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National Core Arts Standards (NCAS)
The Way-Forward for DoDEA Fine Arts Programs
As we look ahead, it is important to keep a few things in mind. The NCAS are intended to guide arts curriculum,
instruction, and assessment in America’s schools and are living documents. To the degree that students are
successful in achieving them, the standards will have to be raised to encourage higher expectations. Even
though the substance of each of the arts discipline will remain basically constant, the changes created by tech-
nology, new cultural trends, and educational advances will necessitate ongoing changes in the standards as
well.
Toward that end, the NCAS emphasize the process-oriented nature of the arts and arts learning that guide the
continuous and systematic operations of instructional improvement by:
Defining artistic literacy through a set of overarching Philosophical Foundations and Lifelong
Goals that clarify long-term expectations for arts learning.
Placing Artistic Processes and Anchor Standards at the forefront of the work.
Identifying Creative Practices as the bridge for the application of the Artistic Processes
across all learning.
Specifying Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions that provide conceptual
through-lines and articulate value and meaning within and across the arts discipline.
Providing Model Cornerstone Assessments of student learning aligned to the Artistic Pro-
cesses.