Example Job Description
Director of Visual and Performing Arts
A leader who connects district visual and performing arts instruction, program coherence, teacher development, and assigned arts partnerships and resources with trustworthy evidence, equitable opportunity, and accountable action.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of Visual and Performing Arts
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- Arts enrollment grows while access remains unequal. What would you examine?
Strong response indicators: Checks school offerings, schedule conflicts, prerequisites, costs, materials, transportation, and persistence by group; distinguishes total enrollment from equitable opportunity.
- How would you evaluate arts learning without relying on awards?
Strong response indicators: Uses discipline-appropriate rubrics, student work and reflection, observation, growth, and inclusive participation with moderation among qualified educators.
- A school has instruments but little instruction. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Validates staffing, schedules, instrument condition, teacher authorization, and actual instructional time; develops a sustainable service plan with responsible leaders.
- How would you review an arts funding proposal?
Strong response indicators: Connects documented needs, current funding restrictions, staffing, access, instructional quality, implementation cost, and evidence of follow-through with fiscal review.
- Students use generative AI in art portfolios. How would you guide practice?
Strong response indicators: Defines learning purpose, disclosure, attribution, copyright review, process evidence, privacy, and fair assessment with arts teachers; preserves student creative judgment.
- How would you evaluate a community arts partnership?
Strong response indicators: Checks teacher collaboration, artistic goals, accessibility, safeguards, actual instruction, student work, cost, and sustained access rather than publicity alone.
- The arts access and resource dashboard disagrees with source records. How would you resolve this?
Strong response indicators: Checks populations, dates, definitions, refreshes, joins and corrections for arts access, instructional time, participation persistence and student portfolios; reconciles with accountable owners, documents fixes and adds preventive checks.
- What evidence would you require before recommending this arts program investment?
Strong response indicators: Defines educational need, baseline, access and implementation measures, alternatives, cost and capacity; uses appropriate comparisons and uncertainty and specifies a review or exit decision.
- How would you protect sensitive records while helping teams act on arts access, instructional time, participation persistence and student portfolios?
Strong response indicators: Defines purpose and authorized access, minimizes disclosure, protects small groups, uses approved systems and retention rules, and consults responsible privacy and legal owners.
- A vendor proposes AI to automate recommendations in this portfolio. How would you assess it?
Strong response indicators: Tests the proposed use against district visual and performing arts instruction, program coherence, teacher development, and assigned arts partnerships and resources; reviews accuracy, subgroup errors, privacy, security, accessibility and cost, and preserves authorized human decisions and challenge procedures.
- How would you build staff capability to use arts access, instructional time, participation persistence and student portfolios well?
Strong response indicators: Uses authentic cases, verifies sources and denominators, explains missingness and uncertainty, coaches interpretation and checks whether evidence leads to useful changes in practice.
- What would your first 90 days as Director of Visual and Performing Arts include?
Strong response indicators: Listens to affected students, families, staff and partners; maps authority and obligations, validates arts access, instructional time, participation persistence and student portfolios, identifies urgent gaps and proposes a focused plan with owners and review dates.
Position Description
The Director of Visual and Performing Arts leads district visual and performing arts instruction, program coherence, teacher development, and assigned arts partnerships and resources. The district or employing agency should define the final portfolio, delegated authority, and relationships with other program owners.
The position uses participation, instructional access, student work, persistence, and resource evidence to strengthen arts education; protects artistic quality and evaluates opportunity beyond performances and awards.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services or other designated administrator. Confirm the locally approved structure and delegated authority.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Illustrative district qualification for review: master's degree in arts education, visual or performing arts, curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, or a related field; confirm the local degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold a valid California Administrative Services Credential or other authorization appropriate to the actual assignment. District HR must verify current authorization and any additional credential requirements against the final duties.
- Complete district-required employment clearances and training in student privacy, nondiscrimination, accessibility, records, safety, and responsible use of technology.
Preferred
- Graduate coursework or sustained professional learning in applied statistics, program evaluation, improvement science, education data systems, or responsible AI for educational decision-making.
- Advanced preparation in arts education, visual or performing arts, curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, or a related field, inclusive leadership, family partnership, and coaching adults to use evidence effectively.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Illustrative minimum for local review: five years of successful arts teaching, arts-program leadership, professional learning, and coordination of school or community arts resources; confirm experience thresholds and permitted equivalents.
- Experience supervising assigned staff, coordinating partners, managing resources, and implementing improvement across the assigned portfolio.
- Demonstrated use of arts access, instructional time, participation persistence and student portfolios to investigate needs, verify records, evaluate action, and explain findings and limitations.
Desired Experience
- Experience with California district or regional program requirements, implementation monitoring, and improvement with diverse communities.
- Experience with an arts access and resource dashboard, approved spreadsheets and tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalents; applied data-science literacy sufficient to collaborate with analysts.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Arts Instruction and Partnerships
- Lead coherent standards-aligned arts education with appropriately qualified teachers, school leaders, and discipline specialists.
- Support artistic creation, performance, reflection, cultural understanding, and accessible participation across the assigned arts disciplines.
- Coordinate arts partners, exhibitions, performances, and pathways with clear learning goals and school accountability.
Access and Learning Evidence
- Validate course offerings, rosters, actual instructional time, teacher assignments, and participation across schools and student groups.
- Analyze entry, persistence, scheduling barriers, instrument and material access, fees or other costs, and progression to advanced opportunities.
- Evaluate arts learning through discipline-appropriate rubrics, portfolios, observation, and student reflection; avoid using awards as a proxy for universal quality.
Resources and Responsible Systems
- Maintain assigned budgets, inventories, spending evidence, grants, and funding-specific plans with fiscal owners.
- Coordinate copyright, performance permissions, student media consent, accessibility, safety, and current program requirements with responsible specialists.
- Review portfolio, music, design, and generative-AI tools for artistic purpose, intellectual property, privacy, accessibility, and human judgment.
Leadership and Improvement
- Supervise assigned staff and professional learning; plan sustainable staffing, facilities, equipment care, and partner capacity.
- Use verified opportunity and learning evidence to recommend resource changes and evaluate implementation with students and teachers.
- Report access, artistic learning, resources and limitations and perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Arts standards, discipline-specific learning and assessment, artistic development, inclusive pedagogy, and arts partnerships.
- Course-access and persistence analysis, authentic arts assessment, resource equity, and limits of award-based comparisons.
- Applicable arts funding, copyright, permissions, accessibility, student media privacy, and safety requirements.
- SIS and resource records, digital portfolios, approved creative tools, and responsible generative AI.
Ability to
- Translate priorities in district visual and performing arts instruction, program coherence, teacher development, and assigned arts partnerships and resources into feasible plans, clear responsibilities and measurable follow-through.
- Validate arts access, instructional time, participation persistence and student portfolios using accurate sources, definitions, populations and denominators before making decisions.
- Evaluate implementation and outcomes, examine subgroup opportunity, and distinguish association from causation with qualified analytical support.
- Use approved modern systems and accessible visualizations; partner with data specialists on complex linkage, statistical methods or reproducible analysis.
- Protect confidential information, document consequential decisions, maintain professional judgment and escalate unresolved legal or policy questions.
- Lead staff and partnerships, communicate evidence and uncertainty clearly, and revise ineffective practices with affected communities.
Work Environment
- Work is performed in district offices, classrooms, school grounds, meeting rooms, and other professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position involves computer use, school visits, observation, facilitation, and detailed review of records, dashboards, assessments, reports, and communications.
- Work requires frequent coordination with school and district leaders, program specialists, students and families as appropriate, data and technology teams, fiscal and legal owners, and external partners.
- The employee encounters interruptions, competing priorities, sensitive student and personnel matters, and urgent concerns requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during planning and budget cycles, program transitions, monitoring and reporting reviews, public meetings, and urgent service concerns.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Maintain required credentials and complete district-assigned training in privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, nondiscrimination, mandated reporting, and workplace safety.
- Protect confidential student and employee records; follow approved access, sharing, retention, incident-reporting, and records-request procedures.
- Travel between district offices, schools, professional-learning locations, and community meetings as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver's license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function; confirm the district's actual travel requirements.
- Occasionally work evenings, weekends, or extended hours for school events, public meetings, reporting deadlines, or urgent student and operational matters.
- Perform office and school-based activities involving sitting, standing, walking, communication, and computer use; confirm any role-specific lifting or other physical requirements through local job analysis.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.