Federal Funding of Arts Education Research: Round 3

Here's the follow-up email I sent earlier today to the US Department of Education, in response to their response of June 9th to my policy inquiry of May 19th.

Basically, I just ask the same questions over again, after pointing out how their initial response was, er, unresponsive. I also suggest that perhaps the new head of the DoEd's Institute for Education Science (IES) – whose appointment had not yet been confirmed, nor term begun, when I sent my first inquiry – would be the best person to answer the questions, since the research funding programs are administered by the IES.

I await the IES' response.

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From: Jim Plamondon [mailto:jim@igetitmusic.com]
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 3:17 PM
To: 'Harvey, Edith'; 'Easton, John'
Cc: 'Geddes, Claire'; 'Jonathan Levy'; 'Ruth Clark'; 'Tom Rudolph'; 'Wendy Free'; 'Michael McCaul'; 'Kay Bailey Hutchison'; 'John Cornyn'
Subject: RE: US Department of Education response to your inquiry

Dear Ms. Harvey,

I appreciate your response of 9th June (below) to my email of 19th May to Secretary Duncan, in which I inquired as to whether the Department of Education would continue the Bush-era policy of excluding arts education research from receiving funding from the DoEd’s research grant programs.

I would have appreciated your response even more if it had answered the questions that I had asked. ;-)

In your response, you stated that “The Institute of Education Sciences oversees the research initiatives you inquire about. Their website can be found at the following address: http://ies.ed.gov.”

I appreciate your bringing this information to my attention, although my initial email (appended below)
(a) mentioned the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and its relevant research funding programs by name;
(a) included links to IES website’s relevant web pages; and
(b) was copied to the IES staff member (Dr. Jonathan Levy) who administers those research grant programs.

[Jim: yes, I really did number these items a, a, & b – rather than a, b, & c – which I noticed only after I had sent the email.]

In your response, you stated that “The Department of Education funds several arts education grant programs.”

The only such arts-related program mentioned on DoEd’s website as receiving DoEd grant funding is its Arts in Education outreach program, of which, according to this web page, you are the overseer. Thank you for helping this outreach program, which is described on that web page as seeking to “encourage the involvement of, and foster greater awareness of the need for, arts programs for persons with disabilities.” While this is indeed a worthy program, which I heartily support, it is an outreach program, and my initial inquiry was focused specifically on *research* funding, not outreach funding. If the DoEd funds any arts education *research* programs, I would welcome hearing about them.

With arts education poised to bear the brunt of crisis-driven state and local school budget cuts, research into new means of significantly increasing the educational efficiency of arts instruction – thus giving it more bang for the buck – could not be more timely. This is particularly true, given that the percentage of the US economy that is driven by arts-based creative industries is high and rising. Unfortunately, the IES’ website states clearly that research funding is available only for research into “reading, writing, mathematics, or science” – a list which clearly excludes research into arts education per se.

For your convenience, I will re-state the questions I asked in my initial email:
1. Is it the official policy of the IES, under the Obama Administration, to continue to exclude arts education research from funding under the IES’ Education Technology research initiative?
2. Is it the official policy of the IES, under the Obama Administration, to continue to exclude arts education research from funding under the IES’ Cognition and Student Learning research initiative?
3. If the answer to either or both of the above questions is “yes,” then what change in circumstances would need to be effected in order to make those answers “yes" [Jim: should have been "no" – another typo/error] and what chain of events would be required to bring about that ultimate change in circumstances?

Perhaps these questions could be best answered by the IES’ new Director, Dr. John Q. Easton (whose appointment was confirmed, and whose term began, after I sent my initial enquiry on May 19th). I have taken the liberty of copying Dr. Easton’s presumed email address, John.Easton@ed.gov, on the “to-line” of this message. If this is not his actual email address, I would appreciate your forwarding it to him accordingly.

Respectfully Yours,

Jim Plamondon
Austin, Texas