2012 STATE OF THE STATES: REPORT AND ANALYSIS ON ARTS EDUCATION POLICY ADOPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION

This study first reports research on the primary role of local, state, and federal policy within historical context and highlights the reoccurring need for accountability. Limited measures of accountably were found in two main educational issues regarding teacher quality and student achievement. Education leaders, more today, have increased pressure to report measured accountability based on federal and state policy requirements. A 50 State and D.C. survey conducted in 2010-2011 by Arts Education Partnership (AEP) to State Education Agencies Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) describes the current condition of arts education regarding policy adoption and implementation and statewide data collection and reporting.This survey finds that data on indicators of teacher quality and student achievement are limited and correlates with reports on inadequate policy implementation. Barriers of policy implementation were detected by coding qualitative survey results and cross examination with survey results on data collection. This study calls to attention the need for data-systems to communicate more data involving more measures to report teacher quality and student achievement. Data-systems may easily communicate the complexities of teacher evaluation and student assessment across varying levels of government to meet the demands and pressures of current policy requirements.