District Arts Education Goals

The arts education goal of the Black Oak Mine Unified School District is to ensure that each student has met or exceeded the State's visual and performance art standards, has had a rich and diverse experience with the arts and has developed an appreciation of all the arts by the time the student graduates from our school system.

The District Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Committee has developed content standards that were approved by the Board of Trustees on January 20, 2000.  The state of California then adopted standards based on the same framework in 2001. Content and performance standards are described in visual arts, dance, theatre and music at all grade levels that are based on the California Department of Education Visual and Performing Arts Challenge Standards.  These standards describe specific performance indicators for the expertise we want all students to develop as the progress through school.

The District believes that all students in all grade levels must have high-quality arts education programs in order to meet the standards.  In grades K-6, the arts will be presented both as a course of study and infused into other subjects.  The the higher grades, students may choose to specialize in their art experiences; the comprehensive high school graduation requirement already includes one full year of course work in the visual and/or performing arts.  As with other subjects, skills and knowledge of the arts must be developed in a sequential manner.  The District also believes that, in order for students to achieve our high standards, teachers must have the opportunity to receive training and ongoing support for using arts curriculum in the classroom.  Another prerequisite for student success in meeting our standards is for teachers to develop the expertise to assess both their students' work and the effectiveness of our programs.

List of Major Objectives set in 2000

• Improve teacher awareness that standards-based curriculum for visual arts and music is available for use by all K-6 teachers (using the instructional materials we have adopting).
• Help all K-6 teachers understand the VAPA standards and know the expectations for their work in the classroom.  At least 75% of the K-6 teachers express an eagerness to use arts curriculum in their classroom and understand its potential for helping students achieve in all subjects. 
• A core group of teachers district wide are thoroughly trained in the integration of visual and performing arts curriculum in K-6 classrooms and are using this in their own classrooms, as well as modeling it in others' classes. 
• At least 29 teachers receive training in integrating all of the visual and performing arts standards-based curriculum into classroom and have presented this new curriculum at least 5 times (not including the use of the new music and visual arts instructional materials)
• Teachers using the new visual arts and music instructional materials are trained to use the measurements (included with the texts) and perform the measurements with their students.
• Teachers learn basic concepts in the measurement of all of the arts standards (music, dance, visual arts and theater) and begin using these concepts in their evaluation of student work
• Each site will have an Arts' Day, open to parents and the public, where student work in the visual and performing arts will be exhibited and performed.

List of Major Activities Conducted to Meet Program Objectives

• Standards bassed Instructional materials for music and visual arts were adopted for grades K-6 in 2001. 
• Four years of proffessional development training was provided and available to all K-6 teachers to introduce instructional materials, VAPA standards and expectations for teachers (presented by District Staff and Sierra North Arts Project (SNAP).
• Core team of teachers selected for in-depth training in all visual and performing arts. Teachers attend the SNAP series, Arts Across the Curriculum and Arts and Literacy.  Several teachers attended summer intensives led by SNAP. As part of their training teachers worked together as a team to develop curriculum and assessment tools. Model curriculum in other classrooms and provide support and mentoring for other staff.
• Assessments are performed that are part of the new instructional materials by all teachers using them. Additional assessment work done on student work in the arts, assisted by the core team. 
• Each site has had an Arts' Day, open to the public.
• ARTS WORK GRANTS were awarded to BOMUSD for four years to help pay for proffessional development, supplies and equipments for arts eductation. Grant coordinators worked closely with the California Department of Education and several arts education organizations to bring the latest research in art education practices to our Distirict.