Fine Arts Education

Fine Arts Standards

Nebraska’s College and Career Ready Standards for Fine Arts were adopted by the Nebraska State Board of Education on March 4, 2014, and include the areas of media arts, visual arts, dance, music, and theatre.

To ensure that the standards for each content area are well-organized and internally coherent, NDE articulates a common format for all content area standards across subjects.

Standards: At the highest level of generality, Nebraska’s content area standards include a set of broad, overarching content-based statements that describe the basic cognitive, affective, or psychomotor expectations of the students.  They reflect long-term goals for learning.  There is one comprehensive K-12 Fine Arts standards for each area of media arts, visual arts, dance, music, and theatre.

Indicators: Under each standard are indicators which further describe what a student must know and be able to do to meet the standard.  Indicators are performance-based statements that provide educators with a clear understanding of the expected level of student learning and guidance.  Indicators provide guidance for assessment of student learning.

Nebraska’s Fine Arts Standards are organized in grade bands of K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. These statements are organized into categories and are not course specific.  To assist in your understanding of the standards documents, a glossary for each content area is included in the next tab under “Standards Glossaries”

Art Museums Can Help Me Teach? and More Ways Art Museums Can Help Me Teach

NDE Fine Arts, Nebraska Art Teachers Association, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum presented “Art Museums Can Help Me Teach?” and “More Ways Art Museums Can Help Me Teach” in February and March 2023. This professional learning series is an introduction to ways you can collaborate with the Smithsonian American Art Museum and bring the Smithsonian Institution to your school and your kids.

Learn how interacting with artworks can sharpen your kids’ critical thinking skills, helping them learn key concepts in STEM, ELA, History, Social Sciences, Visual Arts, and other contents, too.  Discover the vast resources of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and how you can use art from their collection, or lesson plans and video conferences that been developed. Explore the Smithsonian Institution’s Learning Lab that spans all 21 museums of the Smithsonian Institution.

Access the recordings and materials below.

February 2023:  “Art Museums Can Help Me Teach?” Recording. The slide deck is also available. Be sure to toggle on the presenter’s notes.

March 2023:  “More Ways Art Museums Can Help Me Teach” Recording. The slide deck is also available. Be sure to toggle on the presenter’s notes.

Walk to Unlock Nebraska

Creativity is a necessity when working with youth. Walk 2 Unlock Nebraska allows classrooms and out-of-school clubs the opportunity to engage youth to learn about agriculture, nature, historical, and science-based content along one of four Nebraska trails. Two trails are currently open. The next two will be built over the 2023-2024 school year.

Walk 2 Unlock supports the whole child, working to provide activities to support body and mind. The program features an interactive map of Nebraska that allows users to track their locally achieved physical activity miles to make progress on virtual trails across the state. As students travel across the virtual trails, they will encounter checkpoints to learn more about the state through STEAM lessons appropriate for grades K-8th. Check out for Walk to Unlock Nebraska for more information.

Walk to Unlock Nebraska is a program of the Nebraska Department of Education Healthy Schools Program in partnership with Nebraska Farm Bureau Foundation’s Agriculture in the Classroom, Nebraska Game and Parks, Nebraska Tourism, Midwest Dairy, History Nebraska, and Nebraska Public Media.