Pre-K-8 (Draft) Core Arts Standards

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) PreK-8 draft standards. 

For links to Draft Copies of Standards, the Conceptual Framework and Media Arts Reference Materials, visit http://nccas.wikispaces.com/

Arts Success and Achievement through Creative Practices 
Success and achievement in the arts demands engagement in the four fundamental creative practices of imagination, investigation, construction, and reflection in multiple contexts. These meta-cognitive activities nurture the effective work habits of curiosity, creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, and collaboration, each of which transfer to all aspects of learning and life in the 21st century.

Creative practices: 

• Evoke deep, meaningful engagement in the arts. 
• Can be fluid, though there is purpose and meaning to the order in which they occur. 
• Vary from person to person, project to project, and moment to moment. 
• Require intense cognition that can be developed through arts engagement. 

A student engaged in creative practices: 

• Imagines a mental image or concept. 
• Investigates and studies through exploration or examination. 
• Constructs a product by combining or arranging a series of elements. 
• Reflects and thinks deeply about his or her work. 

Contextual awareness in the arts allows a student to: 

• Absorb meaningful information through the senses. 
• Develop openness in apprehension and push boundaries. 
• Effectively construct artistic meaning within their cultural milieu. 
• Grasp the nature and evolution of history. 
• Communicate effectively within variable situations and for diverse audiences. 
• Navigate the intricacies of emerging digital and global environments. 

Creativity & Innovation: 

• Creativity is the capability or act of conceiving something original/unusual. 
• Innovation is the implementation of something new. 
• Invention is the creation of something that has never been made before and is recognized as the product of some unique insight. 

In learning to communicate through the arts in a standards-based curriculum, students learn to: 

• Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts. 
• Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions. 
• Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade). 
• Utilize multiple media and technologies, and know how to judge its effectiveness as a priority as well as assess its impact. 
• Communicate effectively in diverse environments (including multi-lingual). 

Further, standards-based arts instruction, by its very nature, engages students with each another, helping them: 

• Develop, implement, and communicate new ideas to others effectively. 
• Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work. 
• Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas. 
• View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes. 
• Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams. 
• Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal. 
• Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and values the individual contributions made by each team member.