As states around the country continue the process of implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a priority of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) is to ensure that the arts and education communities have the resources necessary to engage in the many opportunities ESSA opens up for expanding arts education for all students. To accomplish this, AEP – along with a group of partner organizations and other arts in education stakeholders – formed the ESSA/Well-Rounded Education Working Group. As a part of the ongoing work of this group we are releasing the latest chapter in our series of ESSA: Mapping opportunities for the arts tomorrow which is continually updated with new chapters exploring the role of the arts within pressing ESSA-related issues.

The latest chapter focuses on a key component of ESSA – stakeholder engagement. ESSA encourages, and in some cases requires, consultation with stakeholders as part of the development of both state and district plans for ESSA. Yet while all states and districts have the same requirements of stakeholders they need to engage, the strategies used vary from state to state and district to district. This new chapter helps readers know where ESSA requires stakeholder engagement, understand the opportunities for engaging the arts in those broader educational priorities and gain familiarity with how individual states and districts approach work with community members.

There are a multitude of opportunities to engage arts in education stakeholders in ESSA implementation. Some early examples include New Jersey inviting more than 60 organizations – including the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership – to participate in a series of ESSA stakeholder focus group meetings and a group of arts education stakeholders across Indiana forming the Indiana Arts Education Network to engage state leaders on the importance of the arts in ESSA implementation.

Are you interested in learning more about the arts and ESSA implementation? If so, follow these three easy steps:

• First, join us for the 2017 AEP State Policy Symposium in Washington D.C., on March 18 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. This annual event brings more than 100 national leaders from the arts, business, cultural, education, philanthropic and public sectors together for a daylong conversation about the intersection between the arts and education policy.
• Second, subscribe to the Arts Ed Digest, AEP’s biweekly newsletter, which provides updates on all the developments of the arts in education community including new releases from AEP and our 100 partner organizations.
• Explore the other arts in education resources available on the AEP website.

We look forward to seeing you at the 2017 AEP State Policy Symposium in March! Make sure to keep your eye out tomorrow for the new chapter of ESSA: Mapping opportunities for the arts.