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JUNE 29, 1999, TUESDAY

SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING

LENGTH: 17291 words

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR JAMES JEFFORDS (R-VT)
WITNESSES:
JOHN SYKES, PRESIDENT,
VH1
JOHN KEMP, PRESIDENT AND CEO,
VERY SPECIAL ARTS
TOM DURANTE, ARTS EDUCATION COORDINATOR,
ARLINGTON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
DEREK GORDON, VICE PRESIDENT FOR EDUCATION,
JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
BENJAMIN O. CANADA, SUPERINTENDENT,
PORTLAND SCHOOLS
DANIELLE RICE, SENIOR CURATOR OF EDUCATION,
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART
SANDRA BURKS, MAGNET SCHOOLS COORDINATOR,
ROANOKE CITY SCHOOLS
430 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

BODY:

SEN. JAMES JEFFORDS (R-VT): I'm pleased to have you all here, good to be back home again in our little room here. I want to thank you all for coming.
I am pleased to have this opportunity to take a close look at two issues of great importance, arts education and magnet schools. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act includes a number of provisions relating to education. Currently, the federal government provides a small amount of money to the Kennedy Center and the Very Special Arts, national organizations which sponsor arts education programs in a truly unique way in just about all of the states throughout the country.
The arts are included as one of the subject areas that our nation's students should know and learn about. In addition, there is a program currently on the books that authorizes funding for cultural partnerships for youth at risk. What do we know about the impact and involvement in participation in the arts as in the education of young people? We know that it results in a great deal of good, both in terms of academic achievement and of overall well-being of the child. Many have heard me cite studies by the Music Educators National Conference that show a correlation between participation in the arts and higher achievement on SATs.
Some have challenged these findings by noting that in general, economic advantaged students both have a greater likelihood of participating in the arts and on average do better with an SAT. This assertion was tested by UCLA professor James Catteral (sp), who conducted a study which took parental income into account. He found that low income students with high involvement in the arts had the higher scores in English, were less likely to drop out by grade 10, were less bored in school, had a higher self-concept, and placed a higher value on volunteerism than low income peers with low art achievement or participation.
Dr. Catteral's and MENC's studies and others like them are impressive and speak volumes to the power of arts education. Other benefits gained by students participating in the arts are more difficult to capture through statistical analysis, yet should still be of great interest to educators. We must recognize and acknowledge the ways in which the arts expand the imagination of young people, broaden their interest in creating, introduce them to other worlds, other people in other cultures, make learning other subjects generally more fun and build their skills of cooperation that they must practice whether performing a play, playing in a band or singing in a choir.
Even with all of that we know about the value of arts education programs to young people, it tends to be something that we, on the local, state and federal levels under-invest in. When faced with a budget squeeze, schools or school districts oftentimes cut their arts programs first without any view, my view considering the consequences. As a son of an art teacher and a part time singer, I personally feel strongly about the advantages and the benefits of the arts participation. I look forward to learning from the witnesses today who will tell us in their own words and from their own perspective about the value and benefits of the arts education program.
Today's hearing will also include the discussion of magnet schools. Magnet schools have been created to enable public neighborhood schools to develop academic activities around a special emphasis by diverse student population. Parents and other members of the community, in an urban center are usually the leaders in determining particular concepts and themes that will serve as the magnet schools' focus. This morning, we will get an assessment of magnet schools from Sandra Burks, the Magnet Schools Program, Roanoke, Virginia.
I appreciate you all being with us today, and I turn to my good friend, Senator Kennedy.
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
As the chairman pointed out, we're back in our hearing room. I haven't noticed much difference from the last time we were here, except it's a lot warmer. Obviously, the air conditioning was not on the list for review. But there's nothing finer than hearing these really extraordinary group of men and women who are on our panel here today, and Mr. Chairman, I think we've really drawn on some of the best, and I had the good opportunity to know the activities of many of them, and they really are wonderful spokespersons for the significance for support, in terms of our education.
I pay tribute to you, Mr. Chairman, because you've been an advocate in terms of the role of the arts in education for many, many years, and provided important leadership when we had the reauthorization of the Elementary Secondary Act a number of years ago, and we were unable to be persuasive with the Appropriations Committee to be able to gain the kinds of resources for those activities. And I think, as you have pointed out, the correlation between the study of the arts and enhancing the academic achievement and accomplishment I think is fairly, I find convincing and powerful.
I can remember one of the interesting conversations I had with John Williams, who's really one of America's foremost composers today, who reminded me about the fact that the Greeks for 300 years had the greatest mathematicians, and that is because they started the Greek children through the arts, through the music and through the arts, in terms of releasing both the imagination and the interest in terms of learning skills, and for some 300 years dominated really the world, in terms of that subject matter. And I think for, all of us are very much aware that arts and music are the first ones to go, along with athletics in schools when they cut back in the budget. And I think we're going to be reminded today about the mistake in that area. I'm very hopeful that with the -- very interesting and creative ways that are being taken by a number of the witnesses here, in terms of being able to bring the arts to students.
They have not waited for action here in the Congress, they're doing very, very interesting and exciting things, and making a very important difference. And we're going to hear about some of those today. It's enormously exciting, and I pay great tribute to the witnesses. I won't take the time to go down though, their message will speak for themselves. But we really have some extraordinary men and women that are out there on the firing line just doing incredible things, giving amazing opportunities for children and others, and we should listen careful to their recommendations and observations, because I think it is something that all of us in the Congress should pay attention to.
I thank our witness Ms. Burks who will be speaking on the Magnet School Program. We've seen these programs in my own city of Boston some that just been absolutely spectacular. And of what have they meant to children, and have been given great, great hope to parents and children alike and getting her recommendations on how we can make that better will be very, very important. I look forward to your message.
Thank you.
SEN. JEFFORDS: I couldn't go forward with also not remembering Senator Pell, who was the great believer in the arts, and who did a great deal in providing programs during his period of time. So I would like to ask Senator Reed for a comment or two of his successor.
SEN. JACK REED (D-RI): Thank you very much. And you're right Senator, I'm just succeeding him, no one can take his place, particularly when it comes to the arts. Senator Pell is a great champion of the arts as you have carried on along with Senator Kennedy.

Just let me say that I think education is the process of letting every child develop their talents and too often when it comes to the arts, because of budget constraints we don't let children develop these talents, and as a result they languish, and they don't develop other talents like mathematical skills or reasoning. So the arts is not something additional, extra, it should be something that be integral to our education process, because it will bring out in so many ways the talents of children and that's what education should all be about.
I would note also that the chairman made reference to the authorization, which he and Senator Kennedy were very instrumental back in 1994 for the cultural partnership for at risk youth. And yet we haven't funded that program yet to my knowledge, and it would be interesting as you make your presentations to comment how effective you think the arts can be to work, not only with the widest range of young people, but also with some young people who are particularly troubled and particularly need something special to get them broken out of a cycle of self destruction, and diminish self-esteem. So this is a very important hearing and the arts again echoing and a very thin echo of my great predecessor, the arts are very important to this country and to the education of its citizens.
Thank you.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you very much, Senator Reed.
We'll start with John Sykes, who is the president of VHI. Please go forward.
MR. JOHN SYKES: Thank you Mr. Chairman, Senator Kennedy, Senator Reed, and members of the committee. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to appear before you, to discuss the issue of music and arts education in our schools, as a parent as a business man, and above all as a citizen.
I've an abiding interest in this topic, which is the focus of our VH1 Save the Music Foundation.
VH1 Save the Music, is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of education in America's public schools. This foundation seeks to raise awareness about the importance of music education, and we want to restore music programs in public schools across the country. We work with partners such as the MENC, the National Association of Music Education, the National School Board's Association, the Recording Industry Association of America, music artist, America's Promise, local school districts, and cable companies across the country, including District Cable Vision right here in Washington DC.
With these partnerships VH1 Save the Music set ups local programs who actually collect musical instruments. We go out and ask citizens of communities to donate their used music instruments, and we give them to public schools that need them, and whatever we don't collect we purchase with money that we raise through our -- nationally through our foundation. We administer this program with accommodation of high energy and low overhead, which allows us to put to 90 cents of every dollar to work in the form of music instrument donation. How we also leverage this investment with the commitment from local schools to rebuild the music programs is part of the regular curriculum. And in short, if they provide the teachers we'll provide the instruments.
By the end of 1999 VH1 Save the Music will have generate approximately $25 million in total support. We'll hit about 350 school programs across the country, 30 cities affecting directly 120,000 children just this year. Our 10-year plan is to provide $100 million in total support to bring music participation to one million public school students. So there's so many challenges out there facing our public schools, why save the music? And I think all three of you addressed that this morning. We all know that music in arts and education in the schools provide our kids with enormous cultural and social benefits and for society at large. But what has recently come to light over the past decade and you made light of, is the growing body of research, that shows the direct connection between music education, and a child's ability to excel academically.
Studies dating back now at 1989 have revealed that students involved in music programs show improved reading abilities higher math, and science scores, and they also have enhanced self-esteem, and they're less likely to be involved with gangs and drugs. We'd rather have our kids practicing music after school rather than discovering other activities such as violence. In addition these students stand a straight significant improvement in their special abilities, because the study of music generates actual neural connections, it actually benefits the brain functions that aid and abstract reasoning that math and science require. Music actually makes our kids smarter, and it provides and really it proves that music education as you said is not a thrill but a basic.
As you can see from the chart over there, you can't see, but you've seen it before as the folks here can see. The college board last year documented a 100 point gap in SAT scores between students who had music education during their early elementary school years, and students that did not. Dr. Frances Rocher (sp) who's done an incredible amount of work at the University of Wisconsin in this area, and here colleagues have demonstrated remarkable increases in the spatial temporal IQ's of young children exposed to music training. And they've also used a standard IQ test, and they found that the spatial temporal IQ's of children who receive music training went 35 percent higher then those of the children who did not receive training eight months after the instruction began. The music students scored and improved by 46 percent, while the scores of children who receive no training improved by only six percent, these findings were consistent across demographic and socioeconomic categories.
Yet despite this important research, school music and arts programs are still being cut back or completely eliminated everyday in this country. Last weeks San Francisco Examiner -- schools stay shorter days and cutbacks. The elementary programs in San Francisco are cutting out their music programs due to budget cutbacks. It's not just happening in San Francisco, only 25 percent of 8th grade students now participate in the music program, according to the 1998 NAEP (ph) Arts Assessment Study. Many students particularly those in poor urban or rural districts, have no access at all to music or arts programs, so how can we expect these students to excel when we're denying them what we now know is a cornerstone of their academic foundation.
Last month I had the privilege of being Principal For A Day in New York City as part of their regular yearly program. And I walked into a classroom, and I met a teacher by the name of Mrs. Linda Keltz (sp) and she was giving lessons to her 4th grade orchestra. I couldn't believe my eyes and my ears. They all had instruments and I said, "God that VH1 Save the Music Program must be working, see we're really helping New York." Well I asked her about the program, she said what support, I bought these instruments at a flea market with my own money. We don't have a penny anymore in our budgets. It was a sobering experience as well as a testament to the dedication of teachers like Mrs. Keltz. But we cannot rely, and should not rely on flea markets and selfish teachers like Mrs. Keltz to use their on paychecks to provide instruments to our students, that will not rebuild the music and arts programs they have been stripped down from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. And while I'm proud of our accomplishment that VH1 Save the Music I am daunted by the scale and scope of the need we have after touring schools for the past three years. And so why the United States has been busy growing the Dow Jones Industrial by 1000 percent over the past 20 years, our children's test scores have been dropping steadily placing American students near the bottom of industrialized nations. And the same time we've been withdrawing our funds from the schools.
So inclusion at VH1 we're committed to doing our part to help bring about change. First of all, it's the right thing to do. I really believe we can effectively use our 68 million television homes to really get the word out, children are our future customers, our employees and our neighbors and we're making a solid business investment in our community. Our parents had music and arts education available to them, you had it, I had it, you mentioned that your parents were involved in it. We need one more very important partner, you, to work with us so that we can rebuild the programs one school, one child at a time.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my testimony today. And once again I want to thank you for this opportunity, Senator Jeffords, Senator Kennedy and Senator Reed for being here. I would be pleased to answer any questions you might have.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well, thank you very much.
Sorry about that bell. I see a little on/off button in front of me. I'll turn it off so don't draw any conclusions if it goes off and doesn't ring the bell this time.
Next we have Mr. Gordon and Mr. Durante. Tom Durante is the arts education coordinator for Arlington County Public Schools and Mr. Derek Gordon is vice president for education for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Please proceed as you desire.
MR. DEREK GORDON: Thank you Mr. Chairman, Senator Kennedy and Senator Reed, distinguished members of the committee for this opportunity to testify on arts and education and the activity of the Kennedy Center for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
I previously submitted to the committee my written statements concerning the Kennedy Centers arts and education activities, which I request be included in the record of this hearing. As the National Center for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center is mandated by Congress to be a leader in performing arts education and policy.
The centers education department serves this mandate by commissioning, creating and touring performances for students, teachers and families offering professional development opportunities in the arts for teachers, creating arts education programs for adults, developing model programs for use by other art centers and schools, providing career opportunities and professional training for young artists, developing and encouraging national and community outreach programs and serving as a clearinghouse for arts education on a national level.
The center works as both pioneer and partner with other performing arts institutions, educators and schools, legislators, parents and community and business leaders. The Kennedy Center's arts and education programs reach more than 4.5 million people across the United States each year and are at work in all of our 50 states.

The center also serves as a local performing arts center for the greater Washington area. And with that comes the responsibility to serve as an arts education resource for the surrounding community and its schools.
The Kennedy Center carries out this dual role by using the local community as a laboratory to incubate and develop programs that are when successful expanded to the national level and offered to other communities across the country. For example, the centers professional development opportunities for teachers program has offered workshops from nationally recognized teaching artists to local teachers for more than 22 years.
In 1991, the Kennedy Center gathered 14 teams consisting of a performing arts center representative and a school partner from around the country to share the centers professional development model. Today there are 80 teams in 41 states that participate in the performing arts centers in schools network. The centers staff provides in-depth training and on-going consultation to these teams on planning events, designing workshops collaboratively with artists evaluating the effectiveness of programs and creating workshops that meet the needs of teachers in their school districts. In the last year performing art centers in schools teams offered more than 400 workshops, serving nearly 15,000 teachers in their communities. These teams along with other performing arts presenters across the country have access to the Kennedy Centers touring productions for young people.
The Kennedy Centers Imagination Celebration on Tour this season brought three different literature based productions to more than 75 cities for more than 200 performances. The centers commission productions of Tails of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Little Women, and the Nightingale were enhanced and supported by high quality performance materials and professional development workshops for teachers providing an in-depth introduction to the performing arts and extending the performance experience into the classroom.
For those unable to attend workshops additional curriculum materials and other information about each production was made available on the Kennedy Centers Imagination Celebration on Tour Web site. Students could find information about the author, playwright and actors and look behind the scenes of productions while teachers found resources to use in connecting the shows to their curriculum. Hosting the Imagination Celebration on Tour site is just one small part of arts edge.
The centers interactive online communications network designed to provide practical easy to access information on arts education that can be put to use in the classroom and at home. The arts ed site receives about 17,000 hits a day. This Web site, which was a pilot project supported with special funding by the US Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts is on the cutting edge if technology and become an invaluable tool to teachers and students. It offers anyone who has access to the Internet a wealth of Kennedy Center education programs as well as resources form other arts and cultural organizations across America and the world. Interactive students, discussions with artists, forums for teachers to work with other teachers in developing curriculum, a database of successful lesson plans for incorporating the arts into the curriculum are just a few of the tools that are available.
Arts edge needs to be sustained and promoted to ensure that all teachers are aware of its resources in the arts and education and to enable its ongoing development. Behind everything we do at the Kennedy Center is the firm belief that the arts are essential to a child's complete education. And the Kennedy Centers Alliance for Arts Education Network comprised of 45 independent state organizations operates in partnership with the center to work for the inclusion of the arts in every child's education. They bring together educators, community leaders, (OTS ?) organizations and concerned citizens to ensure the inclusion of the arts in the school curriculum.
The Kennedy Center works not only with teachers and their students in the classroom, but also provides unique opportunities for artistic training and talented students. In August 34 students selected from across the country will come to work with Suzanne Ferrell (sp) perhaps the most accomplished ballerina in the history of American ballet, demonstrating how exemplary artists can contribute to the development of our next generation of artists and how arts centers can have partnerships with legendary American artists.
Every summer, the National Symphony Orchestra selects students who participate in our summer music institute. Students work with members of the National Symphony Orchestra in private lessons, playing in chamber ensembles, performing in concerts together on the Kennedy Centers stages.
In the last six years young people in the Washington area have participated a unique long-term training program with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. And I'm proud to say that many students' from this program have been selected for additional study in New York with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. And several of them have been selected for inclusion in major American dance companies including the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey (sp) Dance Company.

In addition to performances and artistic training the Kennedy Center has visiting artists that give lectures and demonstrations in classrooms throughout the district of Maryland and Virginia. Twenty- two different artists were in the area schools this year serving more than 16,000 students. In partnership with the District of Columbia Public Schools the Kennedy Center offers longer in-depth residencies with artists working with teachers in classrooms.
The center sponsors nine elementary, middle and junior high school partnerships in the district. And Senator Jeffords, I know that you're familiar with our partnership with Marie Reed (ph) Learning Center and the Encore Furniture Company project. In that collaboration students were not only recognized for their artistry, but also recognizes the most improved in math scores in the entire District of Columbia Public Schools. Kennedy Center has expanded the availability of its artists across the country through a partnership with the Prince William school district, Distance Learning Program has developed a series of live an interactive performances that are broadcast via satellite. And they reach more than 250,000 public schools in more than 119 school districts across the country. We hope to make these free and available to every school in America.
Through these model programs we create successful opportunities to work with the arts in other communities. Our Imagination Celebration programs across the state and others demonstrate the power of the arts to transform teaching and learning. Our NSO residencies, which have brought NSO musicians into communities providing hundreds of concerts and activities have also demonstrated the impact of music and symphonic education to change the lives of students. Just recently we were in Mississippi where we reached more than 35,000 individuals.
The US Department of Education and Congress have made an investment in the Kennedy Center, which the center has matched with private funding from corporations and foundations. Every American should have high quality opportunities to be educated in all of the arts. Such an education should occur both in and out of classroom settings as part of an ongoing learning process for all individuals including those with special talents or special needs.
The Kennedy Centers success in creating model programs was recently noted at a meeting of the Arts Education Partnership, which is a private non-profit coalition of education arts and business philanthropic and government organizations that demonstrates and promotes the essential roll of the arts in education and enabling students to succeed in school life and work. They recognized 23 model arts partnerships that improved the learning in schools and of those 23, 13 were affiliated with the Kennedy Center.
I'm proud that our programs reach communities in all of the 50 states. The Kennedy Center and partnership with other national arts and education organizations will continue to transform teaching and learning through the unique and essential collaboration with certified arts specialists, general classroom teachers and exceptional artists and arts organization harnessing the resources to create arts literacy across America.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and I'll be glad to answer any questions.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well, thank you, Mr. Gordon.
Mr. Durante.
MR. TOM DURANTE: Mr. Chairman, and distinguished members of the committee, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to testify on arts education for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
As art supervisor for Arlington Public Schools in Virginia, I'm fortunate to be part of the school district whose commitment to arts education was recognized by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities in their recently released report, Gaining the Arts Advantage, lessons from school districts that value arts education. It is also an asset to the school system to be in a community that has a performing arts center out the stature of the Kennedy Center.
The Center's national leadership in the fields of arts education, especially in professional development opportunities for teachers has benefited our school district and goes well beyond field trips to the Kennedy Center for student performances. The Kennedy Center has long offered local Washington teachers the opportunity to attend professional development workshops and to bring students to quality performances for young people.
Recently, Arlington Public Schools entered into a formal partnership agreement with the Kennedy Center that expanded the opportunities for professional development for Arlington arts specialists and classroom teachers. Educating teachers is an essential component of any effort designed to affect the artistic literacy of young people. Teachers make daily decisions about their instructional strategies and convey to students their feelings and beliefs. However, the education of most teachers includes only a minimal arts training experience. As a result, many teachers do not understand the potential for incorporating arts into classroom life.
The partnership between the Kennedy Center and the Arlington Public Schools is dedicated to changing that. To kick off this past year, the Kennedy Center hosted 145 Arlington arts education teachers for a day of arts in education activities that included an address by the superintendent of our school system, Robert G. Smith, who renewed his support for arts education and a Kennedy Center partnership.

Derek Gordon, Kennedy Center's vice president of education, offered the commitment of the Kennedy Center and its resources to the professional development of Arlington teachers. This leadership and enthusiastic support for arts education is truly inspiring. Teachers then spent a day in mini workshops that focused on dance, story telling and learning about the arts education resources available on Arts Edge, the Kennedy Center's national arts and education information network on the Internet. They were also given formal presentations on professional development workshops and other opportunities that would be available to these teachers during the upcoming school year.
The Kennedy Center's commitment has opened the door for teachers throughout the school district to make connections with nationally and internationally recognized workshop presenters. They have learned more creative methods of instruction to teach their students the arts and other academic subjects. The result is that more teachers are better prepared to use the arts in their classroom and more students have the opportunity to learn through the arts.
The Kennedy Center also benefits from this partnership. By working with Arlington teachers, the Center has observed and learned from their professional experiences. This association offered the Center new resources from which to draw from. One Arlington teacher, recognized for her talent and skill as a presenter, has been asked to participate in the Center's professional development workshops for teachers and will be trained by the Kennedy Center to be one of their national workshop presenters.
The collaboration with the Kennedy Center has a renewed edge of professionalism in Arlington teachers, push them to a higher level of development and improve their teaching strategies. Teachers are benefiting from the Center's ability to tailor its workshops and to address the curriculum of Arlington Public Schools and to assist the implementing of the Virginia Standards of Learning.
The Arlington Partnership has given the Kennedy Center access to teachers of an entire school system, which in turn has enabled the Center to make an impact throughout the schools, rather than working through the system, one teacher at a time. The Kennedy Center is also working with Arlington teachers to create model curriculum for arts education and incorporating the arts in teaching other academic disciplines.
These efforts will be published on Arts Edge, to be available for the national community of arts educators and artists that use Arts Edge as a tool and resource in their classroom. Arlington teachers who have their curriculum published will receive credits towards the renewal of their teaching certificate.
In addition to the arts education resources of the Kennedy Center that is available to Arlington teachers, our system is a member of the Center's national network of performing arts, centers and schools. This network of 80 teams from across the country benefits, not only from its relationship with the Kennedy Center, but also from each other in the exchange of ideas, resources and successful practices.
The investment of the Kennedy Center in the Arlington Public Schools is beneficial to its teachers and students because it has raised the level of interest awareness and participation in arts education. The Kennedy Center gains from in depth partnerships with the Arlington Public Schools, an experience of implementing a professional development program for teachers in arts education to make a direct impact on teacher performance in the classroom.
From the lessons the Kennedy Center learns in this partnership, it can create new models and resources, which in turn can be shared with its partners across the nation to ensure successful practices can be disseminated.
Again, I appreciate the committee inviting me to testify on arts education and I would be happy to answer any question you may have.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you very much, Mr. Durante.
Mr. Kemp is the president and CEO of Very Special Arts, now referred to as VSA.
MR. JOHN KEMP: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the committee. I am honored to be here and I'm pleased to speak with you today about what we have accomplished over the past quarter century with generous financial support from the United States Congress.
A recent success for VSA Arts of our International Festival Art and Soul, held in Los Angeles over Memorial Day weekend. I hope the images on our monitors that are going to flow through my presentation will give you a sense of the creative energy that was generated by bringing over a thousand participants with disabilities from across the nation and around the world to Los Angeles. It was powerful.
All the arts performing visual and literary enhanced critical thinking and problem solving. They promote mutual respect and understanding. They give children valuable academic and social advantages and they provide youth with artistic outlets that enhance self-expression and independent living skills. These are not just important, they are critical for young children with disabilities.
I won't restate the research that our previous witnesses have already stated about the value and the importance of arts education in the lives of all our youth. But they are critical and I think you've heard well from the previous witnesses.
These facts and their facts support the need for arts education and the value of the arts to positively shape the lives of young adults with and without disabilities to become contributing members of our communities and our work places. A strong desire to involve children and adults in the arts and arts education resulted in the birth of VSA Arts in 1974.
Over the past 25 years, we have taken several important strategic steps to strengthen our mission and broaden our reach including the creation of a US affiliate network that will serve 4.3 million people in this current fiscal year. That's up 20 percent from the previous fiscal year.
In the few states where we don't have affiliates, we invest in arts councils and other program providers to implement VSA Arts initiatives. VSA Arts is able to provide programming nationwide by creating model programs such as our annual Young Soloist Program and Playwright Discovery Program that facilitate affiliate involvement and present opportunities for program replication around the country. Through funding, provided by the United States Department of Education, we are able to support our affiliates as they carry out national initiatives of VSA Arts, as well as create their own unique initiative.
So, how does the federal dollar make a difference at the local level? In the last fiscal year, the VSA Arts affiliate network leveraged an additional $10.58 for every dollar of federal support provided. Generating this additional financial support made it possible for programs to be replicated for new initiatives to be developed and for millions for people across the country to reap the benefits of VSA Arts programs.
Take VSA Arts of New Mexico, for example. In the last fiscal year, this affiliate, working with corporations, foundations, service organizations and federal, state and local arts and education agencies was able to use its federal dollars to obtain more than $500,000 in additional funding. This increase in funds enable VSA Arts New Mexico to provide a wealth of VSA arts programming that directly serve more than 5,000 artists and people with disabilities throughout the State of New Mexico.
To give you an idea of the caliber of programs we are talking about here, let me tell you about a few more of our state affiliate programs. VSA Arts of Massachusetts has developed a Cultural Access Institute, a program that is being implemented nationwide to train individuals to work with cultural organizations to ensure accessibility for all people with disabilities. As a result of this initiative, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and other culture venues throughout the state are now completely accessible to all visitors. And the accessibility information has been electronically databased for all computers to use and access across the country.
Last year our New Hampshire affiliate received recognition for excellence in partnership for the work with the New Hampshire Reads initiative, which demonstrates the important role the arts can play in ensuring that all children read well by the third grade. This summer in the State of Washington, DSA Arts is hosting a regional Start With The Arts Institute to train educators who implement this early childhood program. Over the past few years, these institutes have trained thousands of teachers nationwide to use Start with the Arts Program in their classroom. Start With The Arts is one of our premiere programs that gives young children an academic advantage by using the creative and communicative powers of the arts to teach early learning and social skills.
Senator Jeffords, I know you have first hand knowledge of these regional institutes through your participation in the Start with the Arts Program in Burlington, Vermont this past winter. And as a Vermonter, you also have first hand experience with VSA Vermont, an affiliate that has grown dramatically over the past few years to bring a wealth of arts program and to people across the state. Through mentoring grants and other support provided by VSA Arts, VSA Arts of Vermont was able to work with VSA Arts affiliates to resolve fundraising tactics and programming ideas that launched them towards phenomenal success.
VSA Arts of Vermont was recently recognized with awards in excellence, for successfully implementing dozens of new programs, and statewide disability and impact, and enlisting numerous additional financial supporters. Last year by emphasizing innovative programming with measurable outcomes and effective evaluation methodology, VSA Arts Vermont was able to leverage the federal funding it receive from VSA Arts tenfold to serve 5200 people across the states. Now, it is mentoring other affiliates as well.
I want to tell you a little bit about people who benefit from our programs as well. Matthew Volbrooke (ph) from Senators Kennedy, Dodd and Harkin, recently heard -- performed at our 25th Anniversary International Night Gala, was the recipient of a VSA Arts Young Soloist Award, which led him to become the national youth ambassador for Unisia. His mother credits music with Matthew's academic and social success. She say's "Singing has played a part in Matthew's being so well adjusted. When people meet him, they forget that he's blind.

" And Matthew is quick to add his feelings about VSA Arts. "Most of the performances that I've done nationally and internationally had been through VSA Arts; things like performing at the Kennedy Center. Without a doubt, VSA Arts has impacted my life through its encouragement of my musical talent."
And then there's 10 year old Hope Avery from Iowa who started dancing in New Visions Dance project and now takes a mainstream jazz class. This is how she describes her experience. "I have prosthetics. It's nice to dance without them on. It doesn't hurt to wear them but sometimes we have to leap and I don't think I'd be able to leap with my legs on because they're so heavy and I think they'd pull me down. In class, we practice leaping and we do things by ourselves. I like when we dance really fast. That's fun. Dancing has built up my confidence. My stumps hurt after dancing, but inside I feel very happy because I've achieved something. I'm proud of myself."
On a personal note, I was born without arms or legs below the elbows and knees. And I benefited from an inclusive educational setting in a regular kindergarten classroom right through law school. My mother's passing when I 15 months old and my father's advocacy with public and private in North Dakota, Kentucky, Washington DC and Kansas, enabled me to develop social relationships and academic opportunities in a real world setting. This also provided by teachers and fellow students with an awareness that I, as a student with a disability, rightfully belonged in every classroom in every school wherever I was.
VSA Arts is creating opportunities for all children to receive the same advantages that I benefited from as well. Through implementing programs that encourage inclusivity and utilize the value of the arts to enhance academic performance, as well as in some instances nurture of the unstoppable disability culture that is developing. We not only create and give our children a jumpstart in life, but teach them the importance of appreciation, acceptance and tolerance.
We have also developed a three-year strategic plan focused on devoting more resources to strengthening our national affiliate network by providing increased financial and technical assistance to our fields, and by establishing partnerships that will broaden and further our reach, such as with the American Association of Museums, the American Occupational Therapy Association and alike.
With sustained financial support from Congress, VSA Arts programs provide millions of Americans with disability the opportunity to learn, grow and achieve. We are dedicated to continuing our mission to promote this growth and achievement by harnessing the creative power of the arts.
Thank you very, very much for the opportunity to appear before you.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you Mr. Kemp.
Mr. Doctor Benjamin Canada, as the superintendent of Portland Schools.
Welcome, pleased to hear from you. I understand you have you have some good news for us, good information.
MR. BENJAMIN CANADA: Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I think that I do. And I'm very excited and happy and proud to be here this morning. I can tell you that from both my personal experiences and my 31 years of professional experience in education covering eight different states, the last decade of which has been the superintendent of schools in Jackson, Mississippi, Atlanta, Georgia and now Portland, Oregon, that from my perspective, arts education is in fact the bedrock for keeping democracy alive in our nation today. And arts education allows a child's imagination to be stirred so that he or she will dream. It instills the confidence in them to let them believe. It encourages them to set goals and it helps them to develop the skills and to make their dreams a reality.
Born in 1944 in the Delta of Louisiana, which was very segregated and full of cotton and timber and mosquitoes, I can tell you that it was because of the arts that I had the opportunity to move beyond the arena of segregation, because there were teachers who believed that high standards and high expectations and that you were expected to be involved in band, and choir, and drama and that in church and other things you had to also speak. So, because of that, at an early age, I began to realize that there were dreams for which I could set goals for and that I could be successful. Those dreams led me to college and to decide that I wanted to work with children who had disabilities, and so I got a degree in special education. I then decided that I wanted to be not only a teacher but an administrator and ultimately I became a superintendent of schools.
Probably the most influential position that I've had and the ability to influence others to push for higher standards, higher expectations for children regardless of where they were born, where they lived or happen to go to school is that of a superintendent of schools. My most recent experience in Portland, Oregon, where I am now, for nine years in a row they've experienced significant cut. When I arrived I made it very clear as the finalist for the position for superintendent, that I would not accept the position unless the business community was willing to step up to the plate and join with the Board of Education to re-instill and re-infuse the arts back into Portland public schools. They made that commitment, and I'm happy to tell you that we are in fact seeing a rejuvenation of the commitment to help all children have access to the arts.
I can tell you of examples of a young lady who was at the time 15 years old, Jennifer Fletcher, who because she had been exposed to the arts at an early age felt that it was not right for young children not to have access to the arts. This past year she organized a concert and raised over $100,000. She and a group of students have gotten together, students have written proposals, those proposals are now funding arts programs in 22 schools in Portland to the tune of 71,300, she still has a little bit more left. I meet with a group of students every Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m., it started out one day a week, then it was two days a week -- a month rather, and now it's every Thursday at 6:30, and we talk about issues; issues that deal with the budget for Portland public schools.
One of the students who is now a junior in high school looking at the budget for the elementary school said, this is odd. I notice that every school where they're spending part of their money on the arts, the academic performance of students is up regardless of the social economic background of the students. And in those schools where they don't spend money on the arts, they're spending it all on reading and math and quote, "the basic skills"; the academic performance is not. There's something wrong with this picture. That gives me great courage to be able to say to you that the youth of America have a desire, not only to participate in the arts, but to be able to share what they have learned and given exposure to, to help others have that same kind of an experience.
I'll also tell you that Portland, as well as in Atlanta, I had the opportunity to see the arts have tremendous rise again in Atlanta. One of the projects that Atlanta and both Portland are involved in is the youth art, and I will tell you that when you get units like the Department of Justice, the National Endowment for Humanities, local arts groups coming together, and put it together successful practices, communities have something they can work with. This is a program that looks at what's happening after school, the students who have been involved in these programs have reduced their crime activity after schools. Another piece that's very successful for us is Gaining the Arts Advantage. It's a document of proven successful practices across the country, it's the kind of thing that needs to be produced and shared with my colleague, the superintendents across this country. It works.
I will also say to you that you have to practice what you preach. I left last night at 9:55 from Portland, from a school board meeting. On the cover of every school board agenda is a piece of student artwork. So, we practice what we preach. A group of 4th graders presented the board and I with copies of a piece that they had done. This is Portland Waterworks Art and Engineering. All written and illustrated by students. They've signed their pieces. What I'm trying to say to you is this, it doesn't matter whether you were born in rural America, urban America, suburban America, the arts in any form, and students should have access to individual discipline as well as having access to the arts across disciplines, is the fabric of this country that allows one to be creative, to think, to be humanistic and to keep democracy alive.
I have eight recommendations in my written testimony. I won't go through those, obviously --
SEN. JEFFORDS: I will.
(Laughter.)
MR. CANADA: I would encourage you to do that. So, I'm honored and proud to be here to say to you the arts are alive and well, and the children of America are alive and well and counting on you. They can point with pride to certain things, they view certain things with alarm right now, but they have hope in you and the other members of the committee that you will keep arts alive in all schools, regardless of where the children are.
Thank you for your opportunity --
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you very much, doctor.
Dr. Rice is the senior curator of education for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Please proceed.
MS. DANIELLE RICE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm delighted to be here, and as a curator of education and at an art museum, I represent a very special branch of art education, and I'd like to tell you a little bit more about that. One of the reasons that I've been a museum educator for over 25 years is because something magical happens when young people encounter the real thing, the art objects in the museum setting. And we've already heard a number of testimonies today that attest to the fact that the arts are one of the greatest motivators that students can have, motivators for learning. But this magic is very hard to capture.
I'll start with a quote from an American Cambodian boy who, after seeing the Japanese teahouse at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, wrote, "It made me feel that I wanted to live there because it is almost the same as my house in Cambodia. I wanted to pick bamboo, to make soup for my parents, and I wanted to plant a garden in the back field." Something very important happened for this young person, and I want to see if we can get this video going.

I want to show you a little segment of a program that we do with Title I schools in Philadelphia. It's a partly grant funded program that brings young people to the museum. There's two sections of the program, you'll see this in the videotape. One is the multiple visit program, and the other is an after school program. It's playing, I think it's going. I think it's going to happen. I'm very optimistic about it --
(Laughter.)
SEN. JEFFORDS: You have hope.
MS. RICE: I have hope. It's only a two-minute videotape, so if it doesn't show up any second now, don't give up, and I'll just keep going. There we go.
Oh well. I'll keep going with the testimony. If you guys keep playing with it, you can interrupt me any second. Try rewinding because it's possible it might have gotten rewound.
The successful museum educator, museum educators have suffered from not being understood a little bit, because what is a museum educator? A museum educator is part scholar, part artist, part psychologist, part actor, and most importantly, a passionate teacher. Some museums offer sustained instruction, while others only get a brief encounter with students. In either case, our main objective is to seduce students into wanting to learn more. As museum educators, we know that our work is by nature incomplete. We are part of a larger educational process, and we embrace that role. We work in close partnership with schools.
A recent study by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, called True Partners, True Needs, found that over 80 percent of museums make their educational offerings support state and local content standards.
SEN. JEFFORDS: We got you know --
MS. RICE: Let's take a look at this very brief program, starring kids coming to the museum.
(Videotape is played.) Okay, that's a picture of pride and interest and excitement. The Philadelphia school district, for example, received $87.4 million in Title I money. It supplies two district art teachers to the museum full time. As a result, children in Philadelphia public schools come to the museum free of charge. Every year, 75,000 school children from throughout the Delaware Valley participate in lessons at the museum. They travel around the world, visiting art from China, India, and Japan, they try on armor, they imagine themselves as runaways in the museum like the children in the famous novel, they track down mythological characters. But this is only a small part of what museum education is all about. Preschool programs teach reading readiness as well as art skills. Professional development programs for teachers train educators to integrate art objects into diverse curriculums, including disciplines as diverse as history, language, science, as well as art.
Printed and Web-based information packets give teachers ideas for using art in their classroom. After school programs reach out to students from impoverished neighborhoods, and weekend programs encourage families from diverse communities to see the museum as a second home. An exciting recent initiative in Philadelphia is our distance learning program. Using two-way teleconferencing, we can provide students with virtual museum lessons in Texas, Arizona, Minnesota, anywhere in the United States. At a time when young people are so often exposed to violence, poverty, and negativity, museums perform an essential function in helping them find beauty and inspiration, connections to themselves, to their past, and to other cultures.
Works of art show the best of what it means to be human, and the art-making process draws on everyone's creativity-building, building both confidence and skill. In short, museum education makes an essential contribution to the arts and to arts education in particular, and to education in general. But it cannot function in a vacuum, and support of arts education and of the arts in general is essential to creating citizens who can fully appreciate and partake of some of humanities greatest achievements.
Thank you for giving me a chance to testify today.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you, doctor.
Ms. Burks is the director of Magnet Schools in Roanoke City Schools, nice to have you with us.
MS. SANDRA BURKS: Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, greetings.
On behalf of Dr. E. Wayne Harris, superintendent of Roanoke City Public Schools, the Roanoke City Public School Board and the joint task force of the Magnet Schools of America and Council of the Great City Schools, we appreciate the opportunity to share with you today our experiences and thoughts about a program we care very deeply about, magnet schools.
As the director of Magnet Schools for Roanoke City, I am responsible for the implementation of the magnet schools assistance grant and also oversee the 12 magnet schools in elementary, middle and high school levels.
The Magnet Schools Assistance Program, MSAP, is a prime example of the positive impact that federal education programs can have on local education innovations. MSAP has provided the incentive for local communities to design effective programs that have revitalized education curriculum. As a result of this federal leadership, magnet schools have increased public school options for over 2 million students nationwide, serving as a model for school improvement efforts.
Magnet schools are a significant part of our nation's effort to voluntarily desegregate and diversify our nation's schools. Research has found that desegregation helps increase rates of high school graduation, college attendance, income and better occupational prospects.
Let me tell you a little bit about Roanoke. It is the largest urban center in Southwest Virginia, with a population of a little over 100,000. It's economy forms the retail, medical, financial, cultural, and recreational hub for nearly one million people who live within a 50-mile radius. Currently, the Roanoke City Public Schools has a student population of a little over 13,000 students. The district maintains 21 elementary schools, six middle schools and two high schools. Of those, 13 are magnet programs.
As in other urban school districts throughout the country, the percentage of minority students continues to increase. Over the past six years, the percentage of children from low-income households has increased from 42 to 55 percent across the district. This group contains a large number of children whose academic performance is consistently below students who live in middle and upper income households. Meeting these educational needs requires innovation that magnet schools provide to our students.
Roanoke was very fortunate to receive a $2.39 million grant in the current MSAP cycle. The grant is for the development of the first public Montessori School in Southwest Virginia, Round Hill, which serves preschool through grade two. Federal dollars will pay for every teacher to receive a rigorous 400-hour course, leading to Montessori certification and the complete outfitting of each classroom with materials, supplies and furniture.
Implementation of the Montessori Program requires extensive step development through all three years of the project. Current limitations in the regulations restrict our ability to use these funds and the amount necessary to support staff development beyond the first year. This limitation has been recognized by the magnet schools community and the administration, both whom have the recommended modifications to address this in reauthorization.
Montessori is recognized as a reform model by the US Department of Education, the Montessori teaching philosophy was created to overcome a key problem facing Roanoke and many districts around the country, impoverished children not ready for school. Because of the extensive cost of teacher training and the cost of materials and supplies, most public schools cannot afford this program. Without federal dollars in seed money to begin, this opportunity would not have been available to the students of Southwest Virginia.
Less than a year into the grant Round Hill Montessori has decreased minority isolation and showed substantial gains in achievement. For example, performance on the Stanford Achievement test, grade one, grows from 40 percent of the students scoring above the 50 percentile, to 58 percent of the reading sub-test. The district expects Round Hill Montessori will be an extremely successful magnet, residence ability to attract students and to increase student achievement.
Over the years, the district has been fortunate to receive federal dollars through the Magnet School Assistance Program for seed money to institute systemic reform. This has allowed us to develop and enhance programs in the arts, science and engineering, aviation, architectural engineering design, communication and many more.
The district has sustained these programs with local money. For instance, in 1993, Roanoke began an international baccalaureate IB Program at the middle and high school level. The IB Program is recognized worldwide as a rigorous academic program, resulting in the award of a diploma that serves as an entrie into the most prestigious universities and colleges around the globe. In Roanoke, magnet graduates have gone on to Harvard, Cornell, UVA and other notable schools. Since the program has had great success at the middle and high school level, currently the district is planning expansion to K- 5.
Roanoke City Public Schools has developed a strong partnership with our local community to make our system more responsive to their needs. As a magnet high school an advisory committee comprised of local businesses, community members and parents monitors the curriculum to ensure a strong connection to the career skills needed in the Roanoke Valley.
In addition to sharing my experiences in Roanoke, I would like to comment on the ESEA reauthorization of Title V. Since June of 1997, a joint task force of national experts of the Council of Great City Schools and Magnet Schools of America, have come together to review Title V and prepare recommendations to Congress.

Overall, we recommend that there only be technical and minor changes to the Magnet School's Assistance Program. These recommendations have been provided to the committee.
Chairman Jeffords, I would ask the joint task force recommendations to the reauthorization be permitted to be entered into the record as an addendum to my testimony.
SEN. JEFFORDS: They will.
MS. BURKS: In conclusion, the Magnet School Assistance Program has played a vital role in the reform efforts of the Roanoke City Public School district. Without federal funds to implement cutting edge technology, innovative instructional strategies and unique materials, the students of Roanoke City would be disadvantaged in the work place and not as competitive in college placement.
In short, regardless of the paths they chose the students would not be as successful as they are today. On behalf of the students of Roanoke City Public Schools, I would like to thank you for providing them with the opportunity to excel.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Thank you very much.
Senator Wellstone.
SEN. PAUL WELLSTONE (D-MN): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I ask the chairman for his indulgence just to apologize that I have to leave before getting a chance to question. And I want to apologize to some of the panelists for coming in late. I couldn't get here until now, but some of you all have come a long way. Last night, Portland, and I just think the testimony, it was eloquent. It was moving. It was passionate. It was powerful. And Senator, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your being here.
Thank you very much.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well, thank you all for excellent testimony.
I always get so heartened and feel so good when I hear all of this testimony. And then wonder why there's so few schools that take advantage of it, and what we can do in the reauthorization in the Elementary and Secondary Act, certainly at least to let people know these great programs and how effective they are. And secondly, how do we get them replicated.
I'm going to start with Mr. Gordon. I know that your Marie Reed School, I was so impressed with that and to see how well, sort of like the Greeks on mathematics would use to teach. I mean, music was used to teach mathematics and geometry and trigonometry and all. How do we replicate that? How has it been replicated? How many schools have adopted that program? And how can we make it more aware of the people?
MR. GORDON: Well, I think one of the things that we have to recognize is that schools generally do not have the funds in order to support in depth residencies of that sort. And that if we can make more funds available to schools and to arts organizations to work in those schools, we can see the residencies happening. We have seen --
SEN. JEFFORDS: Why don't you explain a little bit around the residency.
MR. GORDON: About the residency itself.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Right.
MR. GORDON: Senator Jeffords had the opportunity to witness the results of our Marie Reed Encore Furniture Partnership at Marie Reed Elementary School here in the district. It was actually a visual arts project, an individual arts project. The sixth grade math students were basically involved in creating a business, a furniture business. The visual artist worked with them in acquiring old, abandoned furniture, refinishing that furniture, designing it and ultimately selling the furniture. But of course before they could do that, they had to figure out what kind of materials they needed. They had to figure out a marketing plan. They developed a board of directors. They learned to apply for bank loans and a variety of other real life skills that enabled them to have a very successful business.
They also partnered with their local community by going to local banks and again acquiring the pieces of furniture from other individuals in the community. The school ended up with a very successful auction of their furniture where every student ended up with a savings account with a bond in it for them. But also that classroom is recognized by the District of Columbia public schools as the most improved in math in the entire district, and it was because that the arts were used as an opportunity for learning across the curriculum and to stimulate students in utilizing their learning, the practical application of knowledge through the arts.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Let's get to the music. I remember, at least being there, was one of the artists you had in residence there, this was the part that I was interested in. And I think they were using the piano, how to use the different dimensions of the piano to teach math and by the tone that you could get out it, and why --
MR.GORDON(?): Right. And another one of our residencies where we provided piano instruction, we were able to talk about fractions, and to talk about intervals and the way that music and mathematics work together. In so much of music, it is basically through mathematical relationships that sound is created. And students were able to really develop those skills. Also, memorization skills and even conjugation skills and some Spanish classes where they were able to use rhythms in order to learn the conjugation of their verbs and adverbs in foreign languages.
So, there have been a variety of residencies that we've worked in, and a variety of ways that music, theater, and the visual arts have been used in really engaging student, and then proving their learning abilities.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Mr. Canada, Dr. Canada, how do we get everybody to have a city like Portland is right now? I'm serious in the sense, how do we replicate these good programs that we find around the country, good cities? I have seen some wonderful things in New York City in one or two schools, but why not all the schools?
MR. CANADA: Mr. Chairman, there are a number of things that I would recommend for your consideration. Number one would be that as chair and for anything that comes through your committee, that you would seek and require some language acknowledging the value of the arts, for every piece that comes through your committee. But as president-elect for the American Association of School Administrators, AASA, which has about over 15,000 school districts that we represent, organizations like Americans for the Arts, the National Endowment for Humanity, et cetera. We're getting together to talk about how to take things like gaining the Arts Advantage, (best practices ?), this is a document that was just on the press this past year, and sharing that information with school districts, taking tool kits, putting them in the hands of professional educators.
I substitute one day a month as a regular teacher in the schools, so that I can see and feel and understand what it is that teachers are looking for and what they're needing. They are looking for pieces like this, but they're also looking for support to be able to say to their communities, not only is this important, but it is also a part of the enabling legislation that gave funds for special projects in schools that require the use of the arts in infusing areas that look at math, science, language arts, social studies, what have you. The arts is that piece that allows them to take it across. So, it means that we have to support each other, we have to push things like in Portland, the regional arts and cultural group that's coming together (before us council ?), to say arts group, big, small, it doesn't matter. If we're going to survive and have patrons of the arts later on, we have to do something with children at school now and we have to then make sure that the academic performance of students is better because they've been exposed to the arts. SEN. JEFFORDS: Mr. Sykes. You wanted to comment, I believe, on an earlier question I had. This is the note I got passed. Oh, music education, I think. No?
MR. SYKES: I didn't pass you that note, but --
(Laughter.)
MR. : Well, somebody's read your mind --
(Laughter.)
MR. SYKES: In that case, I just think that, I think you said something eloquent, was that why, with all this great information around, have we not brought about change in this country? I stumbled upon this myself just being principal for a day a few years ago in New York. I was badgered to do my civic duty, and I went to a school and I saw the 5th grade orchestra not getting in fights in the hallways, not pushing each other around. I saw them play Beethoven. And I looked closer at the instruments and I saw they were falling apart. And the principal said, yes, we're going to have to close the program down because we have no money.
Coincidentally, two weeks later, the cover of Newsweek, your child's brain. You know, music equals math. So, we have such a large body of evidence now, making this connection. And we know that the children are the future of our culture. I mean, in my business, product development is everything. I really see the children in this country as product development, that why not make a stand. And as a company, yes, we'll raise $100 million at VH1, and we'll carry the flag like a renegade group trying to help schools. In fact, we donated the music instruments to Marie Reed (sp) last year that you're using, coincidentally, if you have a music program.
But really, we want to reach out to government to say, let's be partners here, let's bring about change together. Private business should help, can help, will help, but we really can't make a dent. We need the government as our partners, and with people like you in place to help carry the flag, I think we can bring about change.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well, thank you.
Senator Reed.
SEN. JACK REED (D-RI): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for your testimony. It was quite eloquent and very important.
Dr. Canada, let me just ask the first question, because you suggested it to me with your comments.

There is a debate now going on about where do you put resources, and there's been emphasis on it's just literacy and it's mathematic. It's just literacy and it's mathematic, it's just literacy and it's mathematic. And you very forcefully stated that you need the arts to supplement that. And I guess the question would be, I think you want to say, you need both, but how do you do both when you have a limited budgets. And anyone else that might want to --
MR. CANADA: Well, I think we also have to -- Senator Reed, you are absolutely correct with regard to needing both. But I think it also goes back to something else, and it's part of the bedrock of this country. And that is something that we've not wanted to deal with, and that's the issue of class. For some students, depending on the socioeconomic status from which they come, it's automatic, the arts are just a part of it, and that's what really gets things going for them. For other children, it's perceived that all they need is, quote, "Basic skills." And I have seen situations where funding has come and they've pushed it all in, quote, "Literacy and the math." And the scores get this much improvement. But when the arts are added, you get this much improvement, and you also get a happy child, a child who is not actively engaged in inappropriate behavior after school, a child who may have been involved in inappropriate behaviors, but got involved with the arts. And all of a sudden is coming back to school.
So, it really boils down to not only the issue of class, but the issue of rural America versus suburban America versus urban America. Wherever you're born and wherever you live, you have a right, I think, to have a complete education and a complete education involves the arts. And when I grew up, if you didn't get a complete, it was called incomplete, you were a failure. I think when we don't give all children access to the arts, we are failing children, and that should not happen in this country.
SEN. REED: Thank you, doctor. I don't know, is there anyone else who'd like to comment? Mr. Gordon, please.
MR. GORDON: Yes, I'd just like to comment that in the recent NAEP report, National Assessment of Educational Progress, it was noted that when all students had access to the arts, that the differences in their performance based on socioeconomic situations were very minimal. And I think that it proves that when the arts are part of the educational diet that a student is given, that it really broadens their ability to achieve high standards in all areas. I mean, we talk about arts literacy, and today when we're dealing with a visual society, we're talking about sort of subliminal messages that are given through advertising and things of that sort, it really is changing the way we communicate and the way we have impact on not only the American public, but on the world. And unless we are able to educate young people to understand what they're receiving, and also to communicate in those more complicated, more conceptual ways, they're not going to be successful.
The creativity of America, and we talk about our economy of ideas right now, is that we have been able to generate so much more not because there's more hard product being created, but because we have so many ideas that are being generated, sparking new industries and technologies, it is the creativity that comes through the arts that sparks and fuels that economy of ideas that I think has helped make America great, and I hope will continue to do so.
SEN. REED: Thank you, Mr. Gordon.
Let me just shift the subject slightly and that is Ms. Burks, you're the magnet school office for Roanoke City Schools, and I've seen in my home capital of Providence of Rhode Island that magnet schools are working very well. Could you, though, sort of sketch out some of the differences between a magnet school and some of the other, the charter schools and the choice schools, et cetera? Because, there is now some discussion about let's just all throw everything together into one big lump and say here, you know, they're all the same. Sandra, could you?
MS. BURKS: Well, first of all, one of the biggest differences is that magnet schools is part of the public school system; they are not a private enterprise. The second is that they are accountable under the last reauthorization there were standards of accountability that were adopted as part of that regulation, which means there are very specific things and goals that magnet schools have to meet in order to continue funding, that might not be as strong in other parts of the law.
The other thing is that in magnet schools, we serve all children. In Roanoke City, there is no academic retirement for entrants into the school, so all children have an equal opportunity to participate. And that may or may not be the case of some of the other forums we're looking at right now.
SEN. REED: Thank you.
I wonder if -- superintendent, do you have some views on magnet schools? You have magnet schools, we suspect, in Portland.
MR. CANADA: Yes, we do have magnet schools. I've been fortunate -- I said I've worked in eight states, I've seen magnet schools I all of those. They do work. They make a difference. With regard to the issue of lumping all funds together, I think we would lose the benefit, the advantage that's enabling legislation started out to do, which is to reduce the effects of being born in poverty, living in poverty. For some people who have never lived in the rural part of this country, they don't know what it feels like to be deprived. And to all of a sudden have lumped into one piece and everybody got a piece of the pie and all of a sudden you say, well, I got one- sixteenth of the pie but it's no longer a 13 inch pie, it's now a nine inch pie, you've deprived me of something.
So, I would not want to see us look at the block grant kind of an option where everything went into something without having some consideration for the special needs of the children of poverty, children of color, children in rural American, children in urban America.
SEN. REED: Thank you.
Ms. Burks, do you have another comment?
MS. BURK: Yeah, I was going to add it is really -- it represents a national commitment to diversity and desegregation in our nation's schools and is one of the few programs that does that. And studies have shown that children do benefit in that diverse environment. I was pleased that currently magnet schools aren't included in the Straight A's legislation, and I would recommend that it be removed from dollars to the classroom, because it is a national interest, and I always enjoyed bipartisan support in the past.
SEN. REED: Thank you.
Mr. Gordon.
MR. GORDON: Senator again, I think the point that was just made about the fact that magnet schools are really part of a desegregation program, that's how they really sort of (payment ?) to being in many of our school districts. It demonstrates that when you have diverse students from divers economic situations and racial situations that the arts provide an opportunity for them all to learn with sort of an equal playing field and that in that mixed environment, all students tend to achieve high results. So again, I think it demonstrates that the arts have a unique impact to bring diverse people together and to have everyone succeed through the experience. And I don't think we want to forget where magnet schools came from.
SEN. REED: Thank you.
Mr. Sykes, let me complement you on your program for providing musical instruments to schools. Also here, the president of VHI, which is some very big company, but I think it's VH1?
MR. SYKES: VH1, yeah.

(Laughter.)
I was going to let that one go.
SEN. REED: The other night I was watching One Hit Wonders Countdown on VH1 --
(Laughter.)
and I was --
MR. SYKES: You were.
SEN. REED: Yeah, I was thinking, you know, there should be a company called VHI someday, but any ways.
(Laughter.)
Something else I want to compliment you own. But I think at the -- please correct me if I'm wrong. At the Columbine tragedy, VH1 put young people on TV talking about violence and communication. I think I'm correct. Am I?
MR. SYKES: It was on MTV, out sister network.
SEN. REED: Okay.
MR. SYKES: We actually were supporting that area with music instruments because we heard they were going to cut the music program and we thought, this is not the time to let kids go out into the streets, this is a time to help them and to support them with music programs. So, we worked together --
SEN. REED: Well, let me just take a blur stroke at this in saying I was in a school talking to young people about violence issues and they pointed out that one of the places they go to watch, along with me, the One Hit Wonders, is VH1 and MTV and that they really get a lot of positive information about what was happening in violence and how some of the difficult was going on. So, not only through your instruments programs, but your attempt to communicate with children and I thank you. Most of us, except for devotees who want to hit wonders, don't, I think, appreciate that you do try to communicate and communicate well with younger people.
MR. SYKES: Well, we really feel that we have a very powerful mouthpiece that we reach 68 million home and besides running our music concerts of Eric Clapton, or Don Henley, or whatever or for you associate, the Grateful Dead --
(Laughter.

)
Senator, Leahy, we really feel we have a responsibility to give back and use that to send an important message. And we really feel that a lot of our viewers are 25, 26, they're about to become parents and they don't know what's going on. They assume it's just the way it was when they grew up. They have no idea what has happened and they won't until they walk into a school. And not just in the urban areas, but up in Schenectady, New York where I grew up with the music program and now there is no music program, they're metal detectors when you walk into that middle-class small town school.
So, the cover of the Washington Post today had this huge intimate story on this budget surplus that came unexpectedly early. I know some of it is going to go to Medicare as it should, as well as Social Security, but perhaps because we have such an incredible rallying around the importance of music education and we now have the fact, (so we certainly are evident ?), maybe we could try to earmark some of that investing in the younger segment.
SEN. REED: Funny you should mention that.
(Laughter.)
But the President has a proposal for a children's trust fund that would put more money to head start, more money into education programs and I'm sure within that money, Title I also, which is critical, there would be more of the dollars that we could use in the arts. But your networks particularly have a huge impact on the children of America. And I think you do appreciate the power you have, which is not only to, you know, get out the hit records, but to do it in a way which is responsible and helpful to other broader issues.
Thank you.
MR. SYKES: Thank you.
SEN. REED: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well, I'm going to pursue how we can replicate or get people to more knowledgeable about the advantages of the arts and all. First of all is as far as teachers and principals and all goes, it seems that professional development is an area that we at least should provide the knowledge and the understanding of what things can do. How do we do that? What should we do in this -- our bill that we have before us to try and impact the awareness or the great advantages of the utilization of the arts, professional development?
MR. CANADA: I'd be happy to make a stab at it, and I'm sure that Derek will also. I think it's important in the language of anything that comes through your committee, et cetera that you not only ask for information to include arts being woven through the fabric of every subject that we teach, but that there be some requirement that says professional development has to accompany programs in terms of how they're going to spend some of the money. To have a kit (ph) and not give access to the professional development, to me would be like Mr. Sykes running his piece and the person in rural America having a large screen TV with no power; they can't get to it. So, it doesn't matter what you're running over the air.
So, I think it's the ability to give professional educators, which I will tell you that I've been fortunate to work with some of the best, they're looking for professional development, they're looking for kits, but they want to know that there is going to be the opportunity for a colleague or someone else to come in and show them how to do it.
And if I could, just digress for just a second, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to say to Mr. Sykes in terms of replication, Jennifer Fletcher who raised $100,000 is also planning another concert to raise another $100,000 and you can replicate your instrument program with us in Portland, Oregon -- (laughter) -- we're ready, we're able --
MR. SYKES: I understand, we'll be there.
MR. CANADA: You are invited -- in front of Mr. Chairman. But, if that kind of partnership, that's also part of the replication process where something is working and its working well you have to then reach out and pull in other partners in. I think the professional development is the key to it, but it's also partnerships.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Yes, Mr. Gordon.
MR. GORDON: Senator Jeffords, I'd note that I think when Goals 2000 was actually passed as part of the Improving America's Schools Act it made it clear that the arts were considered part of the basics. However, the arts are still a little bit at a disadvantage in terms of accessing some of the resources such as the Eisenhower Funds, things of that sort. And also attempting to mandate if you will that professional development be made available utilizing the arts and in the arts themselves both about arts programs, but also utilizing them in teaching other subjects. I think maybe Tom might want to comment on it since that's really what his area is within the Arlington Public Schools.

MR. DURANTE: There's two points that I would like to make. The first one being that when I talk to teachers that are teaching in the classroom, not arts educators we talk in terms of compartmentalization of a subject such as social studies or math or science and I call it basically the Henry Ford School of Education, which is that we all went to a school that we went to a math class or science class and we just learned those particular facts that make up the subject. But how much richer our education would have been or mine would have been if we were able to weave ideas and strands through each subject matter that made it relevant not only for that one particular class, but that whole day was relevant. And I think that once teachers understand how to do that and are able to do that, I believe that we're going to see an increase in learning, a considerable increase in learning and a considerable increase in students wanting to attend school and going to school.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Let me follow up on that, because I think that's important. We are also deeply concerned about dropouts and the forgotten half and you mentioned words relevance and things like that. For kids to learn, I think they first got to have something that's relevant to them.
And second, if it's relevant and fun, it's probably a pretty good start towards making sure somebody learns something. How do we infuse that across to them? I wonder whether, you know, I don't know about the teaching colleges and the universities, but whether they comminute with each other or whatever, but now all this knowledge we have about the development of the brain in the early development how important it is. And all the things we should do carry down through. Unless that knowledge is generally contained in all of the teachers and whatever and the school boards more particular probably how are we do at the national level, what do we do to try to emphasize what great advantages there are like the SAT scores?
MR. GORDON: I think if we can have an impact on some of the pre- service at our teachers colleges making sure that they include in the instruction that they give to our aspiring teachers the value of the arts. And the impact of it so that it becomes a basic part of their strategies for teaching and learning before they ever get into the classroom. That it can make a tremendous difference in terms of how they will not only be aware of, but utilize these resources when they come into the schools.
I'm also aware of things such as the 21st Century Grants Program that has utilizing schools in a creative way after school and prior to school starting working with arts programs and other programs to again, allow students an opportunity to engage in more in-depth exploration of the arts as well as in some cases their parents having opportunities, because in many cases the parents were in that generation that missed some of the arts in the schools. And it's an opportunity for them to come into contact with the arts as well.

So, it's valued in the community. It's valued in the home. That's going to have an impact on what happens in our local school boards, in our superintendents, and fortunately we have very fine superintendents represented here with Superintendent Canada. But I think many of the programs as long as the role of the arts and the opportunity to fund demonstration projects with the arts to get that image out will be very important. Often it's very hard for arts programs to compete for funds even in those categories where they are eligible.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Dr. Canada, of ahead, but I just want to say that the superintendents and school boards are very important in this regard too. And how do we -- what do we do in that area?
MR. CANADA: Chairman, I was going to basically make a similar statement. I think it's time for school systems, superintendents and boards to also be more proactive and demand that colleges and universities change their teacher education program. And that we have to go on record as we did in Atlanta where we created the profile of the teacher of the future for Atlanta. We're now creating that profile of the teacher of the future for Portland. And we're sitting down with teachers; we're sitting down with students; we're sitting down with parents; we're sitting down with the universities and the colleges and saying here's what we see the future being, here's what your graduates look like now. We will not hire your graduates after a certain point if they do not meet these different criteria.
And I think we have to make that kind of a statement, because until we do such we continue to get the same product. And we know that that same product while it may have been great and may be even great today, we know that when we look at the future it will not serve the needs of our children. And so, we have to be proactive and take advantage of some of the legislation that's already on the books to demand that the colleges and the universities service the needs of the school districts rather than saying here's our product, take it or leave it. We're going to leave it.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Yes, Mr. Sykes.
MR. SYKES: Mr. Chairman, as much as we all talk about educating government, you make a very good point and Dr. Canada made a good point earlier, we have to educate the educators because we've always assumed that the arts have just been a frill. It has only been in the last 10 years that we've had this evidence and the direct connection. I have a feeling our teachers just knew it in the back of their brains, they didn't know why. They just kind of knew about this connection going back to almost the story about the Greeks teaching math with music, which is a true story.

But now we have to almost market this like any product we have to get the word out through the things that you say everyday that are picked up in the press, private companies like ours going out and hammering this home. Because this is going to be the first time, the first generation that's going to have an incomplete education, something that we just really never even thought would happen because we didn't know that the arts were part of a complete education. And when the '70s, '80s and '90s when a lot of the baby boomer parents kids left elementary school they said why should I pay the taxes, why should I support these schools, my kids are out? And the tax base dried up. I think we created a problem that now we have to fix, cause guess what's coming around the corner? The baby boomers kids, there's 62 million of them in public schools right now that don't have what we had.
One other point I'd like to make is that Winton Marseilles (sp) one day came in and brought a CD in, you know how kids love computers today and we haven't' talked at all about the Internet. He is working with a company that's actually making software that kids can go home with their computers and play instruments along and learn instruments. So, as far as dealing with how you said earlier, how do we make this fun? How do we make kids get engaged? Well, tie it into their computers, because that's where they're spending a lot of time.
MR.: In conclusion --
(Laughter.)
That's worse than the bell.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Well that was going to be my next area to talk about. How do we use technology to fill in these gaps? And I guess, Mr. Gordon.
MR. GORDON: Senator Jeffords, as I had mentioned earlier we are involved in an extensive distance learning program working with the Prince Williams school district. It's a way of utilizing the infrastructure that has already been developed in many of America's schools to bring the arts into the classroom in a live interactive way. It allows some of the best performers and artists from across the country to be in a classroom and to have students through 800 phone lines or online opportunities to ask questions and interact with these unique artists. It's been a very effective program.
In addition to that arts edge which is the online information network and I really have to acknowledge the support of the national endowment for the arts and the Department of Education for thinking up the need of having this infrastructure for providing information on arts education via the Internet. It's really been changing the way teachers are able to access information, students are able to access information, teachers are working with other teachers. They're developing curriculum together. They're putting that curriculum out. As Tom mentioned teachers in his district are developing curriculum that they're going to share with other teachers across the country.
Now, we're not asking them to take it as a sort of cookie cutter approach to teaching and learning. But it also demonstrates how they went about making those decisions. So that they can look at what the resources are in their own local community and replicate something in an authentic way that allows them to pull in all of their community cultural resources. And to have a real effect of making that learning experience an exciting one, an entertaining one and one that involves the whole community in teaching and learning. It's really been important what the endowment has done and what the department has been doing with many of their model projects.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Dr. Rice.
MS. RICE: I just wanted to underline that. And say that so many museums that have been traditionally viewed as these temples up on the hill like the Philadelphia Museum sort of sits up there are now, you know, they've really recognized the opportunity of technology as a way of getting their resources out into the community. And so, for example, there is a number of museums that use this two-way teleconferencing. And many, many states have really taken advantage of this. Minnesota's one state, Pennsylvania also very wired, they've wired all of there schools with video conferencing equipment, allowing the museum basically to have a presence in the classroom. And it's really it's like the Jetson's you know, you have the televisions, you see the teacher you see the kids. You can interact with the kids. It's very immediate you're work in partnership with the teacher in planning the lesson. You can do professional development that way. You can put pre-imposter materials on the Internet. So I think it's really important at this point to be thinking of the nations cultural resources, as being very broadly available through technology, and many of us are making a monumental effort to make people realize that these resources are available.
MR. (?): I just have a quick --
SEN. JEFFORDS: Freddie, yes, go ahead.

MR. (?): Basically I agree with everyone here, what they're saying in terms of the technology. I love the advances that are happening literally everyday. I think that technology is a wonderful tool in which to teach. I think that sometimes we see it in the field as the end all to be all. And as a music educator, as for my roots 20 years ago, I think it's very important also that we support the teachers in the classroom, in developing those programs in letting the teachers use technology as the tool, and not technology as the and all be all teaching -- teacher.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Mr. Kemp, I'm specially interested in talking with you about how we can maximize the opportunity for special ed children. One of the very difficult problems that we have in our school systems is how to make for the special ed children meaningful and participation in arts and life generally. What should we do, in this reauthorization, or have you any suggestions on how we should expand the assistance?
MR. KEMP: Well we have wonderful demonstration projects all around the country that prove how kids benefit -- kids with disabilities benefit by inclusion in the arts. One of the things that I think VSA can offer most of all is that we are the inclusion experts in many school districts assisting schools, and trying to assist teachers in understanding how to best serve kids with different disabilities.
So we have a host of programs. What I was going to comment on as well is the -- that the technology issue we have a developing an online community of artist. Where we are using remote sites and distance learning as well as the use of technology to connect artist with or without disability with each other so they can collaborate together as well as inform communities about what's going on in the arts. We're partnering with independent living centers, school districts, parks and recreation departments and a variety of other groups to at least allow people access to and to involve themselves with other artist, because that's what I think they mostly want.
The challenge today for many school districts is perceived as the disruptive child in the classroom as that kid with a disability. And unfortunately that's just not -- that's a big quantum leap that -- unfortunately punishing kids with disabilities, it might be a child that's acting inappropriate that might be a spoiled brat, it might be an ill-behaved child but it may not necessarily be a child with a disability. So we -- while we work very hard to increase the percentage of the number of kids with disabilities that are attending their regular classrooms. We're also very careful to assist the teacher, in knowing how to best to serve that child wherever that class, wherever that classroom is whatever that classroom is whether it be arts, or math, or geography in the life. So we feel that our role is to help in the arts and cultural area to help teachers in that area understand how to best and serve to draw out and provide equal opportunities, to kids with disabilities in those particular discipline. SEN. JEFFORDS: Dr. Canada.
MR. CANADA: Thank you Mr. Chairman.
The use of technology has -- . This evening, I'll be leaving here directly to go back. I'll be co-chairing a task force that's looking at Latino issues, in Portland Oregon. We have 62 different languages that we're dealing with and growing every month, in terms of different languages. But the use of technology will allow us the opportunity not only to interact with students, but with their parents, to bring community organizations together will infuse aspects of the arts at the part of that, different languages cultural issues. So I would hope that in looking at the reauthorization that there would be some requirements, to say that that to technology should be used not only to support the arts, but to support languages, to support parents to help them be in a better position. To help their child bridge the issue of the language piece that the arts is one aspect of that. But the use of technology in terms of working with parents also helps I think in helping them to also learn the language, it also helps them to learn new skills that are marketable in terms of jobs. So technology's the major piece, to me it's like the arts, it can be woven into the fabric of our daily lives.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Yes, Mr. Gordon.
MR. GORDON: Senator Jeffords, just to tie several of the things together that we've been talking about. In the recent NAEP assessment it was noted though, that only about 20 percent of the teachers felt confident to utilize technology in you know in bringing these resources into their classrooms, regardless of what the subject area was. So again, I think that whatever we can do to increase the professional development opportunities that utilize technology that can model these uses for teachers to make them comfortable with the technology itself. That's going to have a real impact on realizing the potential of the kind of programs that we're talking about, because now we're creating the product if you will, but until it can be accessed by having equipment in the schools but also having teachers who are not afraid of the technology, and actually eager to get involved in it, that too can continue to prevent the delivery of the quality teaching and learning that we've been able to develop.
SEN. JEFFORDS: Yes, Mr. Kemp.
MR. KEMP: I think -- we've developed a program -- well it's starting to be field tested now, but it's called Express Diversity, and this really ties in the different cultural aspects as well as technology. Our program is geared to the 5th grade teacher providing training so that the teacher can do disability awareness training in the classroom. The information will be downloaded from a site on the Internet, with a password and appropriate purchase of the materials. They'll be able to downloaded to their classroom computer, it is geared to using arts and education to inform students and teachers about the differing aspects of disability, but can also be used for other cultural aspects as well in other Pro-tech (ph) class members. So when we talk about the power of technology the use of disability, I would agree with Dr. Canada that we are talking about concepts if done right are those kinds of concepts that connect across and don't separate, but include people all people.
SEN. JEFFORDS: I think you used the term 62 different languages?
MR. CANADA: Sixty-two different languages --
SEN. JEFFORDS: I was amazed with one of our high schools in Vermont in the middle of nowhere as far as interdiction I guess for the outer worlds, in some cases. We had 22 in our high school, and I couldn't even think of 22 languages.
(Laughter.)
Sixty-two is way beyond my perception of and it's amazing what's going on in this nation.
Well I want to thank you all. This has been extremely helpful to me and I hope it has to all of you. And to hopefully will carry on, and have advantages, and the reauthorization so that we can maximize our ability in this nation to do what we can with the great resources we have. And the greatest resources are people like yourself as well as all of those kids who we're worried about.
Thank you very much.

END

LOAD-DATE: July 1, 1999

Document 127 of 317.


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