The Darke County Educational Service Center's Comprehensive Arts Course of Study is created from Comprehensive Arts Education: Ohio's Model Competency Based Program (CAEC) developed by the Ohio Department of Education.

The following are the four goal areas in the model: 1) historical, cultural, and social contexts (understanding the role of the arts in people's lives); 2) personal expression and production/performance (communicating through the arts); 3) arts criticism (responding to the arts); 4) the nature and meaning of the arts (valuing the arts).

I. An understanding of the role of the arts in people's lives in which they come to appreciate the artistic achievements of their own and other societies, past and present;

II. An ability to communicate through the arts in which they develop competencies in perceiving, creative thinking, qualitative problem solving, and technical proficiency;

III. An ability to respond to the arts in which they perceive aesthetic relationships, interpret meanings, and judge significance; and

IV. An understanding of why people value the arts in which they formulate their own personal philosophies of the arts.