NCCAS- The National Coalition of Core Arts Standards

National Coalition for Core Arts Standards

NCCAS Model Cornerstone Assessment Pilot Group

In the Fall of 2015, the art department chair, Paul Nagle was attending the EPLC Leadership conference where he met Cory Wilkerson. Cory was searching on behalf of NCCAS for teachers working with the media arts for a pilot group established to administer the Model Cornerstone Assessments for the National Media Arts Standards.  I applied and was accepted.  Throughout the 15-16 school year, I worked with my students to try out the MCA's.  This was an interesting process, I enjoyed working with the other eight teachers around the nation, and I learned a great deal from them.  My students learned additional methods of production, organization, and evaluation.

The Model Cornerstone Assessments are outlined on the National Core Arts Standards website, along with my students' examples posted in the High School Proficient and High School Advanced categories. Any work listed with the prefix "MA-RB" belongs to my students.

NCCAS Media Arts Committee

We formed this Ad hoc committee for the purpose establishing a professional organization for teachers in the media arts. We meet monthly online, and are planning a professional development event at PATTAN in coordination with David O. Deitz at PDE.  That event is scheduled for April 23, 2018.

NCCAS Overview and History

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) is the name for the group of organizations that committed to developing the 2014 National Core Arts Standards. Standards describe what students know and are able to do when provided with a quality arts education program. In 2011, coalition members agreed to work together to re-conceptualize the prior (and first) set of national arts standards, the 1994 National Arts Education Standards.


The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards committed to:

• developing a next generation of voluntary arts education standards built on the foundation created by the 1994 document,
• supporting the 21st-century needs of students and teachers,
• helping to ensure that all students are college and career ready, and
• affirming the place of arts education in a balanced core curriculum. 

Between 2011 and 2014 these nationally recognized arts organizations came together for the purpose of creating a conceptual framework for standards development, organizing writing teams, and designing an interactive website for a totally re-imagined set of voluntary standards for arts education. The College Board, another NCCAS member, provided significant research support for the project. This collaborative endeavor of research and standards writing resulted in once again affirming that the arts are core or central to a well-rounded education.

• American Alliance for Theatre and Education
• Americans for the Arts
• Educational Theatre Association
• National Art Education Association
• National Association for Music Education
• National Dance Education Organization
• NCCAS Media Arts Committee
• State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education
• Young Audiences Arts for Learning

From 2011 to 2014, the five standards-writing teams and NCCAS leadership worked in person and virtually to create the new arts standards. The June 2014 launch of the national arts standards website marked the end of this three-year journey that had been a historic partnership between 9 organizations, 70 writers, and over 6000 educators, administrators, researchers, parents, students, and community members who reviewed the work along the way.A key objective for NCCAS was to make the creation of the new arts standards an inclusive process. To meet this objective, PK-12 teachers and teacher preparation faculty members from institutes of higher education were included as members of discipline specific standards writing teams. By utilizing an online survey tool, a broad range of arts educators and decision-makers from across the United States and abroad were able to provide feedback during the writing process. This inclusive and transparent process was used to assure that this would be a set of national standards written by arts educators for arts educators. Consequently, the 2014 arts standards are grounded in arts education best practices and supported by a comprehensive set of research studies provided by the College Board.