The State Board of Education's expectation is that all K-12 students should achieve at the basic level in each of the arts disciplines and achieve proficiency in at least one art discipline by graduation from high school. The guidelines in this document represent three strands within the 'Artistic Process' CREATE, PERFORM, RESPOND/ANALYZE. The strands and guidelines correspond to Michigan's Arts Education Content Standards and Benchmarks approved by the State Board of Education in 1998. There are multiple guidelines within each strand that may be addressed through the visual, performing, or applied arts disciplines. The guidelines for the 1-credit graduation requirement in the Visual, Performing and Applied Arts are designed to provide all high school students with a rigorous foundation in the artistic process that can be easily adapted to a specific arts discipline or level of student proficiency.

On April 20, 2006, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm signed into law a rigorous new set of statewide high school graduation requirements called the Michigan Merit Curriculum that are among the best in the nation.