Giving Compass Take:

· Writing for Education Dive, Linda Jacobson addresses the importance of including the arts in ESSA accountability plans and explains how Illinois, Connecticut, and Kentucky have included the arts in their plans. 

· How can donors support the incorporation of the arts into ESSA accountability plans? How do the arts help accomplish SEL goals? How do they improve student performance?

· Read more about the arts and ESSA accountability plans.


Dipping business- or credit-sized cards into blobs of acrylic paint, the principals begin to create sweeping designs on the mural-length sheet of butcher paper stretched across long tables. As they circle the table, they blend the colors together, then place Post-it notes with key words from the book chapters they were assigned to read the previous evening on top of their creation.

Called “scrimming,” the hands-on — or, as some said, almost therapeutic — technique is a way to capture important terms from a text and make a thorough read more productive. A blend of skimming and scrim, a fabric used in theater that appears opaque until light shines through, the practice is one these principals from across California say they would encourage teachers to use with students as a close reading strategy.

Read the full article about the arts and ESSA accountability plans by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.