AUGUST 2008 HOT TOPIC
What Communities Are Doing to Expand Access to Arts Education
Over the past several decades, state budget crises and an increasing focus on meeting education reform priorities have been associated with a sharp reduction in the number of arts teaching positions and the time available during the school day for arts courses in many of the nation’s cities. Some communities have taken matters into their own hands by developing collaborative networks of organizations to pool resources and coordinate activities to make arts learning accessible to more children.
A RAND Corporation study examined six such communities—Alameda County, California (including Oakland and Berkeley), Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles County, and New York City—concentrating on how their programs were started, what strategies they used, and what conditions helped (and hindered) them.
The study found that, although differences in local conditions and individual actors led to differences in the forms that these collaborations took, the six sites adopted many of the same strategies to improve access to arts learning, including conducting audits of arts education, setting a goal of access for all, strategic planning, attracting and leveraging resources, hiring an arts education coordinator within the school district administration, building individual and organizational capacity, and assembling a cadre of advocates.
Factors that fostered coordination included strong leaders with exceptional management skills, and those that impeded coordination were lack of resources for planning, turnover of key leaders, and policies prioritizing subjects other than the arts. The study found that all sites have made notable progress and that three sites have maintained strong, functioning collaborative networks for five years or more after being launched.
Shortfalls in High-Quality Preschool Programs for California Children
As one way to improve student outcomes, California policymakers are considering expanding public funding for preschool education. As part of its California Preschool Study, aimed at providing a foundation for evaluating the potential of such an expansion and how best to implement it, the RAND Corporation sought to better understand the rates of access that California’s preschool-age children have to high-quality early learning programs.
The study relied on a telephone survey to gather information on a representative sample of children’s regular early care and education (ECE) arrangements, telephone interviews with ECE-provider personnel to obtain further information about the children’s ECE setting, and onsite data collection from 250 center-based programs in the provider sample to obtain objective, well-validated measures of multiple dimensions of ECE quality.
The study found that there is plenty of room to improve the quality of preschool for all children—and to raise preschool participation rates for children who could benefit the most. Specifically, it found that, while using center-based ECE is the norm for California families with three- and four-year-olds, socioeconomically disadvantaged children participate at lower rates. Also, center-based programs fall short on some quality benchmarks, particularly those features linked to the promotion of thinking and language skills, and all groups of children in center-based ECE experience quality shortfalls. Finally, the groups of children with the largest gaps in school readiness and later school achievement are least likely to participate in high-quality center-based ECE programs that will help them succeed in kindergarten and beyond.
When It Comes to Science and Technology, Where Does the United States Stand?
In the mid-2000s, public- and private-sector reports argued that the United States was falling behind in science and technology (S&T). A RAND study took an objective, comprehensive look at the evidence behind the claims, examining some key S&T measures, three of which include R&D expenditures, triadic patents (a set of inventions patented broadly in the United States, Europe, and Japan), and world publications and citations.
The study found that the United States continues to lead the world in S&T and appears in no imminent danger of losing its edge. The United States accounts for 40 percent of global expenditures on R&D–more than any other nation–and its R&D spending has grown faster than the European Union’s (EU-15) and Japan’s. Moreover, in 2003, 38 percent of industrialized nations’ triadic patents went to the United States versus 31 percent to the EU-15 and 26 percent to Japan. Also, the U.S. share of total scientific publications is on par with its closest competitor, the EU-15, and it leads on measures of the influence of its publications.
Despite the study’s findings, the researchers argue that the United States should not take its S&T leadership for granted. They recommend establishing a centrally coordinated, independent body to monitor and evaluate U.S. S&T performance over the long term; facilitating high-skilled immigration to allow the nation to continue to benefit from employing foreign science and engineering workers; and increasing U.S. capacity to interact with science centers abroad and capitalize on scientific and technological advances made elsewhere.
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RESEARCHER PROFILE
Catherine H. Augustine
Catherine H. Augustine is a Behavioral Scientist at RAND specializing in the design and evaluation of reform implementation within the context of K-12 and postsecondary education. Current research includes assessing the state of arts education in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, evaluating the implementation of a national principal preparation program, and evaluating the effect of state policy on school leadership. Recent past work includes assessing how multiple organizations collaborate to provide arts education to K-12 students, designing and implementing a new education system in Qatar, investigating governance options for K-12 urban school districts, assessing the state of middle schools in the country, and helping the Department of Defense improve their system of postsecondary education. Dr. Augustine received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Read more work by Dr. Augustine »
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RAND CONGRESSIONAL RESOURCES STAFF
Lindsey Kozberg
Vice President, Office of External Affairs
Shirley Ruhe
Director, Office of Congressional Relations
Carmen Ferro
Education Legislative Analyst
RAND Office of Congressional Relations
(703) 413-1100 x5395
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