Arts advocates say the push to get students back to basics and a growing emphasis on standardized tests threaten to cut into arts programs in public schools.

President Bush's education plan, which is making its way through Congress, proposes testing students annually in reading and math through much of their school career. Meanwhile, states increasingly are turning to tests of their own to hold teachers and administrators accountable. About 20 states now require some type of skills exam for graduation.

``I think it's a panic mentality, and it's something that's cyclical,'' said Derek Gordon, who coordinates the education program for Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

``I don't think any of those teachers or administrators are bad for students,'' he said. ``They're just besieged by the demands on the part of parents and communities and whatnot, to get the test scores up. Rather than taking the risk to do something creative to accomplish that, they go back to the tried and true.''

Many studies have suggested that arts help children do better in school, aiding their social and intellectual development and helping them focus, think critically and solve problems.

``If we think about what we're really doing, it's giving students the capacity to be really top-functioning in society,'' said Betty Preston, a member of the Missouri State School Board and a piano teacher for 31 years.

UCLA researcher James Catterall found that students who studied the arts had higher grades, scored better on standardized tests and had higher attendance in school.

The College Board has reported that students who have had arts courses in school score higher on the SAT than those who have not.

``There's enough agreement in the evidence that it looks like this is real,'' said Brown University researcher Martin Gardiner, who testified Thursday on Capitol Hill in support of music education programs. Gardiner was joined by jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis and Bob McGrath, a longtime star of ``Sesame Street.''

The three, with VH1 President John Sykes, met with Education Secretary Rod Paige and lawmakers from both parties.

McGrath said that most funds for education comes from states and local school boards, but that the federal government can provide ``this preaching from the bully pulpit'' that keeps arts education on people's minds.

``We were very pleased that the secretary of education said, 'I'm an old trombone player,''' McGrath said.

Rep. Bob Clement, D-Tenn., House Education Caucus co-chairman, said Bush's education plan is silent on the arts.

``I'd like to think it's not an oversight by them ... but it's something that they need to say and clarify.''

Stephanie Perrin, head of Walnut Hill School, a private high school in Natick, Mass., that focuses on the arts, said studying theater, dance or music ``creates a culture in a school that is about high standards,'' teaching the value of discipline, hard work and community.

``Every student who is really engaged and studying the arts, not just as a frill but really studying it, has a sense that this is their own work, that this is something they want to do.''

Preston said Missouri this April will test 40,000 fifth-grade students in the state's first assessment test in the arts.

``What we're doing is saying, 'These are important elements -- we want to get them to our children and make them part of their lives,''' she said.

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