The College Board, in partnership with the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS), has released a new research report that details the alignment between the 2010 Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and Math and the National Core Arts Standards currently being written.
The study – titled “The Arts and the Common Core: A Review of Connections Between the Common Core State Standards and the National Core Arts Standards Conceptual Framework” – analyzes parallels between the ELA and Math Standards and the foundations of artistic literacy outlined in the National Core Arts Standards: A Conceptual Framework for Arts Learning, the NCCAS document guiding the work of the writing teams.
The Arts and the Common Core report is divided into two parts. Part one is a content-based alignment study that focuses on arts-based examples and references already present in the Common Core ELA standards. Part two investigates areas of overlap between skills and habits emphasized in the Common Core Standards and those outlined in NCCAS’s Conceptual Framework.
In part one, the research looks at all four groups of the ELA College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards and their corresponding grade-level standards, analyzing the function of specific references to the arts in these standards across the disciplines of dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. For example, among the 220 Reading standards reviewed, the study found that 50 utilize arts-based content as a tool for strengthening analysis and observation skills.
Part two clarifies the elements of the Common Core Standards that reference the same broad goals and thinking skills (such as the Conceptual Framework’s Creative Practices of imagining, constructing, investigating, and reflecting) that are shaping the development of the National Core Arts Standards.
