Something Left Behind:
Council for Basic Education Reports on NCLB and the Liberal Arts in American Classrooms

      The first comprehensive study on the effects of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation in schools and classrooms has been released by the Council for Basic Education (CBE) in its report, Academic Atrophy: The Condition of the Liberal Arts in America’s Public Schools.

      Funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the study surveyed schools in four states (Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, and New York) chosen for their demographic diversity. The report reveals a frightening trend: One quarter (25%) of all principals polled in the study reported decreased instructional time for the arts. 33% of these same principals anticipate continued decreases in arts instructional time in the future.

      The good news revealed by the CBE study is that schools show increased commitment and instructional time to basic curriculum: reading, writing, and the sciences. The bad news is that this focus comes at the price of fundamental ‘liberal arts’ areas, including social studies, history, foreign languages, and the arts. What’s more, the elimination of these categories of learning is significantly higher in schools with high minority populations—the very populations, according to CBE, “whose access to such a curriculum has been historically most limited.”

      Non-profit organizations and private affiliates, such as The Learning Arts and its many sponsors, are constantly working to fill the void left behind by the increasing elimination of arts programming from schools. The Learning Arts offers a multitude of in-school classes and workshops that provide dynamic arts experiences for students while supplementing basic curriculum. Additionally, professional development opportunities for teachers and educators can train classroom teachers on how to integrate the arts into core curriculum instructional time. (These types of professional development scenarios are identified by the CBE study as an important element in maintaining access to the liberal arts for all students.)

      But non-profit organizations can’t work alone when trying to fill the void that is left when arts programming—and funding—is axed from school budgets. The Learning Arts and other organizations in the field of arts-in-education rely heavily on donors from the private and corporate sectors to continually provide affordable programming for their partner schools.

Read the full report from the Council for Basic Education at www.c-b-e.org.

Learn more about The Learning Arts’ student programs and professional development at http://www.learningarts.org

Related articles in this issue:

Partnered Funding Proves Successful through Opportunities and Incentives Fund

Stars, Stripes, and Solar Systems: The Learning Arts Spring 2004 Programming

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