Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is The Center for Arts Education?
A. The Center for Arts Education (CAE) is a nonprofit organization committed to stimulating and sustaining quality arts education as an essential part of every child’s K–12 education in the New York City public schools.

Q. What does The Center for Arts Education do?
A. CAE is leading the effort to stimulate and sustain quality arts education for New York City’s more than one million children in public schools. Download our brochure.

We create a positive impact on the lives of children using a multifaceted approach that includes:

• Raising awareness of the value of arts learning
• Helping parents and caregivers become powerful advocates for their children’s education
• Creating and supporting arts education programs
• Improving the quality of teaching and learning through professional development and strategic partnerships
• Advocating for strong arts education policies at the city, state and federal levels

Q. What are CAE’s strategic goals?

1. Ensure all New York City public schools integrate high-quality arts learning and teaching into the education of every student.
2. Mobilize a broad community of supporters for school-based arts programs and experiences.
3. Improve the quality of teaching and learning through grant programs, professional development, cultural partnerships and other initiatives.
4. Increase the resources available for arts education in the schools and for the larger field.
5. Raise awareness about arts education and the work of CAE.

Q. Why are the arts important to a quality public school education?
A. CAE believes that every child in every school has the right to a well-rounded education of which the arts are an essential ingredient. Quality arts education is central to a complete education—and it is required by state law.

Beyond having great value in and of themselves, the arts:

• Promote the health and well-being of children
• Engage students more fully in school, motivating them to learn and succeed
• Help at-risk kids stay in school and graduate on time
• Play a key role in the development of a child’s cognitive, analytic and creative skills
• Build a child’s confidence and self-expression
• Offer students channels for emotional expression and healing
• Provide a gateway to careers in NYC’s $21 billion creative sector

Learn more about what we believe in our Arts Education Bill of Rights.

Q. What are CAE’s teaching and learning programs?
A. CAE’s innovative teaching and learning programs —fostering collaboration with teachers and school leaders as well as cultural and community organizations—help build arts-infused school communities.

Our teaching and learning programs include:

• Parents As Arts Partners (PAAP) A school-based family arts program, PAAP engages parents and their children in hands-on, interactive arts education activities, including workshops with teaching artists and school arts teachers and visits to cultural organizations.
• Career Development Program (CDP) CDP creates outstanding opportunities for high school students and educators to participate in school-to-career activities in the arts and creative sector. The program’s primary goal is to expose students, teachers, counselors and administrators to the many career options in New York City’s $21 billion arts industry.
• School Arts Support Initiative (SASI) This innovative school-based program was created for underserved New York City public middle schools with little or no arts education. The goal is to help develop the capacity needed to transform these schools into arts-rich communities.
• Special Education programs help students with disabilities, particularly those on the autism spectrum, to achieve their full potential through the integration of arts into the core curriculum. For example, the Teaching Artist Training Institute  prepares teaching artists to address the special needs of these students.
• Arts-Powered Learning These online modules can be found on CAE’s website and share best practices used in schools as models for quality arts education programs.
• Professional Development gives principals, teachers and teaching artists the knowledge, skills and inspiration that will help them bring quality arts programming into their schools. The CAE Principals Institute, for example, helps school leaders create an arts-rich school community.

Q. What are New York State’s instructional requirements for the arts?
A. The New York State Education Department requires that all elementary schools offer instruction in four arts disciplines (visual arts, music, theater and dance) to every student; that middle school and high school students complete a least one full unit of study (two courses/credits) in the arts; and that each public school district provide high school students with the opportunity to complete a three- or five-unit arts sequence).

For more information on the state requirements, view the guidelines and/or download the learning standards.

Q. What are the latest statistics on arts education in the New York City public schools?
A. Despite state mandates requiring minimum instruction in the arts for New York public school students, many students are not receiving the quality arts instruction to which they are entitled. In fact, lack of compliance with state instructional requirements is widespread.

According to the recent Annual Arts in Schools Report produced by the New York City’s Department of Education:

• Only 12 percent of elementary schools are providing students with instruction in the four required art forms (visual arts, music, theater and dance).
• Almost 40 percent of middle schools are failing to provide all of their students with the minimum credits mandated for arts instruction.
• Close to 20 percent of high schools do not have any certified arts teacher on staff despite state mandates requiring that all students complete instruction in the arts taught by a teacher certified in the subject matter they teach.

For more information, read our statement on the third Annual Arts in Schools Report.

Q. How can I learn more about ways to ensure that every child in every school has arts education?
A. Whether you are a parent, teacher, teaching artist, community leader or elected official, there are many ways you can participate in CAE’s campaigns to ensure that every child in every school has arts education.

CAE helps parents become advocates for arts in their children’s education—in their homes, at their schools, and at every level of government. We also work to educate policy-makers and the public about the need for arts education as an essential part of a well-rounded education and an essential contributor to children’s health and well-being.

Visit www.caenyc.org to:

• Join the Arts Education Action Network: Learn about issues in arts education and visit our action center  to take action to support quality arts education.
• Download our free Parent Guides to understand how arts education benefits children.
• Make a donation to support our activities.
• Take advantage of our free online resources.
• Apply to the Parents As Arts Partners program to build family arts programming and activities in your community.
• Become a Career Development Program work site (contact careerdevelopment@caenyc.org) for student interns.
• Participate in Professional Development activities and learn how to embed arts learning in your school’s curricula.
• Read about our current campaigns to restore quality arts education for every child in every school.
• Join our Arts Education Action Network, a growing coalition of parents, educators, arts and community organizations, and businesses working to ensure that every child in every school receives a quality arts education.

Q. How does CAE advocate for quality arts education?
A. CAE has formed the Arts Education Action Network, made up of a growing number of NYC public school parents and community members who are concerned that fewer and fewer schools have the arts education our children are entitled to by law. We work with elected officials, organizations and individuals to achieve the quality K–12 arts education our children deserve.

The Arts Education Action Network advocates through two channels:

• Parent Engagement helps parents become champions for arts in their children’s education—at home, school and at every level of government. We also provide free publications to help parents understand how arts education benefits their children and learn about resources available in their schools and communities.
• Public Affairs efforts encourage elected officials and policy-makers to support quality arts education in NYC public schools.

Q. What has CAE’s research found about the importance of arts education?
A. CAE’s landmark report—Staying in School: Arts Education and New York City High School Graduation Rates—links arts education to higher graduation rates. Good schools have the arts, and students in schools with little access to arts instruction are struggling to graduate.

Based on an analysis of data from more than 200 high schools (the largest number for which consistent, comprehensive data was available) over a two-year span, schools with the highest graduation rates offer the most access and resources to support arts education, as measured across nine separate indicators of the resources necessary to provide quality arts education. Students at schools with the lowest graduation rates have the least access to the benefits of quality instruction in the arts.

Q. What are CAE’s policy recommendations to improve access to arts education in NYC public schools?
A. CAE recommends:

• The city should ensure minimum funding for arts education and the City Council should pass resolution #837 to once again provide all schools with a minimum per-pupil funding allocation to be spent directly on the arts.
• The city and state should ensure compliance with state requirements for arts instruction.
• Every school should have at minimum one certified arts teacher on staff in one of the four required art forms.
• The city should require that all schools provide adequate space for arts instruction
• High school principals should expand course offerings in the four arts disciplines and provide all students with an opportunity to exceed the minimum graduation requirement of successful completion of two courses (one unit of credit) in the arts.
• The city should implement policies and dedicate resources to ensure that all students have access to the city’s vibrant and diverse cultural arts sector.

Q. How can I support CAE’s efforts to stimulate and sustain quality arts education in NYC’s public schools?
A. You can make a donation to CAE. Your gift, large or small, will help put the arts back into our public school education system.

• To make your gift online, please visit our safe and secure donation page.
• To mail your contribution, send your check to:

The Center for Arts Education
14 Penn Plaza, 225 W. 34th Street, Suite 1112
New York, NY 10122.

• To give a gift over the telephone, please call: 212.971.3300, ext 311.