The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) arts education framework is founded on a vision of a society that believes the arts are essential to every child's complete development. Throughout their lives, they will draw from artistic experience and knowledge as a means of understanding what happens both inside and outside their own skin, just as they use mathematical, scientific, and other frameworks for understanding. This book examines the results of the 2008 National Assessment of Education Progress in the arts, which was given to a nationally representative sample of 7,900 eighth grade public and private school students.