As published in the Albuquerque Journal September 10, 2023
This appeared under the Journal’s headline: Students see how APS funding favors athletics. The byline was Terry Davis and Laura A. Maness, Executive Directors, New Mexico High School Musical Theatre Awards
Students learn a lot from the actions of adults. For example, they witness the new increase for stipends given to APS athletic coaches and learn that their school plays favorites because no other teachers who lead extracurricular activities got an increase in their stipends.
As the Journal reported on Aug. 6, stipends for coaches were increased by as much as 142%. Those stipends hadn’t been raised in over 20 years and were well deserved. But the stipends for other teachers leading non-athletic programs have also been stagnant for that same 20 years.
Some students might easily see a gender bias in this stipend increase. Athletic programs still have higher numbers of boys participating than girls while non-athletic programs like chorus and drama attract significantly more girls.
Very often, what keeps students motivated to stay in school are the activities a school offers, particularly for grades 9-12. With stipend increases only for athletic coaches, students might see that APS is telling students non-athletic activities just don’t matter as much, that those who are not athletically inclined or who are physically incapable are less important. That’s an extraordinarily bad message to communicate in light of Yazzie/Martínez.
Nationally, 55% of high school students participate in athletics while 45% participate in non-athletic activities. There is an overlap between those two groups and some students do nothing extracurricular. But all students see how the administration played favorites by putting money into athletics but nothing else.
That means that teachers supervising activities like band, Mathletes, chess, and drama, who already earned smaller stipends than coaches, are now further behind their fellow faculty members. These extracurricular activities are just as important as athletics — possibly more so, since many of them reinforce lessons taught in the base curriculum. As we often tell people about drama, you can’t design a set without geometry, can’t light the stage without physics, and every play includes practical applications of language arts.
Drama teachers and their fellow non-athletics program leaders run these programs all year long, not just for a 16-week season, and most do it without any assistant coaches. These teachers deserved the stipend increase as much if not more than the coaches, considering the fact that their stipends were already lower than coaches.
Students learn a lot from the actions of adults. For example, they witness the new increase for stipends given to APS athletic coaches and learn that their school plays favorites because no other teachers who lead extracurricular activities got an increase in their stipends.
As the Journal reported on Aug. 6, stipends for coaches were increased by as much as 142%. Those stipends hadn’t been raised in over 20 years and were well deserved. But the stipends for other teachers leading non-athletic programs have also been stagnant for that same 20 years.
Some students might easily see a gender bias in this stipend increase. Athletic programs still have higher numbers of boys participating than girls while non-athletic programs like chorus and drama attract significantly more girls.
Very often, what keeps students motivated to stay in school are the activities a school offers, particularly for grades 9-12. With stipend increases only for athletic coaches, students might see that APS is telling students non-athletic activities just don’t matter as much, that those who are not athletically inclined or who are physically incapable are less important. That’s an extraordinarily bad message to communicate in light of Yazzie/Martínez.
Nationally, 55% of high school students participate in athletics while 45% participate in non-athletic activities. There is an overlap between those two groups and some students do nothing extracurricular. But all students see how the administration played favorites by putting money into athletics but nothing else.
That means that teachers supervising activities like band, Mathletes, chess, and drama, who already earned smaller stipends than coaches, are now further behind their fellow faculty members. These extracurricular activities are just as important as athletics — possibly more so, since many of them reinforce lessons taught in the base curriculum. As we often tell people about drama, you can’t design a set without geometry, can’t light the stage without physics, and every play includes practical applications of language arts.
Drama teachers and their fellow non-athletics program leaders run these programs all year long, not just for a 16-week season, and most do it without any assistant coaches. These teachers deserved the stipend increase as much if not more than the coaches, considering the fact that their stipends were already lower than coaches.
As published in the Albuquerque Journal, September 7, 2021
This appeared appeared under the Journal’s headline: Fund art programs like we support sports. The byline was Terry S. Davis, Co-Producer, N.M. High School Musical Theatre Awards, Albuquerque Resident
In September 2018, Pedro Noguera, professor emeritus from UCLA, testified before the New Mexico Legislative Education Study Committee about equity in schools and remarked that — as we all know — students who participate in athletics or performing arts in their schools have better outcomes than students who do not.
Do we all know that? If we did, wouldn’t we fund school performing arts programs the way we fund athletics? Roughly half a high school’s students participate in school arts programs, based on national statistics. Are we providing funding for only half our students?
James Catterall, also with UCLA, dove deep into a national study of 25,000 students and found specific support for the benefits of performing arts participation. “Intensive involvement in the arts during middle and high school associates with higher levels of achievement and college attainment,” he wrote.
Catterall published his research in two books on education. Perhaps most notable for us is Catterall’s finding “this pattern holds for children from low socioeconomic status.”
Specifically, high school theater gives students benefits not found elsewhere. You can’t design sets or costumes without geometry. You can’t design lights or sound without physics. Nearly every play is a history project, and all plays are studies in language arts as students parse the script to determine how to speak their lines. Catterall noted specific benefits of theater involvement — “gains in reading proficiency, gains in self-concept and motivation, and higher levels of empathy for others” — especially for those students in lower socioeconomic strata.
Today, educators seek to incorporate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in schools to develop the whole child, to help each individual better use academic and extracurricular lessons throughout their lives. SEL is in theater’s DNA. Ancient Greeks staged plays, hoping their citizens would learn from the actions of Oedipus or Medea. They did. Audience members found these dramatized stories emotionally involving and instructive: cathartic was their word.
More recently, scientists discovered mirror neurons in our brains. They allow us to learn actions by watching them being performed. The same happens with emotions. When we watch a play about bullying, scientists learned, our mirror neurons replicate the victim’s emotions so well we feel bullied ourselves.
Catterall did find that student participation in arts and athletics each had carryover effects after high school. Both groups advanced to colleges, though arts students did so at a higher rate. Both groups participated in their communities as adults, though athletes often limited volunteerism to sports-related activities. Arts graduates read more books and newspapers than athletes.
In our largest high schools, we offer football for a 16-week period led by a coach and three or more assistants for three to four dozen boys. Theater teachers often direct 100 students or more each semester in several plays. If they produce a musical, 75 or more students will work on that one show. A music director or choreographer might run some rehearsals, but the director is often the sole adult in charge. Often that director is also spending significant amounts of time leading fundraising efforts, since most high school drama programs have to raise nearly a third of their annual budgets.
How much could we improve educational outcomes if we supported school arts programs the way we support athletics?
In September 2018, Pedro Noguera, professor emeritus from UCLA, testified before the New Mexico Legislative Education Study Committee about equity in schools and remarked that — as we all know — students who participate in athletics or performing arts in their schools have better outcomes than students who do not.
Do we all know that? If we did, wouldn’t we fund school performing arts programs the way we fund athletics? Roughly half a high school’s students participate in school arts programs, based on national statistics. Are we providing funding for only half our students?
James Catterall, also with UCLA, dove deep into a national study of 25,000 students and found specific support for the benefits of performing arts participation. “Intensive involvement in the arts during middle and high school associates with higher levels of achievement and college attainment,” he wrote.
Catterall published his research in two books on education. Perhaps most notable for us is Catterall’s finding “this pattern holds for children from low socioeconomic status.”
Specifically, high school theater gives students benefits not found elsewhere. You can’t design sets or costumes without geometry. You can’t design lights or sound without physics. Nearly every play is a history project, and all plays are studies in language arts as students parse the script to determine how to speak their lines. Catterall noted specific benefits of theater involvement — “gains in reading proficiency, gains in self-concept and motivation, and higher levels of empathy for others” — especially for those students in lower socioeconomic strata.
Today, educators seek to incorporate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in schools to develop the whole child, to help each individual better use academic and extracurricular lessons throughout their lives. SEL is in theater’s DNA. Ancient Greeks staged plays, hoping their citizens would learn from the actions of Oedipus or Medea. They did. Audience members found these dramatized stories emotionally involving and instructive: cathartic was their word.
More recently, scientists discovered mirror neurons in our brains. They allow us to learn actions by watching them being performed. The same happens with emotions. When we watch a play about bullying, scientists learned, our mirror neurons replicate the victim’s emotions so well we feel bullied ourselves.
Catterall did find that student participation in arts and athletics each had carryover effects after high school. Both groups advanced to colleges, though arts students did so at a higher rate. Both groups participated in their communities as adults, though athletes often limited volunteerism to sports-related activities. Arts graduates read more books and newspapers than athletes.
In our largest high schools, we offer football for a 16-week period led by a coach and three or more assistants for three to four dozen boys. Theater teachers often direct 100 students or more each semester in several plays. If they produce a musical, 75 or more students will work on that one show. A music director or choreographer might run some rehearsals, but the director is often the sole adult in charge. Often that director is also spending significant amounts of time leading fundraising efforts, since most high school drama programs have to raise nearly a third of their annual budgets.
How much could we improve educational outcomes if we supported school arts programs the way we support athletics?