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Arts advocates in Kentucky are encouraging citizens to request that arts education be addressed in the state’s application for a federal grant. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more.

Arts Kentucky is asking stakeholders in education — from parents to business people — to participate in a survey recently put out by the state’s Department of Education. The survey is intended to get feedback on ideas the state is considering in its application for some of the $4 billion offered under the federal Race to the Top fund.

Arts Kentucky’s David Cupps says each state has to cite specifically how it wants to use the funds.

“In order to actually get money that can be applied toward arts programs, the state has to include that in their proposal.So, we’re trying to encourage people to let the state know that the arts are important to them in the educational system,” Cupps says. “We believe that arts is an integral part of having effective educational systems and especially in getting kids to be more creative and preparing them for the workforce of tomorrow.”

Cupps says the funding could help ensure arts education is assessed at schools statewide in the wake of Senate Bill 1 passed last spring. The legislation to revamp Kentucky’s student testing system requires the state to assess arts programs at schools.

The U.S. Department of Education has set its first deadline in December for applying states. It expects to award the first round of funds in early 2010. The department also had another dealine for states in the late Spring of 2010, with awards slated for September.

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Art education policies are a major topic at this weekend’s annual conference Kentucky Art Education Association in Lexington.. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer reports.

Last spring, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 1, which changed reforms enacted with the Kentucky Education Reform Act; it scrapped the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System or CATS.

Now, arts teachers are looking to the state for new policies that assure the arts a place in the K-12 curriculum. So says Judy Haynes, president of the Kentucky Art Education Association.

Haynes says educators will hear from Kentucky Department of Education officials Saturday about a program review it’s constructing to make sure art is taught and student performance is evaluated.

“I think the program review will help ensure our place in the educational system,” she says. “I think we have made some strides here, but I think we have some more to make.”

Haynes says many arts educators were not satisfied with the CATS test.

“We were assessing how well they understood vocabulary, how well they could write and address open-response questions,” she says. “And now, I think that performance will factor in as a key role in music, theater and dance —  and in the visual arts.”

Haynes says arts education was fairly strong in Kentucky already, but this new program review promises to improve it.

“In Kentucky, we are a leader in this area in the nation, and many of the states and national organizations are looking to us to see how this works,” she says.

Haynes says the DOE is expected to complete the review in November and pilot it in several schools beginning in January.

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