NASAA, Arts Advocates Offer Recommendations for No Child Left Behind Act

NASAA has collaborated with a coalition of arts and arts education advocacy groups in the development of recommendations for strengthening the role of the arts in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. As Congress begins consideration of the reauthorization of the federal aid to education law, NASAA and our colleagues in arts education advocacy will work to include the recommendations in the legislation to re-write the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as it works through the process in the House and the Senate.

These legislative proposals are based on the unified statement "Arts Education: Creating Student Success in School, Work, and Life," which was signed by more than 60 national organizations representing the largest national education associations joining with the arts community to demonstrate to Congress the value of improving opportunities for arts education in our nation's schools. The legislative recommendations developed by the working group for the reauthorization of the federal education law would:

1. Retain the arts in the definition of core academic subjects of learning;
2. Require annual state reports on student access to core academic subjects;
3. Improve national data collection and research in arts education; and
4. Reauthorize the Arts in Education programs of the U.S. Department of Education.