Policies often directly impact teachers' lives and practice, requiring them to engage in spite of extremely busy schedules. This article offers encouragement to music educators wanting to be active--and become activists--in education policy. Before becoming active, one must understand how music education policies come to be. I argue that arts…

A unique partnership between public charter schools, a civic chamber orchestra, and university school of music has brought music instruction to middle school students in central Ohio. This collaborative endeavor can serve as a model for charter schools administrators wishing to expand their curricular offerings to include music and other arts…

This article examines possibilities for addressing the need to relate learning in music to learning in other disciplines through developing a third space where students are invited to bring their own knowledge, imagination, and ideas to a music curriculum. The article explores the connections between third-space learning, composing, and arts…

Classroom and arts educators frequently collaborate in the pursuit of common educational goals. Examples of sophisticated interdisciplinary teaching can be found in nearly every classroom, as when teachers use music to provide context for social movements, dancers to demonstrate various types of movement, or paintings to illustrate proportion.…

The revised Core Arts Standards offer music educators the chance to examine the contradictions that currently permeate the arts advocacy discourse. This article examines the emphasis on 21st-century workplace skills in claims made by arts advocacy proponents. An alternative approach focuses instead on lifelong learning in the arts and the array of…

Between 2009 and 2014, thirty-seven states in the United States have adopted or significantly amended their teacher evaluation laws, mostly shifting toward using measurements of student growth on achievement tests. Yet, the processes to evaluate core subjects have not always transitioned smoothly to nontested or artistic content, causing some…

In times of difficulty, it is easy to see what many policymakers value. It would seem that many of them view the arts as a noncrucial element of a child's school curriculum. They want to cut music because they do not value music for its own sake, nor can they see how music could possibly help students in math, reading, or science. But what do the…

The report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education concluded with scant information about a need for fine arts in the schools. Outlined is an interdisciplinary course that uses many art forms--literature, opera, and symphonies--to prevent the extinction of music and art education. (RM)

With a bit of imaginative thinking, a choral director can prevent the year from ending with a fizzle. Techniques include staging a pops concert, initiating an arts project, teaching about avant-garde works, and introducing solo repertoire. (RM)

Describes how arts and humanities programs have been integrated into related or allied arts curricula in elementary and secondary schools. Ways to approach the learning and teaching of related arts are discussed. These include analogous concepts, common themes, historical eras, and art works that are combinations of different art forms. (AM)

Presents four principles (aesthetic knowledge, aesthetic response, aesthetic creation, and aesthetic evaluation) by which the arts must be anchored to basic education. (Part of a theme issue on the crisis in music education.) (Author/SJL)

Discusses the National Endowment for the Arts' program, Arts in Education. Explains that the most popular program is artist residencies in which an artist works directly with teachers and classes. Suggests that enthusiasm and planning are the most important elements of success with the program. Includes information on the application process,…

College admissions officers hesitate to accept arts courses as serious academic preparation. In 1981 the Springfield School sent letters to 70 colleges discussing the content of their arts classes. The responses of the colleges were highly positive about accepting arts credits, once the content of the courses was understood. (CS)

Project IMPACT, a federal funded concept, is described as having accomplished its rather ambitious goal-the establishment of model school programs that are arts-centered. (Author/RK)

Author argues that: "Bare literacy, without the development of ...other skills--in music, the arts, an understanding of a variety of people and cultures--offers little incentive to put the basic skills to work."