Standards

SECAC Policy for Visual Arts Education

Adopted at the 1995 SECAC Conference in Washington, DC, and amended at the annual meeting in Jacksonville, FL in October 2004.

MISSION STATEMENT

The Southeastern College Art Conference endorses the following goals and responsibilities in support of visual arts education by those in all levels of education and settings within the visual arts:

  1. Promote excellence and equity in comprehensive visual arts education for all people, beginning with PreK-16 education, leading to career opportunities as well as life-long learning in schools, colleges, universities, museums, and cultural and community organizations.
  2. Actively encourage research in life-long art-based learning, and support the development of local, state, and national research-based policies that promote achievement through the visual arts.
  3. Establish standards and encourage professional recognition for scholarship, creative activity, teaching, and service that improves teaching and learning in and through visual arts at all levels and settings.

POLICY POSITIONS

  1. 1a.Provide rigorous academic programs of excellence in the visual arts by considering and incorporating national standards of excellence for comprehensive art education as provided by professional organizations such as the American Association of Museums, College Art Association, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education, International Council of Fine Arts Deans, National Art Education Association, National Association of Schools of Art and Design, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education; by incorporating contemporary, historical, and other relevant issues in art; and by collaborating with public and private local, state, and national organizations.
  2. 1b.Support admissions criteria to institutional programs at the college and university level that meet standards of excellence and provide access to all people.
  3. 1c.Encourage broad audience development through the visual arts by comprehensive programs that incorporate contemporary and relevant issues in art, and by active collaboration between public and private organizations including community-based resources, museums, corporations, government agencies, and PreK-16 schools.
  4. 2a.Strive for more collaborative policy involvement and initiatives between/among higher education institutions, recognizing that research in art education is a vital link between the visual arts, humanities, social/natural sciences, and mathematics.
  5. 2b.Engage in research/evaluation/development projects with local schools to establish best practices in curriculum and pedagogy and in local settings.
  6. 2c.Support developing art specific assessment means for students PreK-16 and build upon knowledge gained from the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress Visual Arts Report Card.
  7. 2d.Develop public policy initiatives that support visual arts in the Pre K-16 curriculum by encouraging collaborations with state, local, and national organizations.
  8. 3a.Establish appropriate guidelines defining retention, tenure, promotion, and salary increases for art education faculty.
  9. 3b.Assist in the development of assessment and evaluation procedures for art education programs at all levels.
  10. 3c.Encourage best practice in curriculum and pedagogical training for PreK-12 teachers, be adapted at other levels of instruction in the arts.
  11. 3d.Foster faculty commitments to community outreach and policy planning for art education throughout the community.
  12. 3e.Recommend qualified, certified art teachers at early childhood, elementary, and secondary levels, and actively assist in teacher preparation and professional development.

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

  1. Faculty should define and develop standards that reflect the value of art education and assign responsibilities and rewards for policy-related activities in all recognized local, state, regional, and national organizations.
    1. Foster greater participation by higher education faculty in leadership positions through rewards for service, recognition of art education as contributing to improving curriculum and pedagogy at the college and university level, and greater integration with studio disciplines and art history.
    2. Consider college/university art galleries for contributions to the development of outreach activities.
  2. Art Education faculty should engage in defining public policy, and when appropriate, administrators should recognize and support adjustments in work assignments.
  3. Partnerships should be cultivated outside the visual arts.

POLICY DISSEMINATION

  1. Develop a statement to be disseminated to institutions of higher education that explains the importance of faculty involvement in policy making at the local, state, regional, and national levels regarding visual art education.
  2. Publish/link to noteworthy policy articulations on SECAC's website.
  3. Develop electronic means to share library resources and image databases at SECAC member institutions with public school students either on-site or electronically.
  4. Seek endorsement and distribution of the 2003 SECAC Visual Arts Education Policy Statement by local, state, regional, and national PreK-16 institutions and associations.SECAC Art Education

Committee Members:

Thomas M. Brewer, Chair
Associate Professor
University of Central Florida
Richard Siegesmund
Assistant Professor
University of Georgia
Robert Mode, Professor
Department of Art
Vanderbilt University
Read M. Diket
Director of Honors Program
William Carey College
Charles Bleick, Associate Professor and Chair
Department of Art Education
Virginia Commonwealth University
Cynthia Colbert, Professor
Department of Art
University of South Carolina
Susan Slavik
Assistant Professor
Coastal Carolina University
Mary Lou Hightower
Assistant Professor
University of South Carolina Spartanburg

UCF Graduate Participants:

Endorsed by
The Florida Higher Education Arts Network, January 2004.
Pinellas County Public Schools, Largo, FL, November 2005.
Brevard County School District, Viera, FL, December 2005.