147 © The Author(s) 2018 R.S. Rajan, I.C. O’Neal (eds.), Arts Evaluation and Assessment, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64116-4_7 CHAPTER 7 The Arts and Socioemotional Development: Evaluating a New Mandate for Arts Education Steven J. Holochwost, Dennie Palmer Wolf, Kelly R. Fisher, Kerry O’Grady, and Kristen M. Gagnier What is the mandate for arts education? Why does it matter if students receive an education in the arts? The most familiar argument, now enshrined in public policy, is that the arts are part of a “well-rounded edu- cation” (Every Student Succeeds Act, p. 807). This legislation asserts that just as we would consider a student’s education incomplete without English language arts or science, we should regard an education without the arts as incomplete, given that without arts education students are denied access to a broader literacy that includes the ideas captured in art works and the traditions of other cultures. A second, more instrumental argument is that arts education confers benefts to students’ academic achievement. However, while this has been and remains an attractive advocacy position, the experimental literature S.J. Holochwost (*) • D.P. Wolf WolfBrown, Cambridge, MA, USA K.R. Fisher • K. O’Grady • K.M. Gagnier Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA