Who wrote the 2014 standards? A broad coalition of arts education associations partnered with leadership organizations in the arts and education to develop these standards. The more than 100 experts from 30 states who crafted and revised draft standards were selected for writing teams based on their broad range of teaching experience. They collectively represented every level from early childhood through higher education. In addition they demonstrated expertise in curriculum and assessment. Researchers from each arts discipline and the College Board reviewed child development research and best practices in arts education from across the U.S. and internationally. Successive standards drafts were posted for public review twice in 2013 and again in 2014; as a result of the public review process and series of focus groups sponsored by various organizations, more than 6,000 individuals provided comments and suggestions that informed the final standards. The larger arts community has been part of the standards development process since early meetings of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. The National Endowment for the Arts supported professional artists’ participation in the standards revision process. The National Guild for Community Arts Education, Young Audiences and Americans for the Arts facilitated input from artist focus groups during the review and revision process. Each public call for review included teaching artists as well as arts and cultural organization leaders.
What kind of professional development is being planned to support teachers using the new standards? D25 teachers are meeting in content areas to define the concepts, academic vocabulary, and learning targets identified by each performance standard. In addition, the Fine Arts & Physical Education Coordinator is working with teachers to align curriculum and instructional practices to the standards. Ongoing professional development will continue to be offered to teachers.
How are the new standards organized? The Core Arts Standards include two levels of standards: Anchor Standards and Performance Standards. Anchor Standards are overarching standards statements of what students should know and do in all of the arts as a result of their PreK-12 education. A performance standard is a statement of what students should know and be able to do in a particular artistic discipline by the end of a specific grade or level.
What is the relationship of the arts standards to Common Core? The National Core Arts Standards focus on dance, media arts, music, theatre and visual arts; the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) focus on English/Language Arts and Mathematics. While CCSS address literacy across the content areas, they do not replace content area standards in other disciplines of study such as foreign languages, sciences, or the arts.
Several of the main areas of emphasis in CCSS English/Language Arts literacy standards are aligned with the artistic processes of Responding and Connecting presented in the new arts standards. The Mathematical Practices in CCSS math standards parallel the artistic processes model as well as the creative practices that permeate the new arts standards. Readers interested in delving more deeply into this topic are encouraged to refer to The College Board’s publications that examine and detail commonalities between the new arts standards and CCSS.
Where do I find the National Core Arts Standards? The standards are available at www.nationalartsstandards.org and at each professional arts education association website.
Does Illinois have Arts Standards? Arts Alliance Illinois began an arts learning standards initiative in January 2015. A statewide Advisory Committee has played the lead role in developing recommendations for updated standards. The committee consisted of a diverse group of classroom teachers, administrators, and teaching artists. In August 2015, after six months of deliberations by its work groups, the Advisory Committee completed a comprehensive, draft set of recommendations for updated standards based on the NCAS, which it presented to the initiative's Steering Committee in early September. These standards based on the NCAS were adopted by the Illinois State Board of Education in June 2016 for full implementation in the 2017-2018 school year.