In this first installment, James writes about how life’s small details–specifically, the county mandated uniform that he is sentenced to wear–defines his life on the inside.

My Body

Socks on my feet
These sandals upon those
Blue sweatpants on my waist
An orange shirt on my chest
An orange sweatshirt over that
Walking with my hands behind my back
Stuck behind this door just wanting to be free
Wearing my own clothes
Breathing that fresh Air.

*His name has been changed.

If you liked this, you might be interested in:
1. Watch adorable pre-k students learn World Music in this Virtual Classroom tour
2. Honoring Dr. King’s Legacy: 5 Reasons Why I Volunteer
3. Why Art Matters: The Transformative Power of Old Vinyl Records

Odd as it may sound, a teaching artist can take advantage of chaos especially if the cause is clear and specific.  “Seizing the moment” becomes a reality, and not a workshop abstraction.  It all boils down to timing, taking specific actions and having a clear idea of where to take the energy of shouts, cries and thundering feet.

Gary Draper (left) in action: Elementary students learning critical thinking skills through creative movement.

I once taught a bizarre “drama” lesson to 35 loud, engaged 4^th graders in an echoing auditorium.  In the span of 1 hour I wanted to give the kids an experience of what a fully committed action looks and feels like.   One of several “exercises” during the lesson had kids demonstrate a strong decisive action in front of their classmates.

To add a little tension and suspense, I tried a gimmick in one of the exercises – I brought in several large plastic packing bubbles, the size of small pillows.  The idea was to have a kid leap and land with a pop on the air bag as they made an implosive or explosive frozen body shape.   We would study and reflect on the dynamics – tension and suspense – as if we had captured in a photographic image the release of high energy.   Fortunately, just the combination of pausing before the action, the leap, the landing with a loud shot of sound, engaged the kids.

This routine went on for some time before a short dumpy kid stood by the bag.  On my cue, he paused, coiled his legs and leapt.  I remember thinking: for his size and body weight it was a high leap.  Wham he hit the bag full force and got the loudest echoing shot of the day.  He instantly became the implosive shape, bent over like a tight spring.  Before we could applaud and appreciate the beauty of his performance- bright red blood gushed from his nose, splashing on to the gym floor. Seconds passed before the teacher rushed the kid out of the gym, leaving a trail of drops behind.   The rush from the room had a conic effect and caught the kids off balance.

I had to say something to try to contain the growing chaotic response that would soon erupt.  As teacher and child fled, I called out, “Hey, what’s your name? That was fantastic!”

There were waves of exaggerated groans, grunts, shouts, utterances of disgust that filled the gym.  Most of the kids leapt from their benches to get close ups of the sticky red mess of living liquid.  A few boys remained near the benches play-acting retching and vomiting.  A crowd of curious girls and boys gathered around the point of impact and stared at the pool of splatter with twisted faces, a few of the brighter girls had broken off and seemed to methodically trace the pattern of drops that lead to the gym door.

At some point during the creative anarchy, I regained control of the mob by bellowing over the shrill voices of kids to sit on the benches!  I told them that by sitting we could better study the spattered pool of blood and fleeing drops.  My ensuing improvised lesson drew much of its information and critical thinking approach from having watched episodes of Dexter on television. Thanks to Dexter we focused on using deductive reasoning to recreate what had happened based on the blood pattern on the floor.  We even played with likely scenarios of what may have happened when the lunch bell rang out.

Gary Draper is a former teaching artist and currently the Artistic Director at Performing Arts Workshop. When Gary’s not at the Workshop, he can be found indulging in books and French cuisine. Read his full bio here.

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3. The Subtle Change Within

We decided to devote a full day to visiting a dear family relative that lives on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights.  A couple of months ago she had her 80^th birthday and a few years ago, she lost her husband whom she was married to for over half a century.  After a lifetime of solid health, assured by a scrupulous adherence to a strict regiment of daily exercise, unprocessed foods, and whole grains; the aging process has taken hold.  As happens with so many elderly, things changed after she took a rough spill.  And since that day, our relative must cope with near constant physical pain and dwindling strength.

As one might imagine, the pain, paired with newly accelerated aging, and the loss of her life partner, seems to be taking a toll on her psyche. Perhaps more striking than her softened gate and increasingly hunched posture is the fact that a woman, once so full of passionate opinions about politics and health, routinely sighting articles she’d read in the Sacramento Bee, had very little to say. In fact, after our initial greetings, she politely excused herself and busied with dusting, polishing silverware and generally straightening up her immaculate home.

Justin and I made ourselves comfortable in the living room, resigned to just hanging out without much conversation.  Justin began sifting through the record collection stowed away in her media console and pulled out a dusty record illustrated with an Italian Flag and a handsome man in a fitted brown suit: The Italian Voice of Al Martino.  He put the record on the platter and set the needle down. “La Strata del Bosco” or “The Road through the Woods” was the first song to play. The voice was a strong and melodic baritone, full of confidence and warmth.  And in just moments after the music began the wash through the house, our relative came to join us, her face flush and smiling, her body animated and strong.

She began to sing along to the words, exclaiming her Joy periodically, “Wow, this is so beautiful! I haven’t heard this in years.”

She was beaming.

The evening progressed and we continued to listen to her old records, eventually moving onto the famous French opera, Carmen, which had all of us moved near tears.

In reflection, what seemed most profound about that experience was the power of art to breathe meaning and reverence into a seemingly ordinary moment –the ability of an old stack of records to illuminate what’s really important.   For a while and without many words, we were transported to an unexpected place where collectively we could experience beauty, understand the transcendent quality of the past, and get closer to an awareness of the value of the present moment.

It was serendipitous that Justin chose to pull out some of the old records from the console.  And for me, it was one more powerful reminder of the transformative power of the arts.  Be it in the living room of an elderly relative, witnessing a great dance performance, a writer scrolling at her desk, or the experience of high-quality and inspired art instruction; art’s power is its ability to shift perspective and get us all closer to understanding what it means to be a human being –in all its nuance, beauty, and hardship.  This holiday season and always, I am thankful for these moments.  And for me, this is one of many reasons why art matters.

Last week, I had breakfast with a good friend (Amy) who is a college placement counselor at a charter school network. She specializes in placing “at-risk” kids – high achievers in every respect, who come from traumatized communities – in to four-year colleges. For a lot of her students, getting to college isn’t the biggest challenge. It’s persevering in college once you get there, which is based on a fundamental question: “Do I belong here?”

I appreciated Gene Marks’ knowledge of the opportunities available to those who can find them. Marks argues that these opportunities are equally available to youth of all classes and races. He states his case with the hopeful optimism that is the privilege of the white upper middle class.  While I admire his optimism, he omits a few external and many critical, internal barriers to success for “at-risk” youth. In doing so he misses half the picture. It’s not just what you do or what you have that helps you succeed. It’s how you see yourself, your place in the world, and the possibilities for both.

First, the external barriers. Many of the youth that Performing Arts Workshop teaches live in communities in crisis, where safety is paramount, and everything else comes later. In traumatized communities, youth may even technically have access to the internet and tools like SparkNotes (one of Marks’ suggestions); but SparkNotes and succeeding in school comes 32^nd on the list of “things to do to keep me safe and help me succeed”; behind things like – earning money, buying food, taking care of siblings/relatives, and getting a good night’s sleep.

Gene Marks might get this. He might even agree. But the biggest omissions in his story are internal. I suspect he doesn’t get them because they are visible only to those who feel them. One of the privileges of whiteness is that you don’t have to think about the internal barriers; because individual agency is an assumed right of every person (“If there’s a will, there’s a way.”).

With all of the tools, how do you get access to good schools, to computers, to opportunities? You need to learn the language, the manners, and the codes of the educated classes. You need to know how to speak and write and look a certain way and act a certain way that communicates success in upper middle-class (white) circles. And if you did not grow up with that culture, you have to learn it.

The most insidious of barriers are those that are internal, and have to do with a young person’s belief in him or herself; the belief that “I am smart; I can be successful; I belong here.” Once you’ve learned the cultural codes of success, how do you cultivate that inner voice of success? This is the problem that my friend Amy sees her students struggling with once they leave high school. Her students excelled in their school; they took advantage of opportunities, worked hard, and got into a good college. And once there, some of them find out what many of us learn – that college is hard.

They might have to ask for help for the first time in their lives – and no one told them that that was ok. No one taught them that asking questions is a valuable part of the learning process, and makes understanding – not knowing, but understanding – deeper and more useful. So, they draw the conclusion, “I don’t belong here.” These internal biases are real, and are particularly prevalent among youth of color – primarily African Americans and Latinos, but also young women in some cases (see also: Claude Steele, “stereotype threat”).

I can’t possibly suggest that Performing Arts Workshop is the antidote for such a far-reaching problem, with deep internal and external causes. However, I do think that Performing Arts Workshop’s research has shown that the performing arts have the power to change two very important things: a student’s view of him or herself, and a teacher’s view of his or her students.

Every day, our teaching artists encourage students to see themselves and their world in new ways through art. Students who may never have considered themselves “smart” create compelling theater improvisations; students who may have been “disruptive” choreograph a story through dance; the shy, withdrawn student finds his voice in poetry, and blows everyone away with his performance. At Performing Arts Workshop, “success” is creating a compelling piece of art. The act of creation, reflection, and revision of one’s own creative work in collaboration with others teaches three very powerful things:

1.      Learning is a collaborative process;

2.      Success and failure do not rest on you alone;

3.      Success is NOT having the “right” answer; so having the “wrong” answer does not mean that you are “wrong”.

All students deserve access to a high quality education. And such access is a factor of perseverance – over both internal and external barriers. The arts may not be the only answer, but they are a compelling tool in helping young people develop their own sense of self and perseverance in the pursuit of success in school, work and life.

Find out the answers to these questions in the NORC University of Chicago’s final report on the multi-year work of the Teaching Artists Research Project (TARP). The TARP report deepens our understanding of the world of teaching artists through studies in twelve communities, and it will inform policy designed to make their work sustainable, more effective, and more meaningful.

The TARP report includes serious reflection on the conditions and policies that have affected arts education in schools, particularly over the last thirty years, a period of intense school reform efforts and consistent erosion of arts education for students. The report includes new and important qualitative data about teaching artists, documenting their educational background, economic status, the conditions in which they work, and their goals as artists and educators. It also includes new insights about how learning in the arts is associated with learning in general, illuminating findings from other studies that have suggested a powerful connection between arts education and positive outcomes for students in a wide range of domains.

Anyone who works with teaching artists, is and/or might be a teaching artist or who wants to know how arts education makes it into our schools and communities should read this report.

Find out more here.

http://www.norc.org/Research/Projects/Pages/Teaching-Artists-Research-Project-TARP.aspx

Download the Executive Summary (27 page pdf)

Download the Full Report (288 page pdf)

As Arts in Education Week – September 11-17 – was being observed, arts integration was a hot topic nationally.  Consider these two statements about arts integration:  (1) “Creative teachers have integrated the arts with other subjects for years. During the past decade, however, there has been an upsurge of interest in this approach.”  And, (2), “In recent years, arts integration has … generated a lot of enthusiasm from classroom teachers, school administrators and policy researchers for its ability to produce results.”  These are very similar testaments to the concept of arts integration, but more than three decades separate the two.

The first statement is from “Coming to Our Senses: The Significance of  the Arts for American Education,” a landmark report of a national panel convened by David Rockefeller, Jr. in 1977 to explore the notion that “education” and “the arts” need not be mutually exclusive – that they in fact could be productive partners.  The second is taken from “Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools,” a report of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) released this past May.

While neither report focused exclusively on arts integration, both contained focused discussion of the topic, as noted above, and both called for actions to further the progress of arts integration in schools.  Since the call to action for arts integration almost 35 years ago did not materialize, what might be different now?  Several factors – research-based evidence of the effects of arts integration, a critical mass of promising programs, the availability of technology to replicate or adapt proven practices, and an increased understanding of what arts integration is and is not – are some key differences.

Understanding the effects of arts integration

As pointed out by PCAH, a number of recent studies have “documented significant links between arts integration models and academic and social outcomes for students, efficacy for teachers, and school-wide improvements in culture and climate.”  Two state networks of A+ Schools, which practice a dual role for the arts – as discrete core subjects unto themselves and also as part of the curriculum and instruction of other core subjects – in North Carolina and Oklahoma released longitudinal studies in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

“More than 12 years of research on the A+ Schools in North Carolina,” the PCAH report notes, “tracked consistent gains in student achievement, the schools’ engagement of parents and community, and other measures of learning and success.”  Five years of student achievement and other school performance data collected from the network of more than 35 A+ schools in Oklahoma showed students in A+ Schools outperforming their peers across the state on several standardized measures of the Oklahoma State Report Card.   In both states, the results held true in schools serving higher percentages of minority and economically disadvantaged students.

It is interesting to note that the search for data, including testing results, that could “make the case” for arts integration was also present in the 1977 report.  For instance, the Interdisciplinary Model Program in the Arts for Children and Teachers (IMPACT) in Columbus, Ohio, showed great promise at the end of its pilot period.  According to the evaluation, “students in the project made gains in reading and mathematics and were displaying superior problem-solving ability.” And, curiously like the report of evaluators of the Oklahoma A+ Schools nearly four decades later, “the school climate seemed more positive, and parents had become more supportive of the schools.”

A critical mass of projects and understanding

In addition to A+ Schools networks in North Carolina and Oklahoma, similar statewide networks of schools and districts practicing arts integration exist in a number of other states, including the Arkansas A+ Schools, the Whole Schools in Mississippi; the HOT (Higher-Order Thinking) Schools in Connecticut; ArtsNow in Georgia; and in Maryland, MAIN, a statewide arts integration network.  Additionally, citywide arts integration programs such as Big Thought in Dallas and the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) have made significant contributions to research-based understandings of how the arts, and arts-integration in particular, effect teaching and learning.  Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a former schools CEO in Chicago, credits arts-integration practices with contributing to the higher performance of CAPE school students on standardized tests than students who attended schools in Chicago that did not integrate the arts.

Big Thought and CAPE are also among a cadre of more than 100 projects supported by the Department’s Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) Grants program.  AAEMDD supports projects that teach the arts based on their distinct content and performance standards and also incorporate them as an integrated part of the complete curriculum in grades pre-K to eight.  At an Education Policy Briefing last spring, AEMDD grantees from Jersey City, N.J., and Long Beach, Calif., shared evaluation results of arts-integration strategies that showed substantial gains in math and reading performance by students in “treatment” schools who experienced arts-integrated learning over students in “control” classrooms.

In the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, an arts-integration initiative begun more than a decade ago is gaining national recognition.  Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA), like the A+ Schools networks, is a whole-school reform effort focused on professional development for teachers in arts integration.  Drawing on its CETA efforts, as well as decades of helping teachers learn about and implement arts integration in classrooms nationwide, the Center devised a definition of arts integration that values both deep connections to the arts and connecting arts forms to other subjects to achieve learning objectives in both.  At a national conference this summer, teachers, school administrators, and arts organization representatives from more than 20 states came to the Kennedy Center to learn about CETA and its potential for replication or adaptation beyond the D.C. region.

Another D.C. cultural institution, the Phillips Collection, added to the critical mass with the conference it held this summer to share its arts integration framework, Teaching Through the Prism, with interested art educators.

Awareness of efforts involving arts integration is also growing thanks to the efforts of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), which semiannually convenes national forums at which research evidence and promising practices and programs are showcased and discussed.  Additionally, AEP’s website and biweekly “Arts Education Digest” disseminate information that not only increases interest in arts integration, but also offers specific resources to guide state and local developments of both policy and practice; prime examples are “Arts Integration Frameworks, Research & Practice: A Literature Review” (2007) and “Creating Quality Integrated and Interdisciplinary Arts Programs” (2002).

Technology to enable replication and adaptation

Following the call-to-action in “Coming to Our Senses” 34 years ago, schools and districts interested in following the example of arts-integration projects and programs touted in the report had only phones and snail mail as the principal means of getting advice and guidance from exemplars.  And, if they were really fortunate, they might have tapped into the National Diffusion Network for federal support for replication of the one or very few arts integration “models” available, such as the Learning to Read Through the Arts program.

Contrast that with today.  ArtsEdge, an online resource for teaching and learning in, through, and about the arts serves more than four million users annually with sample arts-integration lessons and a myriad of other resources from it sponsor, the Kennedy Center’s Education Department, as well as other sources.  Other national arts organizations, including Carnegie Hall’s Online  Resource Center , Young Audiences, and arts education professional associations including the National Art Education Association and National Coalition for Music Education offer a wide range of online resources, specific to both standards-based arts instruction and to arts integration.

As suggested by the PCAH report, there is the need for “one or more communities of practice among model arts integration programs to identify best practices in arts integration, organize curriculum units, bring together training approaches, and create a common frame for collecting evaluation results.”   The Web – and an ever-increasing number of virtual options for establishing communities of practice – is a logical, contemporary answer to this need.

Finding resources for development and scaling up

Arts integration, when done in the manner that the various arts education stakeholders agree is most effective, requires an investment of time, particularly for the professional development of teachers, administrators, and other school staff.  In addition, resources are required for revised curricula and instructional materials in both the arts and general classrooms. And, partnerships between schools and local arts organizations, which also take time and coordination, play a key role in arts-integration models.

At the federal level, the AEMDD program, as noted earlier, provides four-year grants to projects, but competitions for the grants occur only every three to four years. The Department’s i3 Fund is currently supporting three projects in the arts in its development category.  The next round of i3 grants, to be announced in December, is expected to be smaller in number than the 49 projects funded last year due to a smaller appropriation from Congress, but arts education advocates are hopeful that arts and arts-integration projects will be among the new i3 grantees.

In a limited number of instances, federal Title I funds are helping to implement arts-integration programs, but generally arts education practitioners and advocates report frustrations with attempts to tap into the more than $6 billion annually that State departments of education (SDEs) receive in Title I, Part A funds and distribute to local schools and districts.  Reportedly, they are often told that SDEs are prohibited by federal education authorities from supporting arts education activities, despite periodic clarifications to the contrary from the Secretary of Education.  “Under ESEA, states and local districts have the flexibility to support the arts,” Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in an August 2009 letter addressed to local school leaders.  Title I, part A of ESEA, he continued, “funds arts education to improve the achievement of disadvantaged students,” and funds under Title II of ESEA “can be used for professional development of arts teachers as well as for strategic partnerships with cultural, arts, and other nonprofit organizations.”

With state- and local-level education budgets experiencing contractions in most states, schools and districts making do with less are often reluctant to try new approaches.  But this is actually an ideal opportunity to leverage sparse resources to accomplish integrated, more comprehensive approaches.  Accordingly, as increasing numbers of schools fail to make adequate yearly progress under current ESEA regulations, arts education advocates are suggesting a more serious look at arts-integration-whole-school-change models.  At a recent White House “Champions of Change” event, the accomplishments of arts-integration programs such as Big Thought and CAPE were recognized and acknowledged.  Department staff from the School Improvement Grants program attended at the invitation of PCAH as part of their ongoing efforts to examine how the positive effects of arts-integration can be fully brought to bear on overall school improvement efforts.

Time for action

The call for recognition of the importance of the arts in America’s schools issued in “Coming to Our Senses” almost 35 years ago was in response to the “back-to-basics” movement precipitated by the launch of Sputnik.  That same call to international greatness is at the core of PCAH’s current pronouncement to reinvent arts education.  Its charge from President Obama’s Arts Policy Council, established while he was campaigning, called for the need “to reinvigorate the kind of creativity and innovation that has made this country great.”  A reinvestment in arts education is needed to “remain competitive in the global economy” and to “nourish our children’s creative skills.”

Secretary Duncan echoes this national purpose behind PCAH’s call for action on arts education in his foreword to the report.  “The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities explains why American schools are falling short in providing students the opportunity for a well-rounded education and a rich arts education that will prepare them for success in the future.”  More importantly, recognizing that history could easily repeat itself and permit one more arts education national report to go unheeded for years and even decades, Secretary Duncan concludes his message with this:  “I encourage educators, school board members, business, and philanthropic leaders and artists to … see [this report] as a call to action.”

ED.gov

A fine arts education — including music, theater, drawing, painting, or sculpture — whether in practice or theory, has been a part of any well-rounded curriculum for decades — but that may be changing. Many schools today are cutting back or eliminating their art programs due to budget constraints. It is estimated that by the end of this year, more than 25% of public high schools will have completely dismantled them. These stats aren’t just bad news for teachers working in the arts. Numerous studies done over the past decade have demonstrated the amazing benefits of such an integral education facet. Students who don’t have access to art classes may not only miss out on a key creative outlet, but might also face greater difficulty mastering core subjects, higher dropout rates and more disciplinary problems.

You don’t have to take our word for it — you can read the studies yourself. Here, we’ve listed some of the biggest on the arts in education conducted over the past decade. Taken on by research organizations, college professors and school districts themselves, the studies reveal the power of art to inspire, motivate and educate today’s students. And, of course, demonstrate what a disservice many schools are doing by undervaluing such an integral part of their education and development.

1. A 2002 report by the Arts Education Partnership revealed that schoolchildren exposed to drama, music and dance are often more proficient at reading, writing, and math.

   While school districts might be tempted to think the arts a frivolous part of the educational system, this report suggests otherwise. It looked at over 62 different studies from 100 researchers, spanning the range of fine arts from dance to the visual arts. In 2002, it was the first report of its kind to look at the impact of art on academic performance. Using this data, researchers determined that students who received more arts education did better on standardized tests, improved their social skills and were more motivated than those who had reduced or no access. While researchers at the AEP admitted that art isn’t a panacea for what ails struggling schools, the study led them to believe it could be a valuable asset for teaching students of all ages — especially those in poor communities or who need remedial education.

2. The 2006 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum study on art education showed a link between arts education and improved literacy skills.

   The study was the result of a pilot program through the Guggenheim called Learning Through Art, which sent artists into schools to teach students and help them create their own masterpieces. Kids who took part in the program performed better on six different categories of literacy and critical thinking skills than those who did not. While students did better on an oral exam, they did not on standardized, written literacy tests — a disparity researchers said could exist because they did not emphasize written communication in the program. Program organizers believe the improvements were the result of students learning valuable critical thinking skills while talking about art, which could then be applied to understanding and analyzing literary materials.

3. In 2007, Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland published a study stating the arts don’t actually improve academic performance, but it shouldn’t matter.

   Winner and Hetland head up an arts education program called Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, so they are by no means opponents of creative expression. Yet in their 2000 study, they found little academic improvement in math, science, and reading in their arts education program enrollees. While the backlash from their report was swift and brutal, the researchers stuck by their findings. And for good reason. They believe it shouldn’t matter whether or not art courses improve test scores or grades, and that art education should garner support for what it offers on its own merit — not in relationship to anything else. Regardless, their study did reveal that arts education has some larger benefits which can’t be easily quantified through test scores. Namely, it helps students improve visual analysis skills, learn from mistakes, be creative and make better critical judgments.

4. A 2005 report by the Rand Corporation called “A Portrait of the Visual Arts” argues that art education does more than just give students a creative outlet. It can actually help connect them to the larger world, ultimately improving community cohesion.

   A bold assertion, but not one without merit. Students from lower income families often get little exposure to the arts if they are not provided by schools. The report shows that arts education can help close the gap between socioeconomic groups, creating a more level playing field between children who may not be exposed to these enrichment experiences outside of school and some of their more privileged peers.

5. Teachers and students alike benefit from schools that have strong art climates, a 1999 study called “Learning In and Through the Arts” demonstrated.

   People have been so wrapped up in showing how arts education benefits students, many haven’t stopped to consider how it also impacts educators. The report studied students at 12 New York, Connecticut, Virginia and South Carolina schools to compile their results. Not only were students at schools with high levels of art education earning higher scores on critical thinking tests, but teachers also seemed happier. Part of the increase in their satisfaction was a result of their charges, who were found to be generally more cooperative and expressive and enjoy a better rapport with educators. That wasn’t all, however, as teachers at schools that emphasized arts education enjoyed greater job satisfaction, were more interested in their work and likely to be innovative and pursued personal development experiences. It’s not a trivial finding, as what is good for instructors is often very good for their students as well.

   

6. The Center for Arts Education published a report in 2009 that suggests arts education may improve graduation rates.

   Taking a look at the role of arts education in New York public schools, this report found that schools with the lowest access also had the highest dropout rates. Conversely, those with the highest graduation rates also had the greatest access to arts education and resources. While there are undoubtedly a number of other factors that play into graduation rates, the research in this study and others like it (most notably The Role of the Fine and Performing Arts in High School Dropout Prevention, which you can read here) has found that many at-risk students cite participation in the arts as their reason for staying. Participation in these activities has a quantifiable impact on levels of delinquency, truancy and academic performance.

7. A 2011 study called “Reinvesting in Arts Education” found that integrating arts with other subjects can help raise achievement levels.

   Arts education may not just help raise test scores, but also the learning process itself, as a recent study revealed. This report on the Maryland school system found that skills learned in the visual arts could help improve reading and the counterparts fostered in playing an instrument could be applied to math. Researchers and school officials believe that arts education can be a valuable education reform tool, and classroom integration of creative opportunities could be key to motivating students and improving standardized test scores.

8. A study of Missouri public schools in 2010 found that greater arts education led to fewer disciplinary infractions and higher attendance, graduation rates and test scores.

   Using data submitted by the state’s public schools, the Missouri Department of Education and the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education compiled this report. They found that arts education had a significant effect on the academic and social success of their students. Those with greater arts participation were more likely to come to class, avoid being removed and graduate. Additionally, they demonstrated greater proficiency in mathematics and communication. Similar studies of other statewide education systems have discovered nearly identical results.

9. In “Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts and the Brain,” Johns Hopkins researchers shared findings showing that arts education can help rewire the brain in positive ways.

   While proponents of arts education have long asserted that creative training can help develop skills translating into other areas of academics, little research had been done to investigate the scientific component. Aspects of training in the arts, like motor control, attention and motivation, were studied by researchers who participated in the report, with some interesting results. In one four-year study, students undertaking regular music training were found to have changes in their brain structures helping them transfer their motor skills to similar areas. Another found students motivated to practice a specific art form and spent time with focused attention increased the efficiency of their attention network as a whole, even when working in other areas of study — and it improved their fluid IQ scores. Other studies reported similar scientific findings on the arts’ impact on the brain, showing that sustained arts education is can be essential part of social and intellectual development.

10. A 2009 survey, part of the “Nation’s Report Card: Arts 2008″ report, found that access to arts education opportunities hasn’t changed much in a decade.

    Many of the problems that plagued arts education programs in schools ten years ago are still major issues today, this survey revealed. Middle school students across the nation haven’t seen an increase in access to music and visual arts education, and their understanding of its tenets remains low — especially in certain disenfranchised socioeconomic and racial groups. Many believe the numbers are even worse today, as the survey was conducted prior to the economic woes that have paralyzed many schools systems in recent years. As in 1997, the 2008 survey showed that only 47% of students had access to visual arts education, and just 57% to music education. The survey attempted to look at theater and dance programs, but since so few schools offer them, they were dropped from the study.

Check it out!