Arts and Humanities instruction in Kentucky is going through a period of change. During the legislative session of 2009, the Kentucky Legislature began a major overhaul of teaching, learning, and assessment through Senate Bill 1. KRS 158.6453 mandates that schools will conduct a program review to analyze the components of their instructional programs. All schools in Kentucky will conduct program reviews in a 2011-2012 field test year; with results being submitted to KDE and reported to the public.
Until the release of the revised academic content standards, schools will continue to follow the current Program of Studies and the Combined Curriculum Document for arts and humanities which incorporates the four arts disciplines of dance, drama, music, visual art. Schools are urged to provide their students with rigorous arts programs which emphasize creativity, production and performance, and response to the arts.
Completion of an arts and humanities credit is required for graduation from high school. “Beginning with the graduating class of 2012, each student in a common school shall have a total of at least twenty-two (22) credits for high school graduation. Those credits shall include the content standards as provided in the Program of Studies, 704 KAR 3:303,” (704 KAR 3:305. Minimum requirements for high school graduation, Section 2).
The specific arts graduation requirement in Section 2 (7) calls for “History and appreciation of visual and performing arts (or another arts course which incorporates this content)- one (1) credit to include the content strands of arts, dance, music, theatre, and visual arts, or a standards-based specialized arts course based on the student’s individual learning plan.”
A credit is further defined in Section (5) (2)(a) as “A standards-based Carnegie unit credit that shall consist of at least 120 hours of instructional time in one (1) subject. A credit may also be awarded through a standards- based performance- based credit through the local board of education policy.”
A specialized arts course would include all of the current content for that art form as found in the Program of Studies (i.e., instruction covering the five Big Ideas of Structure, Process, Purpose, History and Interrelationships in and of the arts). Based on a student’s Individual Learning Plan, he or she may choose to take a specialized arts course, rather than the History and Appreciation course, in order to fulfill the required arts credit.
Students may also choose to follow an advanced sequence of classes in an arts discipline as specified in their ILP. It is important to understand that this requirement is met through an arts course. Courses that may fall in a particular school’s Humanities Department that are not specifically standards-based arts courses would not apply. An arts course that is production- or performance based such as a drama, visual art, dance or music course must show interrelationships as they fall naturally within the curriculum. For example, a painting unit that emphasizes the Impressionism style could make connections to the music of the same time period so students would realize the visual and aural similarities.
The History and Appreciation of Visual and Performing Arts (HAVPA) is a comprehensive survey course of the four disciplines. While academic in nature, students provided with hands-on lessons in the various disciplines would more likely experience a deep appreciation of the four disciplines.