Ga.’s Fine Arts Specialist Gives An Arts Education Update

August 23rd, 2017

Jessica Booth became the Georgia Department of Education first fine arts program specialist in 20 years.

That was two years ago, and at that point, Booth developed five main goals: adapting STEM certifications for STEAM; preparing for the standard precisions review for arts, which happens every six to seven years and updates the state standards for the subject area; developing an art teacher certification process; creating resources for art teachers; and writing curricula for the Georgia Virtual School, which increases arts opportunities for school districts that have little to no access to arts education.

Georgia now has STEAM-certified schools, including one in Atlanta. Booth and her team have reviewed the standards for visual arts and theater and are working on music and dance standards now. She also created a new subject within fine arts in addition to dance, theater, music and visual arts. The addition is media arts like website, motion graphics, sound recording and animation.

“We want to make sure that what students are doing in K-12 are aligned with the creative industries,” she said in an interview with “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes.

Booth gives more updates in arts education in the interview above.