American Association of School Administrators
With 15,000
members, the American Association of School Administrators, founded in 1865, is a professional organization for superintendents,
central office administrators, and other system-wide leaders.
American Federation
of Teachers
The American Federation of Teachers, which has more than 2,100 locals nationwide
and a 1998 membership of 980,000, was founded in 1916 to represent the economic, social and professional interests of classroom
teachers.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development is an international, nonprofit, nonpartisan
education association committed to the mission of forging covenants in teaching and learning for the success of all learners.
ASCD was founded in 1943 and is one of the largest professional education associations in the world, with membership approaching
200,000.
Council for Basic Education
The mission
of the Council for Basic Education is to strengthen teaching and learning of the basic subjects-English, history, government,
geography, mathematics, the sciences, foreign languages, and the arts. CBE, with a readership base of 3,000, advocates high
academic standards and the promotion of a strong liberal arts education for all children in the nation’s elementary
and secondary schools.
Council of Chief State School Officers
The
Council of Chief State School Officers represents public officials who lead the departments responsible for elementary and
secondary education in the states. CCSSO advocates legislative positions of the members and assists state agencies with their
leadership capacity.
National Association of Elementary School Principals
Dedicated to educational excellence and high professional standards among K-8 educators, the National
Association of Elementary School Principals serves 28,000 elementary and middle school principals in the United States and
abroad.
National Association of Secondary School Principals
The
National Association of Secondary School Principals is the nation’s largest organization of school admin-istrators,
representing 43,000 middle, junior, and senior high school principals and assistant principals. NASSP also administers the
National Association of Student Activity Advisors, which represents 57,000 members, as well as the 22,000 chapters of the
National Honor Society.
National Education Association
The
National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.4
million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired
educators, and students preparing to become teachers.
National Parent Teacher
Association
The National PTA, representing 6.5 million members, is the largest volunteer
child advocacy organization in the United States. An organization of parents, educators, students, and other citizens active
in their schools and communities, the PTA is a leader in reminding our nation of its obligations to children. Membership in
the National PTA is open to anyone who is concerned with the health, education, and welfare of children and youth.
National School Board Association
The National School Board Association
represents the nation’s 95,000 school board members through a federation of state associations and the school boards
of the District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. NSBA’s mission is to foster excellence and equity
in public education through school board leadership.
Appendix
Supporting examples for Principle
No. 3
There is a demonstrated, direct correlation between improved SAT scores and
time spent studying the arts. In 1997, The College Board reported that students with four years of study in the arts outscored
students with no arts instruction by a combined total of 101 points on the verbal and mathematics portions of the SAT.
Statistically significant links are now being reported between music instruction and tested intelligence in
preschool children. In one widely cited study (Neurological Research, Feb. 1997), after six months, students who had received
keyboard instruction performed 34% higher on tests measuring temporal-spatial ability than did students without instruction.
The findings indicate that music instruction enhances the same higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science,
and engineering.
As numerous school-based programs have repeatedly reported around the
country, study of the arts helps students think and integrate learning across traditional disciplinary lines. In the arts,
they learn how to work cooperatively, pose and solve problems, and forge the vital link between individual (or group) effort
and quality of result. These skills and attitudes, not incidentally, are vital for success in the 21st century workplace.
Sequential arts education also contributes to building technological competencies. It imparts academic discipline and teaches
such higher level thinking skills as analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating both personal experience and objective data.
Finally, research findings indicate that arts education enhances students’ respect for the cultures, belief systems,
and values of their fellow learners.
