Entrants write a 100-word essay on how technology and software will improve their school.
Learn more>>

2007 ROAD SCHOLAR EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Road Scholar/Elderhostel
Deadline: 8/1/07
“Road Scholar is pleased to announce that experienced educators throughout the United States may apply … beginning on Jan. 1, 2007. Road Scholar will offer three awards: one $7,000 award; one $2,000 award, and one $1,000 award. Road Scholar is an initiative of Elderhostel, a leader in the field of lifelong learning and the world’s largest not-for-profit educational travel organization for older adults. Road Scholar is open to adults of all ages. The awards honor experienced educators by providing them with the opportunity to participate in Road Scholar educational adventures throughout the United States and around the world. Eligible applicants are active educators with at least 15 years of experience in K-12 education and include teachers, principals, superintendents, school librarians, school nurses and guidance counselors who are actively employed in their fields.”
Learn more>>

- ### -