The following article written by Thomas H. Waggoner, Director of Fine Arts for the Texas Education Agency, is an ongoing feature of "Texas Theatre Notes" that addresses frequently asked questions pertaining to theatre/fine arts education. Mr. Waggoner is also a member of the Texas Educational Theatre Association Board of Directors and serves as President of the Board of Directors for the Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts.
QUESTION:
As a middle school theatre teacher, I am having trouble with core curriculum teachers pulling students from theatre class for remediation and homework completion. Their rationale is "they don't want to stay at school till 5 p.m.!" Unfortunately, our principal has instructed them to pull students for this purpose from theatre, music, art, and physical education classes. Do you know of any documents we could refer to that dictate how much class time is required to receive the necessary credit for any class in middle school? If there is no directive, it appears that theatre and the other elective classes just become a throw-away class, lacking any kind of credibility, that any other teacher can draw their students from for remediation.
ANSWER:
As specified in Section 28.002(i) of the Texas Education Code (TEC), the state does not mandate the amount of instructional time for any academic discipline/grade level, including fine arts. Granted, there is a time requirement that mandates 30 minutes of daily "physical activity" or 135 minutes of weekly "physical activity" for students in grades K-6 in an elementary school setting. It should be noted, though, that this state rule does not mandate time requirements specifically for the content area of "physical education." This time requirements is for "physical activity," which, certainly, can be met through physical education class, but can also be met through monitored recess, movement in theatre or music class, or some other appropriate physical activity determined by the school district or campus, provided that the activity is based on the Physical Education Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Again, though, the amount of instructional time allocated for any academic discipline/grade level is a local school district decision.
However, TEC 25.092(a) states that ". . . a student may not be given credit for a class unless the student is in attendance for at least 90 percent of the days the class is offered." Consequently, if students are pulled from theatre class for tutoring and/or remedial work in other content areas more than 10 percent of the days that the theatre class is offered, then these students may not receive credit (i.e., a grade) for theatre. It should be noted that paragraph (b) of TEC 25.092 does allow exceptions to this statute for "extenuating circumstances" approved by the local school district board of trustees. However, these "extenuating circumstances" were intended for students with excessive absences due to illness, family emergency, etc., not for students being pulled from regular classes for tutoring.
Furthermore, Senate Bill 815, which was enacted by the 78th Legislature in 2003 and was effective as of the 2003-2004 school year, mandates, as a condition of accreditation, that school districts must use the TEKS when providing instruction in all of the required curriculum (foundation and enrichment content areas), including fine arts/theatre. The TEKS are no longer simply "guidelines" for enrichment content areas. Therefore, school districts must allow sufficient instructional time for theatre teachers to teach all of the student expectations of the Theatre TEKS.
The Texas Fine Arts Summit IX, hosted by the Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts (CEDFA), has been scheduled as follow:
TEXAS FINE ARTS SUMMIT IX
TAK=S4: Through the Arts Knowledge Becomes Success
Thursday-Friday, June 12-13, 2008
Austin Airport Hilton Hotel
Mark your calendars now! For additional information, contact Kris Andrews, Executive Director of CEDFA at krisandrews@cedfa.org or visit the CEDFA website at http://www.cedfa.org.