Education

The Arta Education Partnership Working Group takes the position that the arts are forms of understanding and ways of knowing that are valuable in and of themselves; that they are fundamentally important to education; that they are important to excellent education and to effective school reform; that the most significant contribution of the arts to education reform is the transformation of teaching and learning; that this transformation is best realized in the cen*n cf comprehensive, systematic education reform; and that art ec s, artists, and arts organizations must be encouraged strongll actively in local, state, and national reform efforts. Four dn.. recommendations on arts education and the role of the arts withi,.he larger curriculum are provided. In summary, the recommendations include: the establishment of and funding to sustain a National Center for the Arts in Education; support for the transformation of teacher education in the arts for both pre-service and in-service teachers; support for coordination between the arts curriculum standards setting process and the arts t process and inclusion of the arts, within tho N2tional Education Goals; and the formation of partnerships that affirn the importance of the arts at local, state, and national levels. (Contains 41 references.) (DB