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National Core Arts Standards (NCAS)
Understanding and Using the National Core Arts
Standards
The arts inform our lives with meaning and infuse our lives on nearly all levels – generating a significant part of
the creative and intellectual capital that drives our economy. They provide ways of thinking as disciplined as
science or math and as disparate as philosophy or literature and are used by and have shaped and helped to
define every culture and individual on earth. The arts inform our lives with meaning every time we experience
the joy of a well-remembered song, experience the flash of inspiration that comes with immersing ourselves in
an artist’s sculpture, enjoying a sublime dance, learning from an exciting animation, or being moved by a capti-
vating play.
Due to the highly process-oriented and reflective nature of arts making, arts education naturally encourages
creative thinking, logical reasoning, and meta-cognition. The arts have always served as the distinctive vehicle
for discovering who we are. Each arts discipline shares common goals, but approaches them through distinct
media, practices, and techniques.
Research and Discoveries
The NCAS are the culmination of almost two decades of research on arts teaching and learning amassed since
the writing of the 1994 standards. Over the last two decades, the
College Board conducted research projects
on behalf of NCAS. Their research encompassed the:
M
USIC,
T
HEATRE, AND
V
ISUAL
A
RTS
Background and Development
Analysis of the relationship between the 1994 National Standards for Arts Education, the
NCAS and the 21
st
Century Skills.
Analysis of links between the NCAS and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English
Language Arts and Math.
A Literature review that analyzes research linking arts-based learning and human develop-
ment, including physical and cognitive growth and academic skills such as long-term
memory, reading, creative thinking, and writing fluency.
Study of the CCSS as they relate to arts-based learning.