Few national studies have been conducted on students' receipt of arts instruction, particularly in the early grades. To address this gap in the literature, this Issue Brief provides a descriptive look at the prevalence of arts instruction received by first and third grade public school students in their schools. Using spring 2000 and spring 2002…

New York City's School of Performing Arts offers a high quality college preparation and fine arts curriculum despite financial and physical plant inadequacies. (MB)

This booklet sets out the state standards for students in Wyoming public schools for succeeding in the Fine and Performance Arts in grades K-12. Five standards are defined for benchmark grades 4, 8, and 11: (1) creative expression through production; (2) artistic perception; (3) aesthetic valuing; (4) historical and cultural context; and (5)…

The article describes the Alabama School of Fine Arts, a public secondary school offering, in addition to basic academics, intensive training in the areas of music, dance, drama, creative writing, and visual arts to talented and motivated junior and senior high school students in Birmingham. (Author/DLS)

This handbook is a guide to help educators and administrators with the decisions they face in the design of an arts assessment. The guide is divided into two broad parts: Part 1: "Background for Thoughtful Arts Education Assessment"; and Part 2: "Assessment Design in Action." The guide includes: (1) a brief background on the…

Arts cultivate the whole child, building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, reasoning, creativity, imagination, and dexterity into diverse forms of expression and communication. The arts enable students to make decisions and seek multiple solutions. They advance higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.…

This curriculum framework exists to guide the fine arts curriculum in grades K-12 in Arkansas public schools. The framework's student learning expectations are specific to what all students in those grades should know and be able to do in the arts (visual arts, music, dance, theater) during that span of years. The framework's content standards…

Describes curriculum at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), a public high school that offers a rigorous fine-arts curriculum in music, dance, visual arts, theater, and creative writing. A total of 260 students attend home schools half of the day and take classes at NOCCA the second half. Although not founded as a magnet school, the…

A major statewide survey was conducted to establish comprehensive, baseline information regarding arts education in the public school districts of Arizona. This report documents the findings and serves as a standard against which to measure future changes as well as a guide or starting point for responsible planning in order to effect intelligent,…

This curriculum guide provides the framework for K-12 arts education program in Alabama's public schools. Content standards in the guide are minimum and required, and fundamental and specific but not exhaustive. School systems may include additional content standards and add implementation guidelines, resources, and/or activities. In response to…

A survey was conducted to determine a quantitative baseline on the status of music, visual art, dance and drama/theater education in U.S. public schools. A stratified random sampling technique was used and questionnaires were sent to 1,366 U.S. public schools seeking data about demographics, curricula, adequacy of instructional material, and…

This report is the culmination of a project that assessed the status of arts education in the public schools in Indiana. Detailed information on Indiana's total arts education program, including the areas of music, visual art, theater and dance education, was solicited by a comprehensive mail survey. An executive summary states that: arts literacy…

This document outlines what beginning classroom teachers and arts education specialists should know and be able to do to teach the arts effectively. The volume serves as a guide for individual states, professional organizations, and teacher education programs as they develop and refine their standards and practices. The Interstate New Teacher…

The forum on partnerships to improve teaching the arts was an outgrowth of earlier gatherings and of research to identify and respond to current challenges to sustain and enhance quality arts teaching. During 1999 the Arts Education Partnership convened a task force which concluded that improved teaching hinges on collaborations among three key…

The primary purpose of this Connecticut state guide is to assist local school districts in developing quality programs in the visual and performing arts: dance, music, theater, and the visual arts. Because the guide presents goals and standards for student learning in the arts, as well as models of quality curriculum, it is also a useful resource…