The art of professional development

San Francisco has long been a center for the arts, but the San Francisco Unified School District’s artistic director acknowledges that maintaining and promoting arts education over the last couple of post-Proposition 13 decades has been difficult and characterized by only mixed success.

“There is a perception that because this is San Francisco, with its rich history and tradition regarding the arts, that our students have so much more than others,” says San Francisco Unified School District’s artistic director, Susan Stauter. “But it’s not true. Arts education has varied grossly from neighborhood to neighborhood. Some kids got a lot, some hardly [anything] at all.”

The city’s ambitious Art Education Master Plan intends to change that, and professional development is a crucial element. “Teachers invariably say they like the arts,” says Antigone Trimis, who directs implementation of the plan, “but the majority of them have no comfort level. They’ve received very little formal training.”

Many of the master plan’s resources will go into arts instruction for general classroom teachers and the hiring of new credentialed specialists and coordinators in all school levels. Training, though, will not stop there; administrators will also be targeted for education, adds Trimis.

“There are people in San Francisco and elsewhere who have gone through the educational system without much or any exposure to the arts, who now work in the system and are more comfortable purchasing computers and textbooks rather than funding the arts. They prefer something quantifiable,” Trimis says.

“That’s why professional development in arts leadership is so critical. In order for change to happen, you need leaders who understand the value of the arts. Without a common value system and language, you can give as much money as you want to the arts, and nothing will really happen.”

--Scott LaFee