Kimberly Olson says arts education is untapped resource for Portrait

Thank you, Councilmember Dinowitz, Councilmember Wong, the Education Committee and City Council staff for hosting today's oversight hearing.

My name is Kimberly Olson, and I'm proud to be the Executive Director of the New York City Arts and Education Roundtable, also proud graduate of New York State Schools, having taken many Regents exams in my time.

As our city maps out this next chapter in education, the Roundtable and our constituents believe that arts education is among our strongest untapped resources to meeting this milestone.

Each of the six core attributes starts with the arts.

Research shows the impact of arts education on developing a broad range of in-demand skills that help students prepare not only for college, but career and civic life as well.

As a theater educator, I saw firsthand as my students demonstrated their knowledge by writing and performing original musicals on topics like immigration, Rosa Parks, civil rights, as well as black inventors like Lonnie Johnson and more.

Historically, these Regents exams have squeezed dance, music, theater, visual arts out of the school day in an attempt to teach to the test.

Moving away from these high-stakes testings towards alternative assessment measures is a positive shift that has immense potential to showcase student rigor, excellence, and creativity.

Yet to realize this vision, we need more information and action from New York City public schools in four key areas.

First, we need clear guidance.

We need explicit clarity on how arts will be mapped within Portrait of a Graduate and how arts-based performance measures will count towards graduation requirements.

Then we need more arts teachers and support for these teachers.

Roughly one in five New York City public schools lack a certified arts teacher.

We must invest in the hiring of certified arts teachers to ensure that schools have the content knowledge on hand to support the delivery of arts integration and arts-based capstones projects.

Third, we need professional development.

Arts teachers can't carry this load on their own.

New York City Public Schools needs to invest in robust professional development so that educators can co-design these learning experiences and capstone experiences as well.

Last, we need strategic partnerships, leveraging DCLA, MoM, and New York City Public Schools, as well as our arts and cultural partners to support CTE.

Pathways.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

I'd like to thank this panel for their testimony today.

I'm just kidding.

Okay.

And again, as always, if I mispronounce your name, I apologize.