Friday, May 9, 2014

May: Arts Education Month

      May is Arts Education Month. To celebrate, we hope you’ll consider reaching out to your school board with valuable information about the importance of arts education and helpful tips on how to incorporate the arts into your schools. We’ll make it easy!
   
     Educate Your School Board about Arts Education in 3 Simple Steps

  1.  Find your school board contact emails. Most districts list them on their district websites, and you can also get more info about contacting your school board here.
  2.  Paste the sample message below into an email for your board members.
  3. Attach the “Arts Education Resources” pdf and hit send.       

      If you’d like to do more to support Arts Education Month, visit our website for a toolkit of speaking points and ideas to engage your school board and community about the arts education that will help our students of today become the leaders of tomorrow. You can also help spread the word by Liking, Sharing, and Retweeting our posts on Facebook and Twitter!

Thank you for being a champion for arts education and once again, Happy Arts Education Month!


Sample Message for School Board Members

Dear [School Board Member Name]:

May is Arts Education Month as proclaimed by Governor Jay Inslee. This is an annual, statewide celebration of the importance of arts learning, so I’d like to take this opportunity to share some valuable information with you.

As you may know, the arts are defined in Washington as a core subject required by law to be taught in every school. Attached is a packet of materials about the importance and impact of arts education in schools on both student success and school success. These materials, compiled by ArtsEd Washington, also include links to compelling research from a variety of sources demonstrating just how much arts learning can do to help our students, schools, and communities to thrive. Clearly, the arts matter a lot!

The attached materials include links to resources that will give you some ideas about how to incorporate the arts into your curriculum plan. I know that ArtsEd Washington can also provide additional information on other programs and resources to assist you in your work.

One great way to get the ball rolling, if you haven’t already done so, is to issue your own Arts Education Month board resolution! You can find a sample here, and then send it to office@artsedwashington.org to be posted online with Governor Inslee’s and others.

I know that you have many priorities to juggle in our school district, but I also know that when students learn the arts in schools, they stay more engaged, do better academically, have fewer discipline problems, and graduate at higher rates. So I hope you will make arts education one of those priorities in the coming years!

Sincerely,
[Your name]

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