The Blueprint was unanimously adopted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and officially launched in September 2002 (please see the press and publications below for more information).

PROGRESS ON THE BLUEPRINT TO DATE:

Goal 1:  Each of the 82 school districts in Los Angeles County enacts a policy, adopts a plan with timeline, and approves a budget to implement sequential K-12 arts education. 

Vanguard School Districts –
As of April 2005, eleven school districts –

2003/2004 Vanguards • Culver City • Norwalk-LaMirada • Pasadena • Rosemead and • Santa Monica-Malibu • LA County Office of Education

2004/2005 Districts • Beverly Hills • Burbank • Castaic • Compton • Hacienda La Puente

have committed to plan for arts education and are receiving technical assistance to develop and adopt and arts education policy and long-range budgeted plan by the end of each school year. Laurie Schell, Executive Director of the California Alliance for Arts Education, is spearheading this initiative through funding provided by Sony Pictures Entertainment and the National Endowment for the Arts. Five districts will be chosen each year to receive technical assistance to establish these critical success factors for arts education.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education is included in the 2003/2004 year as the sixth district receiving guidance to provide sequential arts education in the juvenile halls, probation camps, community schools and special education sites through an Arts Work grant from the California Department of Education. 

Goal 2:  Implementers and policy makers have sufficient tools, information, and professional development to achieve sequential K-12 arts education 

Arts Education Website
Developed by the Arts Commission, www.LAArtsEd.org is the County’s first ever online resource directory providing one-stop shopping and the assurance that the programs meet state education standards. Full details of each program, including fee and availability information is provided. Users can watch streaming video of program providers and email a booking request to providers through an online form. Arts education service providers will have opportunities to apply to be included in the directory in spring 2005 and every spring thereafter. This project was funded by Los Angeles County. The Application is available April to June annually.

Professional Development Workshops
In January 2003, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, in partnership with the Armory Center for the Arts and the Music Center Education Division, launched the first ever Los Angeles County Arts Education Training Program. The training program provides County-based individual teaching artists, and arts education directors of arts organizations, with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Visual and Performing Arts Standards, the standards for the other core-curriculum subject areas, child development, lesson plan development, evaluation and assessment.

By April 2005, through an initial grant from the California Arts Council and a current grant from the Dana Foundation, the County trained 100 arts education administrators through the Armory and 100 teaching artists through the Music Center. The goal is that every participant of the training program will eventually be listed on LAArtsEd.org.

Teacher Training
Spearheaded by Mark Slavkin, Vice President of Education for the Music Center and Dr. Carl Selkin, Dean, College of Arts and Letters, California State University Los Angeles, a team comprised of County-based universities, the Los Angeles County Office of Education, representatives from the school districts, arts organizations, museums and members of the Executive Committee developed the following action plan for teacher training:
1)      map existing County-based professional development in the arts to help districts access quality programs – which will eventually be included on the www.LAArtsEd.org as this site is built out overtime

2)      assist vanguard districts with including professional development in their long-range arts education plans

3)      help all county districts to align curriculum and teacher training, for example training teachers to teach the Open Court reading curriculum through the arts, and

4)      develop a model framework for preparing teachers, during their studies at the college level, to teach the arts

The subcommittee will be working with a consultant in spring 2004 to develop a plan of action to advance the four priorities for teacher training.

Goal 3:   Parents, students, arts supports, and community and industry leaders mobilize to advocate for sequential K-12 arts education 

Arts Education Performance Indicators Report (AEPI)
Published by the Executive Committee of the County Task Force on Arts Education, AEPI highlights efforts to improve arts education in Los Angeles County and documents the status of dance, music, theater, and visual arts in each of the County’s 81 school districts on an annual basis. This report is the first ongoing examination of arts education in Los Angeles County and provides a framework to evaluate self-reported school district data on five critical success factors for arts education. It is a crucial component of the County’s ability to measure and track district improvement over time.

Goal 4:  Funding policies of public and private funders support and align with vision and mission of this plan 

Pooled Fund
One year after the Pooled Fund to support the implementation of Arts for All was launched with a $500,000 gift from the Entertainment Industry Foundation(EIF), myriad activities made possible by these contributions are helping to move the blueprint goals forward. Three foundations have recently joined the Pooled Fund: the James Irvine Foundation, the Getty Foundation, and the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation.

One of the Pooled Fund's highest priorities is to assist the Los Angeles County school districts that have committed to adopting arts education policies, plans and budgets. In its first year the Fund has
* Provided $12,000 per district to support technical assistance spearheaded by the California Alliance for Arts Education in 2004-5 Arts for All districts: Beverly Hills USD, Burbank USD, Castaic Union SD, Compton USD, and Hacienda-La Puente USD.
* Provided $5,400 per district toward technical assistance for ongoing implementation of adopted policies, plans and budgets for Arts for All districts that started their effort in 2003-4: Culver City USD, Norwalk-La Mirada USD, Pasadena USD, Rosemead SD, and Santa Monica-Malibu USD.
*Supported the establishment of full time arts coordinator positions in the Culver City and Pasadena districts with matching grants totalling $140,000 ($70,000 to each district).
*Supported implementation of a key priority of Santa Monica-Malibu's long range arts education plan ($60,000).

Additional contributors to the Pooled Fund include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Creative Artists Agency, Warner Bros. Entertainment, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, and the Jewish Community Foundation. Other members of the pooled fund include the Dana Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission and Target Corporation for their support of targeted Blueprint initiatives.

Los Angeles County Productivity Fund

National Endownment for the Arts

Laurel Karabian
Member, Los Angeles County Arts Commission

Janice Pober
Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Darline Robles
Superintendent, Los Angeles County Schools

Laurie Schell
Executive Director, California Alliance for Arts Education

Carl Selkin
Dean, College of Arts and Letters, California State University, Los Angeles

Mark Slavkin
Vice President, Education, Music Center of Los Angeles County

Gail Tierney
Deputy, Chairman Don Knabe

Laura Zucker
Executive Director, Los Angeles County Arts Commission

PLUS
For a full list of partners, see Arts for All

Press Releases:
laartsed.org
Pooled Fund
AEPI Report
Vanguard School Districts
Arts for All
Arts in Focus