May 5 Instructional Policy & Student Achievement Committee meeting
Covered by Documenter Ken Evans (see his notes here)
After 16 years without updates, fine arts teachers in Akron Public Schools are working to identify new textbooks and materials that meet educational standards and support learning objectives, all while staying within a budget.
For fine arts curricula, it’s a more challenging task than for other educational topics.
“It’s a little bit different for fine arts,” said Dawn Wilson, a fine arts learning specialist with Akron Public Schools, as she spoke to board members at the May 5 Instructional Policy & Student Achievement Committee meeting. “We have things that we selected, i.e., for elementary music, but then we had to go to another publisher to find support for those selections.”
“Unlike math, science, social studies, and language arts, that essentially have a topic and then a lot of ancillary materials that fall under that, so one publisher, you can get a variety of things,” she said.
Arts textbooks selection process
To select and vet all this material, APS fine arts teachers and staff from across the district met to learn about, discuss and provide feedback on resource options. These were organized into a rubric to evaluate each possible vendor.
Some of the current texts came with online resources that are no longer supported by their publishers, a key issue in an age of online learning and self-guidance. Teachers were able to ask direct questions of publishers and confirm that each met their needs as well as criteria from the district and state.
Leading this process were two groups: vetting committees that would identify and recommend materials across a five-step review process; and a steering committee, which would fine tune the selections and recommend the materials to the APS Board of Directors.
Suggested Reading
New materials cover grades K-12
The recommendations had to cover kindergarten to eighth-grade general music, fifth-grade to 12-grade instrumental music, sixth-grade to 12-grade choral music, Advanced Placement music theory, and kindergarten to 12th-grade visual arts.
In the end, the committee selected materials from 15 different publishers including:
- QuaverEd Incorporated
- Art of Education University
- Davis Publications
- Savvas Learning Company
- MakeMusic
- GIA Publications
- Music Is Elementary
- Sight Reading Factory
- Kjos Publications
- Hal Leonard Publications
- Alfred Publications
- Beatin Path Publications
- Barron’s Educational Services
- McGraw Hill
- FJH Publications
Wilson explained that these resources also help teachers expand on what they can cover. “So, for example, if you are a painter, but you would like to do clay work, and you didn’t really study in-depth into clay work,” she said, “this platform will allow you to watch a short video, do hands-on activities and then show you how to apply that in the classroom.”
One of the key goals of the fine arts curriculum is to ensure every student at every grade level has access to both visual arts and music classes. Currently, all APS schools have such access, though some specialty courses can depend on the individual school and on scheduling.
The Board of Education may discuss and vote on the recommendations at its meeting tonight at 5:30 p.m. The meeting is open to the public at 10 N. Main St. downtown. View the meeting live and online here.
