Arts education faces serious challenges, even as teachers and business leaders recognize its value to students as never before. A growing body of research suggests that the arts offer students a unique, valuable way to grow intellectually, socially and emotionally. Some researchers suggest high-quality arts education helps improve test scores and reduce tardiness and truancy. Others argue that even without such benefits, the arts are inherently good because they help children grow into creative, problem-solving adults with skills necessary for the 21st-century economy. But arts education -- on the decline for more than two decades -- is now threatened by shrinking school budgets and a narrowing of the curriculum because of federal and state testing and accountability mandates. Meanwhile, a small but growing number of schools are integrating the arts into academic courses and using the arts to help students overcome learning disabilities.

Beth Baker is an award-winning freelance journalist in Takoma Park, Md., whose articles appear in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, AARP Bulletin, Ms., and BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. She has received two National Mature Media Awards for her reporting on aging and media fellowships to study aging and cancer issues from, respectively, Case Western University and the National Press Foundation. Her books include Old Age in a New Age -- The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes (Vanderbilt University Press, 2007). She is a former hospice volunteer.