Arts, Foreign Languages Getting Edged Out

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

After a decade of expansion of arts and foreign-language programs, particularly in elementary schools, many educators are warning that the subjects are in danger of being edged out of the curriculum as districts spend more time on reading, mathematics, and science.

From New York to Washington state, administrators have proposed cutbacks to other subjects as they struggle to meet the demands of state accountability programs and the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Low-performing schools, observers say, are feeling the greatest pressure to spend more time building students' basic skills in order to raise test scores.

Such decisions, exacerbated by budget cuts and a shortage of qualified teachers, have left less time and fewer resources for the other subjects in the core curriculum that are...