Taking Stock: Understanding Your State’s Arts Ed Landscape
Taking stock in arts education is about more than assessing current inventory (what’s taught and who has access). Taking stock is also about knowing which way the winds blow (political/structural/budgetary), understanding the forces at play that bring us to this moment, and conceptualizing a path forward.
I co-authored a recently published policy brief with colleagues at Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA) and Think 360 Arts for Learning. Titled The State of Arts Education in Colorado Public Schools Grades Pre-K-12, the purpose of the paper is to inform state and local policymakers and the public of the status of arts education in Colorado public schools and recommend overarching policy initiatives that will enable greater accountability and ensure quality, equity, and access for all students.
The briefing paper describes:
The benefits of arts learning for every student
National and state historical context
Current policies in Colorado and nationwide supporting arts education in public schools
Implementation practices affecting equitable access
Policy recommendations
Read the full paper HERE.
The year-long investigative process yielded new information and provided insight. Below are reflections on the report’s key elements.
Rationale: Why Now?
The opportunity to develop a policy brief doesn’t come around every day. It is likely the confluence of events or an inflection point that creates a “seize the moment” opportunity. In Colorado, a robust collaboration between CBCA, Colorado’s statewide arts advocacy voice, and Think 360 Arts, a preeminent statewide arts education nonprofit, sparked the development of the policy brief. Specifically, the rationale for the paper was threefold:
“Sustained Arts Learning” is one of four top strategic priorities in Colorado’s Arts Policy Framework, unveiled by CBCA in November 2024.
A recent study commissioned by Think 360 finds a continued decline in the number of credentialed arts educators across the state.
Unlike 48 other states, Colorado does not collect data on course-level offerings in the arts across all districts or data on student participation in the arts (dance, music, theatre, visual arts).
The collaboration between two strong organizations created this exceptional partnership. CBCA and Think 360 Arts bring together policy know-how and deep content knowledge to carve a new approach to arts ed advocacy.
Plant the Flag
Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed, Lyndon Johnson famously admonished civil rights advocates to plant the flag and demand action rather than waiting passively for it to happen. A policy brief is a way of planting the flag, presenting a compelling case to decision makers that will advance systems change. While the policy recommendations in the Colorado brief do address primarily state policymakers, the paper will reach a broader audience of funders, parents, educators, artists, students, and school and community leaders who are eager to be part of the conversation and make the case in local communities.
The Value of Re-stating Value
If you are reading this post, you don’t need convincing that the arts are essential to a well-rounded education. In the Colorado brief, we state the benefits loudly and up front because:
Turnover is high. Elected officials and administrators often change roles or are termed out and may lack awareness of the importance of arts learning.
Numerous leaders may not have benefited from comprehensive arts education and therefore might not immediately recognize its value based on their own experiences.
The paper cites research connecting the arts to a host of learning competencies as well as the use of strong visuals to tell the story. In addition, it connects arts learning to jobs and careers, economic vitality, and workforce development, all issues that policymakers care deeply about.
Context is All
Think of a policy brief as a concise compendium of reported knowledge. The historical context, both state and national, tells a valuable story of how we have arrived at this moment.
Arts education has been on a mostly upward trajectory since the 1970s through the diligence and perseverance of dedicated policymakers and advocates. The arts education ecosystem, including a vast network of educators, policymakers, researchers, funders, parents, and community partners, have made great gains in advancing arts learning in public schools.
The state context in Colorado reflects national trends. Emerging themes include:
Local control = local variability.
Standards keep the arts “in the frame.”
Public funding architecture matters.
Policy Comparisons
Arts Education Partnership’s ArtScan makes it easy to view and compare policies among states. A summary of state policies related to arts education may be viewed by state or in a side-by-side comparison. In my experience, state policymakers like to know what other states are doing, especially if it may solve the issue in a way that is fiscally prudent and acceptable to a wide constituency. That said, no two states are alike, and legislators are quick to point out that something that works in another state with a vastly different landscape and half (or double) the population isn’t a shoo-in. A natural competitive instinct also kicks in. Who doesn’t want to be at or near the top? Or dreads being an outlier?
Barriers
Many factors influence the provision of arts ed, so a discussion about barriers or “implementation practices impacting access” (a gentler wording) will be complex and nuanced. Barriers may be structural, such as prevailing local control statutes and practices. They may be global, such budget uncertainty. Or multi-tiered, as in the decline of arts teacher licensure, or just plain puzzling, as with data limitations. When describing the obstacle, it’s helpful to describe the why as well as the what.
Recommendations
Policy recommendations may be stated as detailed deliverables or more generally, leaving room for policy or regulatory development and enhancements. In either case, it should be clear that the recommendations directly address the barriers. We opted to blend the two approaches. Some recommendations will be relatively easy to accomplish, such as an annual designation of Arts Ed Month. Others, such as instructional requirements and data systems improvement, will require a robust multi-phased, multi-faceted dynamic approach in concert with policymakers, stakeholders, and practitioners.
Just the Beginning
The policy brief was released in December 2025 and presented to the Colorado Legislative Arts Caucus. Next steps include sharing the full brief and summary with all policymakers, discussing with key legislators, proposing policy language, and widely distributing the paper to education and arts leaders. The back-and-forth tango will require both strategy and adaptability.
Buckle up.
READ the full policy brief.