National, State Associations Discuss Support for Performing Arts Programs

The importance of school-sponsored performing arts programs cannot be overstated.

For longtime readers of High School Today and those involved in performing arts education, this statement – and others like it – is self-evident. They know that music, speech and debate, theatre and other arts offerings allow nearly nine million high school students to find their passions, to express themselves creatively, and to reap the rewards of a formative experience similar to that of athletics participation.

However, a troubling trend poses a real threat to the accessibility of these programs for students nationwide along with their ability to learn time management, accountability, teamwork and other life skills. While the NFHS continues to promote its #BenchBadBehavior campaign to help counteract a major shortage of high school sports officials, there is an equally critical shortage of performing arts educators and adjudicators. This article will explore the depth of this shortage, and, more importantly, will discuss a variety of ideas states are incorporating in an attempt to rectify it.

“(The shortage) is a major concern, to put it bluntly,” said Dusty Molyneaux, the music and art director for Great Falls (Montana) Public Schools and a member of the NFHS Music Committee. “We simply have way more jobs available than candidates to fill them. As veteran teachers retire who have been in communities for decades and built up (their) programs, there is no one in the pipeline to take their place. And those programs will wither on the vine and disappear without certified staff to run them.”

“Schools wishing to participate in (Indiana State School Music Association) (ISSMA) events submit an annual membership form to us, and included on the form is a listing of the music teachers at the schools,” said ISSMA executive director Mick Bridgewater. “We were extremely disappointed to see the considerable number of highly active music teachers who were no longer listed on the forms because of early retirement or leaving the profession. I have also been made aware of several music teachers who left their jobs during the first semester (of 2022-23) and already know of several who are not planning to return next fall.”

Even states like Oregon and South Dakota, which enjoy some of the highest performing arts participation rates in the nation, are feeling the effects of the shortage according to Kelly Foster and Brooks Bowman, assistant executive directors for the Oregon School Activities Association and the South Dakota High School Activities Association, respectively.

Foster confirmed that the number of individuals entering arts education programs in Oregon has decreased in each of the last several years and admitted that schools are “squeezed” when trying to fill out a complete roster of arts teachers.

Bowman said one state school even hired a current college music major to fill its open band director position due to workforce limitations. He also reported that schools are having a hard time finding speech and debate coaches and even one-act play instructors, which he said is “odd for our state, as our one-act program has been growing slowly and steadily for several years.”

An article titled “Music Education’s Greatest Threat,” written by Bob Morrison for the April 2022 issue of “School Band and Orchestra” magazine, adds some statistical perspective to the shortage.

In the article, Morrison, the founder of Quadrant Arts Education Research, called attention to a survey conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic by the United States Department of Education, which showed arts teacher shortages in 29 states. And while more recent official data is not yet available, it is all but certain that the pandemic played a role in exacerbating the problem, as it did with virtually every issue in the societal spectrum. But perhaps even more concerning was the graph Morrison included from Higher Education Arts Data Services (HEADS), which reflected a 14 percent decrease in college music major graduates from 2010 to 2020.

“Many districts have gone to the step of hiring through alternative route certification and even raiding the teaching artists rosters of some cultural organizations,” added Morrison.

The scarcity of prospective arts instructors coupled with the limited allocations for program resources brings us to a burning two-part question: How do we replenish the applicant pool, and how do we empower those currently in classrooms to effectively convey the impact their programs have on students?

About a month ago these topics were addressed on the national scale at the Performing Arts Education and Creative Industry Meeting co-hosted in Indianapolis by the NFHS and the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM). This historic inaugural meeting, which was attended by more than 50 leaders from a combined 40 state and national organizations, was designed to bring the educational and creative industry sides of music together to work on issues, raise awareness and learn about data and trends affecting various facets of the performing arts world.

“It is an honor to collaborate with national organizations, state associations and companies from across the country and at all levels of music to work together,” said Dr. James Weaver, NFHS director of performing arts and sports. “We brought prominent names from music education and the creative industry to this meeting to help us design the first step of many to create long-lasting solutions for lifetime access of music-making.”

Weaver and NAMM Foundation executive director Mary Luehrsen served as the meeting’s keynote speakers and used their time at the podium to help facilitate a collaborative, open discussion.

In some states, such as California and Illinois, the call for assistance has been heard within state government offices and has recently resulted in the passing of new legislation.

This past November, California residents were overwhelmingly in favor of California Proposition 28, Art and Music K-12 Education Funding Initiative – or “Prop 28” for short – with more than 64 percent of voters responding in the affirmative. The most popular education initiative in state history by voter approval, Prop 28 is slated to pump $1 billion into K-12 public-school performing arts programs annually, ensuring a quality arts education for the state’s six million public school students.

The funds will be dispensed to schools based on enrollment, with extra portions going to schools serving underprivileged student populations. Schools are required to put at least 80 percent of their allocated funds toward teachers and teacher aides, with the onus falling on individual school boards to record and submit expenditures that will ultimately be made public through the California Department of Education.

In the spring of 2022, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker signed four separate pieces of legislation aimed at creating an influx of candidates for open teaching positions.

The first law, the brainchild of a former-teacher-turned-state-representative, immediately reduced the cost of reinstating an expired teaching license from $500 to $50, seeking to eliminate a barrier for retired and former teachers looking to re-enter the profession.

Another law that took effect on New Year’s Day enabled current college students majoring in education to work as substitute teachers, provided they have completed 90 credit hours within their respective curriculums.

Pritzker’s third signature lowered the minimum age for prospective teacher aides from 19 to 18, and his fourth allowed schools to utilize short-term substitutes for 15 consecutive days in the same classroom, up from five, in the event a state of disaster is declared.

Susie Knoblauch, an assistant executive director at the Illinois High School Association, partnered with the Illinois Communication Theatre Association (ICTA) to help lay the groundwork for the state’s Senate Bill 2354, or “The Speech Bill,” as Knoblauch and her IHSA colleagues refer to it.

While the bill Knoblauch and the ICTA actually worked on never made it through Illinois’ pandemic-shortened 2020 legislative session, it served as the inspiration for the “better version,” Knoblauch said, filed a year later.

The second bill, which received unanimous approval from the state senate and house that fall and officially became law on January 1, 2022, promotes more widespread participation in IHSA speech and debate through a key distinction in its language. Previously, high school students in the Land of Lincoln had the option to take a generic “speech” elective to fulfill their four-year English Language Arts requirement for graduation. In Bill 2354, “speech” is replaced by “forensic speech,” a term defined by the Illinois State Board of Education that explicitly includes the phrases “often linked to an extracurricular program” and “participation in (IHSA) competition is encouraged.”

“(With the new law,) literally any school can create speech-debate curricula that encourages IHSA participation,” Knoblauch said. “Moreover, a school can create a curriculum for a class that’s focused entirely on ‘teaching’ Speech Individual Events (I.E.). If that happens, students would be able to learn Speech I.E. in a classroom setting, and have it count toward their graduation requirements.”

While he wasn’t specifically referring to state legislation, National Speech and Debate Association Executive Director Scott Wunn is also a major proponent of speech and debate and other arts programs becoming more integrated within the school day and would like to see the same ideology from Illinois’ law start to blossom nationally at the school level. Furthermore, he sees it as a potential avenue for offsetting the teacher shortage.

“The more schools can connect to dedicating classes to performing arts curriculum, the more likely it is that schools will be able to attract educators,” Wunn said. “The time necessary to teach performing arts cannot be relegated to an ‘after-school club’ situation requiring hard-working teachers to dedicate even more time outside of the classroom. Often, this occurs to the point of burn out and a detriment to wellness.”

State associations have also taken their own measures to offer support, starting with the Minnesota State High School League’s (MSHSL) implementation of its Music Advisory Committee. The Music Advisory Committee functions as part of a three-pronged collaborative unit that includes MSHSL member schools as well as the Minnesota Music Educators Association (MMEA) and gives the League a better understanding of how it can be of assistance.

“Through these partnerships we are able to assess challenges and how the professional organizations can best help in facilitating,” said Tim Leighton, communications coordinator at the MSHSL and a fellow member of the NFHS Music Committee with Molyneaux. “Currently, the League hosts a forum during the MMEA Conference that has been an effective way to bring educators together to hear the ‘raw’ feedback of what is happening daily in classrooms and rehearsal halls.”

Along with an increased web presence and more focused communication, the Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA) has also made a conscious effort to enhance its service to each group within its constituency.

“Added attention to mentorships of our new (speech) directors, ongoing professional development to our intermediate and experienced directors, and expanding our awareness of offering diverse lenses in our judge selection.” said executive director Stacy Hansen of the IHSSA’s recent initiatives. “This spring, our programming will introduce a student leadership team to enhance our outreach and participation of our youth.”

Other states are trying to capitalize on opportunities at sponsored all-state and honors festivals to build interest in performing arts education as a career path.

“We have made it a point at the last several (MHSA) All-State Music Festivals to talk to the best student musicians in the state about how important it is to keep the programs alive that they are coming from so that future generations get to have the same sort of great experiences that they are having in All-State,” Molyneaux said. “We had over 100 collegiate students that attended the state music education conference this year in October, and many of them were past All-Staters, so we are hoping we will get a good crew of music educators out in classrooms in the next few years.”

“For the first time, this year, the presidents of our five state music organizations will be attending all honor rehearsals to talk to the students about music education as a career,” said California Music Educators Association President Anne Fennell, who also assisted in drafting the language for Prop 28. “I’m working on the script and a quick Google Form to track the students over time.”

While promoting their own programs may seem like an unrelenting uphill battle for most arts teachers and coaches, there are steps that can be taken to acquire supplemental funding, and others that can be used to make impressions on school board members, administrators and community organizations.

One approach is to apply for any number of education-based grants offered by national and state organizations. Below are three possibilities forwarded by Lynn Tuttle, executive director and CEO of the American String Teachers Association, that may offer arts educators the opportunity to give their personal program budgets a boost:

1. Apply for a professional development or residency/ program grant from your state arts agency. Most state arts agencies provide matching dollar amounts for arts education, especially for educators who are bringing in guest artists or clinicians. These dollars could help stretch your booster dollars to deepen your students’ learning. Click here to find your state arts agency.

2. Ask about well-rounded educational support from your district’s Title IV-A funds. Title IV-A is part of the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” the federal K-12 education law. School districts get funds to help support a well-rounded education, which includes all subject areas. How could these additional dollars help your students learn more, or help you increase access to your program for more students? Music teachers can visit the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) website for an overview of Title IV-A, while theatre instructors can find information on the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) website.

3. Stimulus dollars from COVID-19. The pandemic may not be impacting schools like it used to, but Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, the COVID-19 relief funds for K-12 education, are still available through September 30, 2024. Even if your school district has planned on how to use its ESSER funds, chances are there are funds left over. Why not ask?

Fran Kick, an educational consultant and creator and presenter of Kick It In leadership strategies, added that teachers may be able to generate extra funding by engaging in a lineup of annual community outreach events and documenting them over time. These could be mini concerts in senior living communities, local shopping malls, food kitchens or other community venues, or staging other student volunteer initiatives. Once a substantial list of these events has been compiled, teachers can apply for recognition through the NFHS, NAMM, NAfME and other national organizations to build an intrigue around their programs.

“All of this helps spread the ‘good work’ you are doing beyond the classroom and into the community,” Kick said. “This builds a bigger, better, more community-focused reason to financially support your performing arts program via local foundations, service organizations, and businesses.”

Wunn underscored Kick’s blueprint for establishing a presence in the community and mentioned Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs and American Legion posts as being “ripe with opportunities” for showcasing the arts. He also, along with Cory Wilkerson, education director for the EdTA, stressed the importance and potential influence of activating parents as advocates for their children’s performing arts programs.

“We encourage educators to ask parents to share their accolades and also their support for more programming,” Wilkerson said. “An unsolicited call (from a parent) to an administrator praising programming or asking why the school doesn’t have a tech theatre class goes a long way!”

Wilkerson also highlighted the EdTA’s additional resources, which include grass roots advocacy kits – complete with the “ABCs of Advocacy” – webinars, and even templates educators can use for writing letters to their school boards.

Wunn and Wilkerson both pointed to the value in presenting decision-makers with data that supports the positive attributes of arts programs, such as student successes, the total number of students impacted over the years, and information on those who have gone on to careers in the arts or in arts education, if applicable.

Finally, Wilkerson and Tuttle emphasized how educators must do everything they can to make their programs “visible.” Offering free tickets to board members and sharing positive parent feedback with administrators were two of the simple yet impactful ideas Wilkerson shared, while Tuttle took things a step further, referencing some of her music educator colleagues who have actually incorporated administrators, other teachers, and even school custodians into their concerts as musicians.

“We often forget that we, as performing arts educators, have the perfect opportunity to build support for our programs because we put our product – students and what they have learned – on stage for all to see,” Tuttle said. “Celebrate all that’s great about your program and the skills you are helping your students build – both in their artform and for life.”

And that is something that will always be worth fighting for, regardless of the obstacles.