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Bob Bryant
 
Executive Director of Fine Arts
Fine Arts Education in Katy ISD
Education and engagement in the fine arts are an essential
part of the school curriculum and an important component in the educational
program of every student in Katy ISD.
Fine arts education in Katy ISD begins in Kindergarten and
continues through the twelfth grade. In each elementary school, students K-5 are
taught by certified, degreed music and art specialists. Beginning in grade 6, at
the junior high level, the fine arts courses become elective choices. A junior
high student in grades 6-8 may choose to study courses in visual art, band,
choir, orchestra, and/or theater arts. In high school, grades 9-12, students may
choose courses in band, choir, orchestra, dance, visual arts and theatre. In
all, there are over 60 different fine arts course offerings in the fine arts
curriculum.
In the present school year, 2006-07, over 64%
of all students in grades 6-12 have chosen and are engaged in fine arts
education. This fine arts total is approximately 17,300 students out of the
27,000 that are attending junior high and senior high in Katy ISD. There are
approximately 23,800 students in the elementary schools. If you add these up,
you will see that over 41,000 students are enrolled and participating in fine
arts programs in Katy ISD.
The various fine arts disciplines (art,
dance, music, and theatre) are aligned in their curriculum by four standards.
These are Perception, Creative Expression and Performance, Historical and
Cultural Heritage, and Critical Response and Evaluation. The curriculum for each
discipline is aligned by grade level to ensure the proper “layering” or
“scaffolding” of knowledge and skill development throughout the student’s
development and study in that particular discipline. The teaching of the Texas
Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) for fine arts is required by the state of
Texas and these are well defined and embedded in the Katy ISD fine arts
curriculum objectives.
Each year, students graduate from Katy ISD
high schools well prepared to enter university level fine arts courses. Many of
these students also earn university scholarships to offset their college
expenses. Although many fine arts students do not pursue one of the fine arts
courses as a degree major, their fine arts preparation has provided each with a
very strong and disciplined preparation for success in whatever his/her field of
study.
“The Basic Academic Subjects are English,
the arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and foreign language…Preparation
in the arts will be valuable to college entrants whatever their intended field
of study. The actual practice of the arts can engage the imagination, foster
flexible ways of thinking, develop disciplined effort, and build
self-confidence. Appreciation of the arts is integral to the understanding of
other cultures sought in the study of history, foreign languages, and social
sciences.” -- Academic Preparation for College, what students need to know
and be able to do. The College Board
The national average score for the Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT) is 1518. The Texas state average score is 1484. The average
score of this year’s Texas All-State musicians is 1815. This is 297 points
above the national average and a whopping 331 points above the Texas state
average.
Katy ISD had 46 students earn positions in
the Texas All-State Band, Choir, and Orchestra. These students had an average
score of 1980 on the SAT test – 462 points above the national average and 496 points above the state average.
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100% of all K-5 students (approx. 23,800) receive
fine arts instruction taught by degreed, certified music and art
specialists |
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64+% of all 6-12 students (over 17,300) have chosen
and are actively engaged in a fine arts elective, receiving instruction
each class day |
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Katy ISD visual arts students participate in the
following contests/exhibits each year: Fort Bend County, Harris County,
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Houston Dog Show, V.A.S.E. state
competition, Scholastic state competition, Capitol YAM, as well as the
local Katy ISD Spring Art Show |
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Secondary students in band, choir, dance, orchestra
and theatre (the performing arts) participate in numerous individual and
organizational competitions as well as presenting concerts, recitals,
and productions throughout the school year. |
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High school campuses present stage musical
productions incorporating students from all of the performing arts
disciplines of theatre, music, and dance. This past year’s
productions included "Peter Pan", "Annie Get Your Gun", "Once Upon A
Mattress", "Seussical the Musical", "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown",
and "Anything Goes". |
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Approximately 140 elementary students are selected
each year to perform in the Katy ISD Elementary Honor Choir. This “by
audition only” group performs public concerts in various venues in the
Houston/Katy area. |
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Each year opportunities are provided for fine arts
students to study with specialists/clinicians in a variety of settings
such as music ensembles, master classes, constructive evaluation, and
concert settings. |
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A music private lessons program which serves
approximately 2000 secondary music students with weekly individual music
lessons from 100+ instructors is administered and managed through the
Fine Arts Department. |
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Katy ISD Fine Arts Department is actively involved
in the recruiting and hiring of qualified applicants in the field of
art, dance, music, and theatre by representing Katy ISD at state
conferences in each of these disciplines and participating in their job
fairs: Art - TAEA, Dance - TDEA, Theatre - TETA, Music – TMEA and at
the Katy ISD Job Fair. |
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Each year the Fine Arts Department provides over
100 staff development/training sessions (approximately 610 hours) for
fine arts teachers. |
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The Katy ISD Fine Arts Department is comprised of
approximately 285 teachers district-wide and a central office staff of
five. |
Research information regarding arts education:
Please read the following information from the College Board, writers of the
SAT college entrance exam, which are excerpts from their booklet, Academic
Preparation for College – What Students Need To Know And Be Able To Do.
“Study in the Basic Academic Subjects provides the detailed knowledge and
skills necessary for effective work in college. Students who intend to go to
college will need this basic learning in order to obtain the full benefits
of higher education. This learning provides the foundation for college study
in those fields.”
“The Basic Academic Subjects are English, the arts, mathematics, science,
social studies, and foreign language.”
“The Arts – Why? The arts – visual arts, theater, music, and dance –
challenge and extend human experience. They provide means of expression that
go beyond ordinary speaking and writing. They can express intimate thoughts
and feelings. They are a unique record of diverse cultures and how these
cultures have developed over time. They provide distinctive ways of
understanding human beings and nature. The arts are creative modes by which
all people can enrich their lives both by self-expression and response to
the expression of others.”
“Preparation in the arts will be valuable to college entrants
whatever their intended field of study. The actual practice of the
arts can engage the imagination, foster flexible ways of thinking, develop
disciplined effort, and build self-confidence. Appreciation of the arts is
integral to the understanding of other cultures sought in the study of
history, foreign language, and social sciences.”
The following data is provided by the College Board from surveys it has
conducted over the past 15 years. The results provide distinct linkage between
arts education and learning. This is a comparison of the Scholastic Aptitude
Test (SAT) college entrance exam scores of students who have been engaged in
various arts education courses with those who have not had fine arts education
in high school:
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Dance students averaged score is 27 points
higher
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Visual arts students averaged score is 39
points higher
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Theatre/Drama students averaged score is
44 points higher
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Music performance students averaged score
is 49 points higher
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For each arts discipline, the score
significantly increased for each year the student was engaged in that
course of study |
For each arts discipline, the scores significantly increased for each year
the student was engaged in that course of study.
The opening paragraph of a study done by the Rockefeller Foundation supports
this conclusion: “An enduring myth within the academic world is that getting
into medical school is exhaustingly difficult and that doors are open only to
science majors, hence the soul destroying pre-med rat race. Leaders of the
medical profession themselves generally hold to this belief, yet the facts are
quite otherwise. They suggest that an excellent piece of advice for an
outstanding student eager to be admitted to medical schools is to be a music
major.”
“The Rockefeller Foundation study states that music majors have the highest
rate of admittance to medical school, a whopping 66.7 percent! Biochemistry, the
subject area closest to medicine, has a rate of 59.2 percent. The humanities in
general have 51.2 percent admittance rate compared to 47 percent admittance rate
for the natural sciences. The credibility of these statistics and the study lies
in the fact that the study was done by medical doctors involved with medical
schools throughout the United States. The study not only encourages but strongly
suggests that students concentrate on liberal arts and maintains that physicians
with liberal arts backgrounds make better doctors.” – Les Susi
“American companies
are competing in economic circumstances that are changing faster than ever
before. In 1950, when I was born, the majority of people did manual work and
only a minority did intellectual work, so to speak. Relatively few people wore
suits to work and sat behind desks. The pace of technological and economic
change is getting faster every day. Look at some of the casualties. In 1957,
the S&P list of the top 500 corporations was first published. In 1997, 40 years
later, only 74 of the original 500 were still on the list. Some experts believe
that by 2020 about 75% of the S&P list will be made up of companies we don’t
know today, some forms of business that haven’t been invented yet. (see Foster,
Richard and Sarah Kaplan, Creative Destruction, New York, NY: McKinney &
Company, Inc. 2001)
Nobody has a guaranteed seat at the top anymore. They
never did, of course, but the fact is if America wants to remain competitive in
the global markets of the 21st century, creativity is not a luxury.
America needs a workforce that is flexible, adaptable, and highly creative; and
it needs an education system that can develop these qualities in everyone.
The arts teach many of the skills, aptitudes and values
that are at the heart of America’s “creative economy” and beyond. Arts
education isn’t another problem that policymakers have to address but a solution
they need to embrace.”
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Robinson, K. (2005), How Creativity, Education and the Arts
Shape a Modern Economy, Education Commission of the States
Sir Ken Robinson is the senior advisor for education policy at the Getty
Foundation in Los Angeles, former professor of education at Warwick University
in the United Kingdom, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
The arts are for everyone and are a part of everyone. The arts are what
define our civilization, our culture, and our legacy.
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