Schools and districts have long grappled with race- and disability-based exclusionary discipline inequities. Research on the topic has uncovered a variety of systems that maintain such disparities, including school policies and practices that exacerbate the problem. Researchers and practitioners have increasingly considered school context and…

Most students attend summer school not because it's their idea of a good time, but because they need to in order to advance to the next grade. To many students--and even some teachers--summer school feels more like punishment than an opportunity to learn and explore. In July 2010, working with a nonprofit organization called Big Thought, officials…

This article contends that every chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts must advocate for arts education. The arts need a voice in power, say people in the field, someone in the corridors of influence to argue the benefits of teaching the nation's students about classical and jazz music, ballet, and sculpture. With No Child Left Behind…

In the Old Adobe Union School District in Petaluma, California, the school staff's goal is to assure that all teachers make the fundamental shift from teacher-centric to learner-centric thinking. For them, this is what distinguishes great teachers from good teachers. They believe this level of expertise takes years to develop and that schools play…

Discusses the reform context, the importance of standards, the importance of arts education, the benefits of arts education, and the arts and other core subjects. (RS)

The evaluation and professional development of teachers and administrators are two sides of the same coin. Both are the essential currency schools have to improve teachers' practice and students' learning, but schools often spend this currency unwisely. Too often, evaluations are a source of tension and conflict, even a necessary evil.…

Arts education is a fundamental obligation of the public schools. Students grow in unique and critical ways by experiencing the arts through practice. The study of the heritage of the arts in their intellectual, critical, and aesthetic dimensions enhances student perspectives. Mankind's artistic achievements are the heritage of every child and an…

This guide to content standards in the visual and performing arts in the state of Delaware is the work of a curriculum framework commission whose members have crafted clear standards for development of curriculum that will prepare Delaware's students to become effective, productive citizens. Standards-based education reform is an initiative for…

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 paper expresses the need for the federal government, specifically the U.S. Office of Education, to promote the cause of the arts in education. The Office of Education needs to declare that art is an essential part of the common core of education, particularly at this time, when there is growing skepticism concerning the effectiveness of…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, which champions arts education as an integral component of a holistic curriculum and assessment process, encourages schools to make use of resources from the community, including arts and cultural organizations, artists, folklorists, and craftspeople. This broadened approach to education provides…

The recommendations presented in this document concern which instructional materials should be adopted in the bilingual language arts and visual and performing arts in the State of California. Each of the instructional programs, both those recommended for adoption and those not recommended, are described at length with the rationale for the…

Examines the beliefs of prominent thinkers regarding arts education and arts in learning, highlighting the importance of arts in everyone's education. The role of arts in cognition, equitable access to meaning, student motivation, and cultural representation are explored, with illustrations from visible national projects translating ideas into…