The Afterschool Alliance and MetLife Foundation are proud to celebrate a fifth round of the MetLife Foundation Afterschool Innovator Awards. For the past five years, we have collaborated to highlight the work of quality afterschool programs that support children, families and communities across the nation. This compendium is a compilation of four…

This report presents the results of the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the arts, which was given to a nationally representative sample of 7,900 eighth-grade public and private school students. Approximately one-half of these students were assessed in music, and the other half were assessed in visual arts. The Music…

Today with teacher cutbacks looming, and more integration units, general teachers might be required to teach the visual arts. Therefore, teachers need a clear definition of the discipline of art and personal exposure to aesthetic experiences. Many references are made to classic art education research. When lesson plan formats are generic it…

Public art takes many forms, including commemorative sculptures, site-specific works, and collaborative murals. Additionally, public art can beautify an urban environment or raise awareness of social issues. Public works of art are a form of discourse and open conversations and dialogue, helping communities work toward unity and empowerment. Using…

Ecology Art as a genre addresses sensitivity to our natural world and the interdependence of all living things, Over the past several decades Ecology artists have developed a distinguished tradition including a variety of international projects. In recent times, Eco Artists have also been exploring Internet technologies, and are being joined by…

This paper first examines the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 on the academic performance of Latino students in the U.S. Although the purpose behind NCLB is to help improve academic proficiency in the areas of reading, language arts, and mathematics, research demonstrates that there is still an achievement gap between…

Seventh grade students entering South East Junior High in Iowa City come from eight elementary feeder schools, as well as from schools around the world. Their information literacy skills and knowledge of reference sources vary, but since all seventh graders and new eighth graders are required to take one trimester of Visual Studies, all entering…

The purpose of the U.S. Department of Education's online newsletter "The Education Innovator" is to promote innovative practices in education; to offer features on promising programs and practices; to provide information on innovative research, schools, policies, and trends; and to keep readers informed of key Department priorities and…

The time between the publication of the advance sheets on art education for the biennial. survey of 1920-1922 and the present document has seen greatly increased activity in this field of education. More clearly defined aims and objectives have become apparent in the elementary and high schools. Urgent demands for training in taste and the…

Visual images are not simply embodiments of social reality; they are indeed ideological sites embedded with powerful discursive sociopolitical meanings that exert strong influences on the ways in which people live their lives. The author of this paper describes the Ad-Deconstruction Project, which challenged students to integrate aesthetic…

A visual arts group of researchers formed in 1999 to study statistical data from the 1997 [National Assessment of Educational Progress] NAEP Arts, responding to an open invitation at the National Art Education conference in Washington, DC to compete for funding under a secondary analysis grant. The Department of Education funded three…

More than three million children in the United States participate in some type of after school program (National Study, 1993) offering wide-ranging benefits to children, their families and the community (Pederson, et al, 1998). After school programs of many descriptions provide responsible adult supervision for youth, constructive activities and…

Periodically since 1890 the Office of Education has attempted to catch and keep a sort of survey picture of the developing secondary school curriculum. Each one shows the school's answer to the question of what is good--educationally--for boys and girls. Each one shows, too, through registration figures for electives, what boys and girls think is…

Art education in the United States has never been on a firmer footing than at the present time. It faces a future secure in the knowledge that during the past 10 years its social, economic, and educational values have been demonstrated and acknowledged and generally put into practice. Educational leaders no longer ignore it; rather one finds an…

This is a study in the two fields of the fine arts which have largely found their way into the curriculum of the secondary schools during the past 30 years. Anne E. Pierce, associate in music at the University of Iowa, made the study of music. Robert S. Elbert, assistant professor of art education, University of Minnesota, made the study of art…