This year, elementary schools receiving funding from the Portland Arts Tax will test a new assessment tool measuring various aspects of a school that impact the quality of arts education, with an eye toward increasing transparency regarding how Portland Arts Tax dollars are used and increasing the quality of arts education elementary students receive.  

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The “arts education framework,” as it is called, was developed by the City of Portland’s Office of Arts and Culture, in collaboration with Portland State University’s Regional Research Institute for Human Services, and representatives from school districts receiving arts tax funding.

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The Office of Arts and Culture oversees the administration of the Portland Arts Access Fund, which is funded by the $35 Arts Tax Portlanders pay each year. A portion of the tax, which was approved by voters in 2012, pays for the salary for at least one full-time arts teacher to work in every elementary school in Portland.  

Elementary schools in the six school districts –– Portland Public Schools, David Douglas, Centennial, Parkrose, Reynolds, and Riverdale –– receive Arts Tax dollars, and will each test the education framework. 

“The framework articulates what we mean by a high-quality arts education,” Dawn Isaacs, the City of Portland’s arts education coordinator, said, and “will assess the conditions necessary for a high-quality arts education.” 

“Because we have the Arts Access Fund and we are providing funds for (teachers) for the elementary grades,” Isaacs said, “we have a vested interest in what are those conditions within the schools, and are those conditions setting teachers up to deliver a high-quality arts education?”

Isaacs said that, until now, there was no way for the city or for school districts receiving Arts Tax dollars to define or measure the quality of education Portland’s elementary school students receive in the arts.  

The framework will give the six school districts a “common language and definition” for how to access their arts programs. 

Rather than access the content of the arts education elementary students receive, the rubric will access the “systems and structures,” as Isaacs put it, that affect the quality of that education. 

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Staffing, the availability of materials and equipment, and the type of classrooms and facilities used for arts classes are among what will be measured. Other areas include the opportunities arts teachers have to pursue professional development, how much schools partner with community arts organizations, and scheduling –– that is, if arts classes are scheduled at a time during the school that allows the most students possible to take that class. 

“It’s really about those larger and broader systems and structures that are necessary in order for there to be able to offer a high-quality arts education,” Isaacs said. 

“There are a lot of conditions that have to be in place in order for arts education to be delivered,” Kristen Brayson, Portland Public Schools’ director of visual and performing arts, said. 

How many days out of the school year do students take art classes? How long are those classes –– 30 minutes or an hour? “That makes a difference,” Brayson said. 

She added that arts classes are “resource-heavy dependent.” Music classes require ukuleles, recorders, and sheet music for every student. Visual arts classes require painting supplies –– easels, paper, paint brushes, paint. Dance classes require mirrors and bars.   

The type of classroom and the condition it is in also makes a difference, Brayson and others said. Some teachers have cupboards in which to store all their materials. Other teachers have a room and a closet down the hall. Some teachers have a cart. 

“There could be a stellar arts teacher,” Deb Eliot, a senior research associate at PSU’s Regional Research Institute said. “But they don’t have arts supplies. They don’t have a space. [Yet] they have gigantic caseloads. That means they’re serving way more students than maybe the human capacity is capable of handling.” 

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Eliot worked with the city, as well as representatives from each school district who oversee arts curriculum, to develop the measurement tool. She said the tool was developed in such a way that each elementary school can be scored and accessed using objective and measurable criteria. 

Each year, schools will have to submit a survey to the Office of Arts and Culture. Those answers –– which Eliot said can be measured with a yes/no response, count, or percentage –– will determine how each elementary school arts program measures up against the framework. 

The arts education framework was developed over a year-long period. Isaacs and others used Chicago’s creative schools certification and Boston Public Schools’ Art Expansion program as models. 

The framework was piloted in one elementary school in each district in the spring of 2025, after which it was revised over the summer. This school year will test pilot the framework, after which any final changes and adjustments will be made. “That will give us more information on the nature of the questions and if there’s any fine tuning we need to do,” Isaacs said. 

The 2026-2027 will be the first year that schools will be scored. 

Isaacs thinks the measurement tool has great promise to improve the quality of elementary arts education. “If we get our districts and our schools in a place where all these indicators were in a place of strength, then teachers would really be well positioned to provide that high quality instruction,” she said. 

Because each elementary school receiving Arts Tax dollars will be measured by the tool –– regardless of the school district or school’s size, funding, and other factors –– the quality of arts education students receive should become more equitable.

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“We can have as equitable an experience for children across Portland…as possible,” Isaacs said.

Currently, there are no punitive consequences for schools that do not meet the criteria of the arts education framework. Isaacs said schools will continue to receive Arts Tax dollars if they score low in certain areas. The focus will be collaborating with schools to improve.   

There is also the hope and expectation that the arts education framework will also help increase transparency around how Arts Tax dollars are used. 

Eventually, a dashboard that teachers, schools, parents, and Portlanders will be able to use will show how schools score according to the framework. Brayson thinks that may encourage parents and the larger community to become more involved in schools. 

“That provides the social awareness around what a particular school might need to strive toward to improve,” she said. “That can put a little bit of pressure on schools.” 

Eliot said, “it will eventually serve the taxpayers by saying your money is going to a very good cause.”