This guidebook was written to provide Colorado schools and districts with research-based information and best practices to support the ongoing development of their visual and performing arts programs. The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has worked to develop instructional resources for arts education that reflect the cultural diversity and interests of both urban and rural communities.

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 in two rounds of data collection: April- May 2014 and then again October-December 2014. This study shows two important things about Colorado schools. First, on the whole, Colorado school administrators and educators "believe in" the value of arts education....