The Exclusion of the Creative Arts from Contracted School Curricula for Teaching the Common Core Standards

Many people would agree the creative arts are essential for children’s education and development. For years, the creative arts were integrated into classroom learning units, especially in the language arts, by using drama, music, and drawing; this was considered good teaching. In this study we examined whether contracted curricula designed for teaching the Common Core State Standards integrated the creative arts into English language arts units for grades 3, 6, and 9. Using content analysis as the method, findings indicate the creative arts are largely absent from these curricula. We argue that school districts with limited financial resources will likely adopt the contracted curricula, and their children will be further disadvantaged because they will not have opportunities to learn with the creative arts when participating in lessons designed to teach the Common Core.