America is the land of progress and innovation. To achieve this, America prioritizes strict memorization and national standardized test scores over creativity. The No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law in 2002 by President George W. Bush as a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Quote?). The law requires the nation's public schools to improve educational standards, particularly among disadvantaged students. To achieve this goal, tests launched by the federal government began in 2005 to determine students' skills in mathematics and reading. If the state-determined proficiency level is not met three times in a row, a school will be subject to external corrective action, including possible governance changes (“No Child Left Behind” – School Week 'education). Due to legislation like this and overall state and national budget cuts, art and creativity are finding less and less space in schools across the country. After the 2002 laws were signed, 71 percent of the nation's 15,000 schools cut back on music, art, and even history classes to devote even more classroom time to math and science (Dillons). Arts education in the United States has been in decline for more than three decades, due to tight budgets, an ever-growing list of state mandates that have cluttered school curricula, and public sentiment that Arts are beautiful but not essential. Now, with the addition of No Child Left Behind, students bombarded with course after course in math and English suffer from a lack of creativity in their learning and the rigor of core courses does not appear to improve test scores (Quote).Enid Zimmerman, editor of Art Educator magazine, attended a meeting of a national arts education organization and she "found my place in the middle of paper.......January 2011. .Riddett-Moore, Karinna. “Encouraging Empathy Through Aesthetic Engagement: An Art Lesson in Living Compositions.” International Journal of Education and the Arts October 12, 2009. Web. February 2011. .Rubenstein, Grace. "Real World, San Diego: Hands-on Learning at High Tech High | Edutopia." Editorial. Innovations in K-12 Education and Learning with Proven, Effective Strategies | Edutopia. Edutopia, December 2008. Web. February 23, 2011. "Why arts education is crucial and who does it best | Edutopia." Edutopia. February 2009 Web. Feb. 2011. .