Post date: Sep 11, 2016 2:44:33 PM
On September 9, 2016, AB 2862, California's legislation authorizing the revision of visual and performing arts standards, was "enrolled and presented to the Governor" for his signature. The bill, as written, specifically excludes "Media Arts" in its naming of the arts disciplines included in National Core Arts Standards as the sole reference for this revision. The reasoning for this exclusion was poorly informed, not public in decision-making, and conflicting with the bill's stated intent and process.
Upon the California media arts community's rapid and powerful response to this exclusion, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson, released a public communication stating that he is "committed to working with the legislature next year to ensure the explicit inclusion of Media Arts in California’s visual and performing arts content standards” in the 2017 revision. Therefore, the CA media arts community is now supportive of the bill and the revision process. We believe media arts to be a powerful and necessary addition to an authentic 21 C update to arts education, particularly in California, given its media arts based history, culture and economy.
"The current visual and performing arts content standards were last revised in 2001. Since then, California has undergone a major shift in academic content standards with the adoption of new and rigorous standards in English language arts (ELA), mathematics, English language development, and science. The current visual and performing arts content standards need to be updated and the next set of standards should reflect the advances in arts education that make our students ready for college and careers in the 21st century.
The bill requires California to use the National Core Arts Standards as the basis for deliberations regarding revisions to the visual and performing arts content standards, which is important since the standards reflect the latest research and information on each subject area, and they are aligned to the Common Core State Standards in ELA and mathematics. For this reason, we are encouraging support of AB 2862. Without AB 2862, California will lose its opportunity to update its arts standards and once again delay any improvement to the standards.
We appreciate the concerns around the inclusion of media arts in the updated arts standards and we are committed to work with the media arts community next year to include media arts in California’s visual and performing arts content standards when it is being considered for an update. However, to do this we must first ensure that AB 2862 is passed out of the Legislature and signed by the Governor."
- SSPI Tom Torlakson
The media arts community intends to use this opportunity to galvanize a broad-based coalition of support in order to ensure the inclusion of media arts and its ultimate implementation in California, as well as across the U.S.!