High Quality Education in the Arts is a handbook for parents, designed to empower them to advocate for quality arts education for their children. 

Participants provided data about their curricular theatre programs; play production activities; student and parental involvement; faculty demographics, training, and employment conditions; performance facilities; production resources and new technology used; and program finances. Teachers and administrators detailed their views on the purposes,roles, and values of educational theatre and drama. Questions probed the types of social issues that theatre educators explored with their students through coursework and production experiences, and discussed the challenges that can arise when engaged

Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven leading universities across the United States. In the Dana Consortium study, released in March 2008, researchers grappled with a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter? See table of contents, at right

National Center on Time and Learning's report, Time Well Spent: Eight Powerful Practices of Successful, Expanded-Time Schools, reshapes the field for expanded-time schools by outlining specific practices that can lead to dramatic increases in student achievement and preparation for success in college and the workforce. Time Well Spent offers an in-depth examination of 30 expanded-time schools serving high-poverty populations with impressive track records of student success, and demonstrates how these schools leverage their additional time in order to

For years, Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School was plagued by low student achievement and high staff turnover. Then, in 2010, with an expanded school schedule made possible with federal funding, Orchard Gardens began a remarkable turnaround. Today, the school is demonstrating how increased learning time, combined with other key turnaround strategies, can dramatically improve the performance of even the nation’s most troubled schools.

While there is research on the potential for wraparound services, including health care services, family involvement programs, and expanded food assistance programs to eliminate barriers to student learning, there is little known about the possible connection between wraparound services and teacher efficacy. This report examines specific examples of schools where wraparound services are benefiting teachers in addition to students. 

This paper demonstrates the effectiveness and importance of community schools to reforming our public school systems in ways that are creative, enduring, and based on measurable results.

This guide is drawn from lessons learned during two musical instrument drives sponsored by New York’s classical music radio station, WQXR. Students in under-resourced music programs across the New York City area benefited from the roughly 6,000 musical instruments donated through the drive.

The existing research on the value and positive impact of adolescent involvement in the arts, while often examining generic academic benefits of K-12 arts study (e.g., Catterall, 1997; 2009; Deasy, 2002; Gouzouasis, Guhn, & Kishor, 2007; Helmrich, 2010; Miksza, 2007a; 2010; Morrison, 1994; Schellenberg, 2005; Southgate & Roscigno, 2009), has yet to specifically explore arts education as a pathway to college. The social and economic value of attending and completing college has been well documented in the research literature (Hout, 2012; Kane & Rouse, 1995; Marcotte, Bailey,

To push for higher standards of learning, many policymakers are eliminating arts programs. This book presents the definitive case, based on what is known about the brain and learning, for making the arts a core part of the basic curriculum and thoughtfully integrating them into every subject. Separate chapters address musical, visual, and kinesthetic arts in ways that reveal their influence on learning. Evidence points to the following effects of a fully implemented arts program: fewer dropouts; higher attendance; better team players; an increased love of learning; greater student dignity;