At least 36 states have taken steps to adopt or implement some form of the national arts standards that were released in March 1994, according to a survey by the American Music Conference.
The survey found that five states have fully approved arts standards based on those drafted by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations.
Education officials in Alabama, Georgia, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Virginia, meanwhile, reported that they had no plans to use the national standards outlining what students should know and be able to do in music, dance, theater, and the visual arts.
The remaining states say they plan to implement arts standards within the next two years.
The arts standards were among the first of a dozen national standards to be released and disseminated. Although they have been widely praised, some educators have questioned whether states and districts would support programs for the arts, often considered “frills.”
Regardless of their schools’ standards status, K-12 arts educators have a new resource at their disposal.
The Getty Center for Education in the Arts, based in Santa Monica, Calif., has created an electronic on-line service available on the Internet computer network.
ArtsEdNet can be found on the Internet’s World Wide Web at http://www.artsednet.getty.edu. E-mail can be addressed to artsednet@getty.edu.
Administrators looking for ways to discuss creationism and evolution in their districts can turn to “Creationism, the Church, and the Public School,” a new resource packet from the United Church of Christ, a 1.5 million-member Protestant denomination.
The packet includes a pamphlet on science and creationism and a booklet on the role of religion in an age of science and technology.
The United Church of Christ states as its goals “to assist persons to participate fearlessly in open inquiry, debate, and action concerning the goals of education; understand the role of science, including an appropriate relationship between science and faith; help develop consensus in public-policy issues affecting the public school; and support academic freedom at all levels of the educational experience.”
The packets are available for $10 each from the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, 700 Prospect Ave. E., Cleveland, Ohio 44115-1100.
