Northern California Grantmakers

NCG member Marin Community Foundation has unveiled a five-year initiative to close the educational achievement gap in Marin where only 21% of low-income students and students of color complete high school ready for college or other post-secondary education.

“According to [MCF President Thomas Peters], the Foundation’s funding will focus on three areas: helping ensure that young children enter kindergarten prepared to succeed; providing extra help to students in elementary, middle, and high school so that when they graduate, they are prepared to apply to and complete college or other post-secondary education; and supporting local districts to improve schools with relatively higher numbers of students who need extra help.”

Read the full press release online.

Read a recent Philanthropy News Digest article on the initiative online.

In 2007, with support from NCG member The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Center for Education Policy at SRI International created a report on the state of arts education in California. The report, An Unfinished Canvas: Arts Education in California, revealed that a large majority of California schools do not meet state goals for arts education – that is, they fail to offer a standards-based course of study in dance, music, visual arts, and theatre. In addition, the report identified barriers to arts education, including inadequate and unstable funding, insufficient instructional time, and limited staff and professional development in the arts.

To learn how more California students might receive standards-based arts education, the Hewlett Foundation provided support for a suite of follow-up studies. Hewlett is pleased to announce the availability of An Unfinished Canvas: Local Partnerships in Support of Arts Education.

An Unfinished Canvas: Local Partnerships in Support of Arts Education explores the role of partnerships between local arts organizations and schools and districts in supporting elementary arts education in California. The report also highlights case studies, illustrating how partners in six diverse California communities work together to increase access to arts education, and discuss benefits and limitations of those partnerships.

Download the report online.

Last year The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation issued a report on the state of arts education in California. The report, An Unfinished Canvas: Arts Education in California, revealed that a large majority of California schools fail to meet state goals for arts education — that is, they fail to offer a standards-based course of study in dance, music, visual arts, and theater. The report also identified key barriers to arts education, including inadequate and unstable funding, insufficient instructional time, and limited teacher capacity in the arts.

To identify solutions aimed at increasing the delivery of standards-based arts education to California students, the Hewlett Foundation has provided support for a suite of follow-up studies. Hewlett has recently announced the availability of a new follow-up report:

An Unfinished Canvas: A Review of Large-Scale Assessment in K-12 Arts Education reviews existing approaches to large-scale assessment in the arts, considering both the benefits and limitations.

Read the report here.