Artspiration
Courtesy of a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the
SCCOE embarked on a strategic planning process for its new Arts
Education Initiative. After dozens of stakeholder meetings, visioning
workshops, and prioritization activities, "Artspiration" emerged in Fall 2009.
Artspiration is a county-wide initiative to provide arts education for all public school students. 
Artspiration Vision Statement:
Every Student in Santa Clara County has access to quality arts in all forms as part of a comprehensive education that spark curiosity, creativity, and joy.
Artspiration Belief Statements:
We believe in a Santa Clara County in which learning through the arts is universally integrated throughout the pre-K to 12th grade educational landscape that:
- highlights the arts as integral to all classroom work and includes active participation in dance, music, theater, visual arts, digital arts and creative writing
- stimulates the imagination of and inspires creativity in young people, linking them across geographic, economic and ethnic divides
- develops young people to be culturally literate, confident, cognitively inspired, and globally aware
- fosters students learning and discoveries in imagination through opportunities to experience and participate in the arts in a multitude of community settings, regardless of a family's economic means
- provides every teacher with the knowledge, resources, and community support necessary to integrate creativity in the classroom every day
- inspires investment in arts education and experiences
- showcases the Silicon Valley as a model for educational practices and partnerships linked to nurturing a creative and innovative workforce
Develop resources, professional development, programs, and school environments that provide equity and access to the arts for all students.
Strategies:
- Provide support to districts to develop arts-integrated master plans and professional development plans
- Design professional development that builds teacher capacity to identify and deliver culturally responsive arts-integrated curriculum
- Utilize the arts and arts-integrated curriculum to allow access points to content by students of diverse cultures, languages, learning styles, abilities, and settings
- Districts institutionalize time for teachers to collaborate, engage in action research, and develop professional learning communities
- Develop teacher leadership for culturally responsive teaching and learning
- Connect teachers with online resources
- Encourage and develop district leadership that understands and supports the value of the arts across the curriculum
- Support districts in the establishment and utilization of a wide range of assessments in the arts
- Develop and support specific arts programs for at-risk youth, especially those that can help to reduce the dropout rate
- Develop and promote successful examples of arts integration in CTE programs, including career exploration activities in elementary, middle, and high school settings
Mobilize parents, students, educators, and civic and business leaders to advocate for arts education.
Strategies:
- Document, update, and disseminate the current status of arts education in school districts within Santa Clara County on an annual basis
- Develop a shared message about the vision of arts education and advocate the importance of achieving that vision
- Enlist community leadership to advocate for policies and funding for the arts from local and state governments, philanthropic foundations, corporations, and individuals
- Create opportunities for parents to understand and support the values of arts learning
- Provide a menu of resources and options for advocacy training
- Develop methods and tools for students to make their learning visible and public
Enhance student experiences through collaborations with artists, arts organizations, and other resources within the community.
Strategies:
- Offer all students a spectrum of arts engagement experiences, during the school day, provided by community arts resources
- Engage students in arts experiences outside the school day that enrich student learning
- Establish and nurture governance that strengthens the connection between SCCOE, schools, school districts, and the community
- Complete an inventory of existing arts programs and gap analysis of where additional connections can be made with programs that are provided by community arts and culture organizations
- Publish an annual Arts Education Resources Directory online
- Link community arts and culture organizations to school districts and curriculum
- Provide professional development to artists and arts organizations for effective collaboration with teachers and districts.
Date last updated: May 6, 2010
