Barriers

=What are the barriers you'd like to share with Leslie Gates?=

Suggestions for Arts related Professional Development to combat the "barriers" with the school system and to help you get a say within the curriculum:

- Go on visitations to other school districts to see what is out there. - Serve on Professional Development Committees/Act 48 committees. - Send yearly letters to your PD person about the Professional Development programs/sessions/workshops that the Arts/Encore/Specials Department would like to attend so that the administration can plan your absence. - A common in-service day for district Arts/Encore/Special departments. - Get a GIAE faculty member or Arts presenter to come to your district when everyone else is doing "boring" stuff. - Have a yearly plan of curriculum development that is just specific to the Arts/Encore/Special departments that you share with Administrators EVERY YEAR. - From R. Auvil: Develop an Arts/Encore/Specials Strategic Plan AND don't be the last group to go through curriculum development/curriculum writing - BE THE FIRST

 ** Professional Development for Art Educators ** ** Research Snapshot **

Lieberman and Grolnick (1996) – Professional Networks  - suggest that educational networks “appear to be a way of engaging school-based educators in better directing their own learning; allowing them to sidestep the limitations of institutional roles, hierarchies, and geographic locations; and encouraging them to work with many different kinds of people” (p. 1).  Jeffers (1996) survey of Kansas art teachers  - found that many of the professional needs and interests of beginning, mid-career, and veteran art teachers differ significantly  - the Discipline-Based Art Education reform of the mid 1980s did not significantly impact the working conditions of art teachers.  Brewer (1999) survey of art teachers in central Florida  - finds that teachers were more than twice as interested in art studio classes as they were in other types of professional development (in the other 4 content areas or teaching methodologies as a whole).  - The teachers showed the least amount of interest in teaching philosophies and art advocacy/policy.  Conway et al (2005)  - “Professional development activities for all teachers have been largely geared toward the ‘traditional’ academic subject teachers, ignoring the different and sometimes unique needs of art educators” (p. 4). <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - school districts have a hard time providing the content-specific professional development needed by arts educators. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - if teachers are required to meet state requirements regarding professional development hours and school districts are not providing the type of professional development opportunities many arts educators are seeking, many educators seek out their own professional development opportunities. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Charland (2006) <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - Despite art being labeled a “core subject” in NCLB, art teachers rarely benefit from funds designated for PD because the money is channeled through districts, who often struggle to provide art teachers with content-based PD <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - It is the responsibility of the art association in the state to work to provide meaningful professional development to its members <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Sabol (2007) National survey to art educators about PD needs <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - The respondents indicated when they attended these PD opportunities (during school 68%, on weekends 62%, after school 61%, during the summer 61%) <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - 41% of participants agreed that their schools’ PD activities were beneficial, while 19% percent were undecided, and 34% percent disagreed. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - 70% of respondents reported that their state art education association provided beneficial PD experiences and 66% percent felt the NAEA provided beneficial PD experiences. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - 2,515 (80%) of subjects reported that they felt they had PD experiences that were not useful <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - 37% of administrators have asked their art teacher about their professional development needs. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> - Less than half (42%) of respondents reported that they felt they received adequate support to attend PD experiences (p. 8).

What’s a School District to Do? Suggestions for enhancing professional development for art teachers By Leslie Gates <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">A national study was recently completed by F. Robert Sabol (2007) on behalf of the National Art Education Association. The research demonstrates that art educators rarely have opportunities to collaborate within their school because of the isolated nature of their position as a “specialist” within their school. They receive fragmented professional development opportunities that have minimal relevance to their own content area. Many school districts in Pennsylvania, because of their relatively small size, are unable to provide the collaborative, school-based, and ongoing professional development thought to be most effective throughout professional development literature. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">There are actions districts need to take. If districts are unable to provide meaningful professional development for their art educators, they need to find ways to support their attendance in professional development networks and at relevant PD events. As the professional organization representing art teachers working in your district, we would encourage you to take the following steps: <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> * **Encourage your art educators to become members of a professional network** (PAEA or another art education network). Professional networks are able to provide the ongoing and sustained development that much of the professional development literature has suggested as the most beneficial. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> * **Ask your art teacher what they need.** Only 37% of art teachers have been asked by an administrator how the district might support their professional development. Administrators need to acknowledge when the district or school professional development does not meet the needs of its art educators. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> * **Give your art educators the ability to elect professional development outside of the district in lieu of less relevant district-based PD**. (Sixty percent of teachers in the NAEA survey claimed their district-based PD was not beneficial). <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Some districts have begun to allow teachers to “trade in” PD days, excusing them from PD days during the school year in exchange for documentation of attendance at a credible PD event in the summer or on a weekend. Other methods of support include paying the dues for membership in a professional organization, and allowing release time for teachers to make use of the organization’s PD opportunities. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> * **Support attendance at professional development events**. Less than half (42%) of art educators reported that they felt they received adequate support to attend PD experiences. Money has been allotted through NCLB for professional development, and this money needs to be available to art teachers. Please properly support art educators who intent to enhance student learning by themselves engaging in professional development opportunities. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">School districts can support art educators’ professional development by asking art teachers what their professional development needs are, encouraging teachers to take part in professional development opportunities outside the district, and providing support for them to do so. Districts in Pennsylvania can provide professional development opportunities indirectly by making use of and supporting the attendance in professional development opportunities offered by many other providers in the state of Pennsylvania.