Encouraging Entrepreneurial Behavior in Public and Organizational Policy

Abstract

The powerful influence that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has exerted on schools in the United States has prompted just about all education organizations to rethink the way they do business. Some have tried legal strategies to change or block the law. Others have become involved in the legislative process as never before.For the National Art Education Association, the post-NCLB environment has proven to be both a challenge and an opportunity. Our members have shared the goal of putting the importance of student learning in and through the arts at the core of the reauthorization of the federal law. To do that, though, the Association has begun trying a new approach: policymaking. The importance of policy and its effect on practitioners has long been understood; NAEA has become increasingly interested in influencing policy decisions by bringing the insights and lessons of practitioners to the forefront.As David Hart (2003) wrote, no matter how good the intentions of policymakers, the policy process inevitably has limited time and information. And, Hart continued, no matter how hard people try to be objective, they cannot fully shed preconceptions built over a lifetime of experience and training. Therefore, entrepreneurial policymakers, like entrepreneurs in the private sector, have needed to be nimble and adaptive, trying creative strategies to bring ideas to the table that serve practitioners well.As a result, the NAEA has been developing the characteristics of entrepreneurship, which include forming new alliances, creating unique ways for leaders to think and work together, trying new ideas, and assessing our risks on investments. And in doing so, we have also seen new value placed on creativity, innovation, design, and empathy. That shifting emphasis, which author Daniel H. Pink (2005) defined as more reliant on the right than the left hemisphere of the brain, has led us to expand our previous notions of the traditional roles for organization leaders and organizations themselves.A Policy and Research AgendaOver the past months, the leadership of the NAEA has begun to facilitate a set of strategic conversations with the NAEA Board of Directors and other national leaders to more fully understand the landscape of the NCLB reauthorization and to come to clarity-if not consensus-on the core values that visual arts education provides. Now, and over time, these strategic conversations will influence a proactive policy and research agenda for the association that will inform our entrepreneurial policy work. To date, NAEAs national policy discussions have particularly focused on four areas.Art as a core subject. As changes in our society and the nature of business demand the crucial entrepreneurial skills of innovation and lateral thinking, visual arts education becomes more important as a means of enabling students to develop skills in self-expression, problem solving, communications, and teamwork. As Pink (2004) said, We are all in the art business.As NCLB undergoes reauthorization, NAEA and our like-minded partners are looking for ways to document and assess how the arts nurture these important skills. NAEA is not looking to integrate arts into other subject areas, which could reinforce the perception that arts are not a core subject. Instead, the Association is looking to assess content for every program in arts education and make the case for art as a core subject to governors, state legislators, and members of Congress.Student access. Collecting and reporting on the status and condition of arts education at the state level is critical to ensuring equitable access. States should be required to collect and report comprehensive information about the status and condition of all core subjects for which challenging academic standards apply. The report should include student enrollment, pupil/teacher ratios, amount of instructional time, budget allocation, teacher subject certification, full-time equivalent teacher load and/or other such measures chosen by the state to be significant in the subject area. …