What do Whoopi Goldberg, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rosie Perez, and Phylicia Rashad have in common? A transformative encounter with the arts during their school years. Whether attending a play for the first time, playing in the school orchestra, painting a mural under the direction of an art teacher, or writing a poem, these famous performers each credit an experience with the arts at school with helping them discover their inner humanity and putting them on the road to fully realized creative lives. In The Muses Go to School, autobiographical pieces with well-known artists and performers are paired with interpretive essays by distinguished educators to produce a powerful case for positioning the arts at the center of primary and secondary school curriculums. Spanning a range of genres from acting and music to literary and visual arts, these smart and entertaining voices make surprising connections between the arts and the development of intellect, imagination, spirit, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, and self-discipline of young people. With support from a star-studded cast, editors Herbert Kohl and Tom Oppenheim present a memorable critique of the growing national trend to eliminate the arts in public education. Going well beyond the traditional rationales, The Muses Go to School shows that creative arts, as a means of academic and personal development, are a critical element of any education. It is essential reading for teachers, parents, and anyone who really cares about education.

Initiatives to coordinate schools, cultural institutions, community-based organizations, foundations, and/or government agencies to promote access to arts education in and outside of schools have recently developed. This study looks at the collaboration efforts of six urban communities: how they started and evolved, the kinds of organizations involved, conditions that helped and that hindered coordination, and strategies used.

EDUCATION / Arts in Education

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), districts and schools must demonstrate adequate yearly progress for all students. Because schools may spend more time improving students' academic skills to meet NCLBA's requirements, some are concerned that arts educ. (AE) might be cut back. This report asked: (1) has the amount of instruction time for AE changed and, if so, have certain groups been more affected than others; (2) to what extent have state education agencies' requirements and funding for AE changed since NCLBA; (3) what are school officials in selected districts doing to provide AE since NCLBA and what challenges do they face in doing so; and (4) what is known about the effect of AE in improving student outcomes? Ill.

Under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), districts and schools must demonstrate adequate yearly progress (AYP) for all students. Because schools may spend more time improving students' academic skills to meet NCLBA's requirements, some are concerned that arts education might be cut back. To determine how, if at all, student access to arts education has changed since NCLBA, the Congress asked: (1) has the amount of instruction time for arts education changed and, if so, have certain groups been more affected than others, (2) to what extent have state education agencies' requirements and funding for arts education changed since NCLBA, (3) what are school officials in selected districts doing to provide arts education since NCLBA and what challenges do they face in doing so, and (4) what is known about the effect of arts education in improving student outcomes? GAO analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Education (Education), surveyed 50 state arts officials, interviewed officials in 8 school districts and 19 schools, and reviewed existing research. To identify factors that may contribute to changes in access to arts education for certain groups, GAO recommends that the Secretary of Education require the department's planned study of NCLBA implementation to ask survey respondents why any changes in instruction time they report occurred. Education generally agreed with our recommendation. Appended are: (1) Scope and Methodology; (2) Average Amount of Instruction Time Elementary School Teachers Reported Spending; (3) Arts Education Requirements and Funding, by State, School Years 2001-2002 and 2006-2007; (4) Studies Meeting GAO's Criteria for Methodological Quality; (5) Comments from the Department of Education; and (6) GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments. (Contains 10 tables and 4 footnotes.).

"'Arts integration in education' is an insightful, even inspiring investigation into the enormous possibilities for change that are offered by the application of arts integration in education. Presenting research from a range of settings, from preschool to university, and featuring contributions from scholars and theorists, educational psychologists, teachers, and teaching artists, the book offers a comprehensive exploration and varying perspectives on theory, impact, and practices for arts-based training and arts-integrated instruction across the curriculum."--Page 4 of cover.