Check out the LAUSD’s Student Learning Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts To learn more about the LAEP’s work with humanities curriculum, visit the Humanitas Web page Educators, check out these art resources for lesson plans and curriculum ideas

LAUSD to Rebuild Arts Education Program as Part of Regular Curriculum THE SOUND OF MUSIC AND THE BRUSHSTROKES of budding artists will be heard and seen more and more in the years to come on school campuses throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District as the district re-energizes its sleeping giant of an arts program. Underfunded and often neglected when other educational and operational priorities took precedence during much of the 1980s and 1990s, the arts plan-adopted unanimously by the Board of Education last week- comes with a budget of $4.7 million for the current school year. It also carries a board commitment to consider arts instruction in the future as another necessary element of the district's core curriculum program. "I am thrilled that the school district has recognized that the arts are significant and contribute to overall academic achievement," said board member Valerie Fields. "We have now begun to fund the arts in the same way we fund other core subjects. The arts can no longer be discarded as frill." Fields, a long-time supporter of the arts as an education and arts advisor to then-Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, initiated a push to restore the district's arts program during her first year on the school board. At her urging, the board in March 1998 asked Supt. of Schools Ruben Zacarias to develop a comprehensive plan that would provide opportunities for all students to have substantive education in the arts. Five key goals were identified: Provide a substantive program of curriculum, instruction and assessment of student progress in dance, music, theater and visual arts in grades K-12. Sponsor year-round professional development programs for administrators, classroom teachers, arts teachers and artists working in schools, in recognition that sustained in-service training is needed in the performing and visual arts in order to provide the best possible programs to students. Develop partnerships with public and private community arts organizations that have ties to Los Angeles' broad and diverse cultural resources and also with businesses to offer fiscal support that can augment and complement the district's arts education goals Use print and electronic media to provide arts education resource information to teachers, students and community members. Evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the plan with concrete data. District staff developed the arts plan over the past year with the assistance of a committee of prominent arts leaders and a local arts education consultant. A main component of the comprehensive plan, to be phased in over a 10-year period, is a standards-based curriculum that will provide students in schools districtwide with instruction in dance, music, theatre artr. and visual arts. The arts curriculum will be provided to students sequentially, with an introduction in the elementary grades, a focus on several art forms in middle schools and an opportunity in high school for students to concentrate on one or more of the visual and performing arts, depending on their individual interests and talents. By the time of graduation, every student will be able to create or perform in at least one art form, be knowledgeable about the contributions of the arts and important works of art through history and frorn a variety of cultures. Students will also be able to express an informed opinion about works of art and explain their significance at the time of their creation and also from a historical perspective.