This report examines the significant achievements in arts education since 2008 largely due to two pieces of Colorado state legislation, Senate Bill 212/CAP 4K (2008) and House Bill 1273 (2010). These laws mandated the creation of academic standards in visual and performing arts and have led to district/teacher-created arts assessments, curricular templates, and educator effectiveness resources. Results of the 2014 study are presented within the context of the national and state economies and the changing landscape of K-12 education. Approximately 20% of Colorado Public Schools provided a detailed description of the size and scope of their formal and informal (extra-curricular) arts education programs via a voluntary survey (see appendix I) in two rounds of data collection: April- May 2014 and then again October-December 2014. Data from the report show that (1) 95% of respondents showed very strong support for arts education as an integral and impactful component to a quality education. (2) 96.7 % of Colorado public schools offer formal arts education to their students, and (3)Of the four broad art disciplines examined, Dance was, by far, the least commonly offered.

This report examines the significant achievements in arts education since 2008 largely due to two pieces of Colorado state legislation, Senate Bill 212/CAP 4K (2008) and House Bill 1273 (2010). These laws mandated the creation of academic standards in visual and performing arts and have led to district/teacher-created arts assessments, curricular templates, and educator effectiveness resources.