Mute Those Claims No Evidence Yet for a Causal Link Between Arts Study and Academic Achievement

"As democracy depends on civil society . . . so ceremonious guild depends on the arts . . . democracy ultimately rests on the arts' commitment to free inventiveness, liberal diversity, and unfettered imagination. A government that supports the arts and humanities is not engaging in philanthropic activeness merely assuring the conditions of its own flourishing."
—Benjamin Barber

By any mensurate, the arts should stand at the center of a stiff public didactics. An education without the arts—a key mode of human expression—is incomplete. But the value of arts education is deeper. The arts are a rich source of history and cultural identity. Learning from the voices of different cultures and histories provides the opportunity to reflect on the complexity of human experience across time and place.

The arts give us opportunities to contemplate meaning and engage in personal reflection and provide condolement in times of crisis. The arts can claiming our perspectives, giving us new means to run into and feel the globe, cultivating the values of diversity, tolerance, and empathy.1 The arts impart valuable cerebral, disquisitional thinking, and technical skills used past artists and non-artists in their livelihoods, strengthening our economy.2 The arts strengthen social ties in our schools and communities and raise civic engagement, strengthening civil guild.3 Finally, the arts heighten educational engagement and a desire to learn more than. Babyhood exposure to the arts inculcates a lifelong desire to appoint in the arts. In sum, arts instruction is central to the core mission of public pedagogy—to equip a citizenry for cocky-government—and recognition of this fact is long overdue.

Sadly, the pedagogy organisation often fails to hold arts pedagogy in loftier esteem. Faced with budget constraints and rising accountability pressures, policy-makers and administrators have to brand difficult decisions about the availability of the arts in schools. Every bit a result, access to arts instruction has declined. In some cases, it is treated as a complement to other subjects, an elective, or a frill. In other cases, information technology has been eliminated entirely.four And the reliance on belongings taxes to fund school districts creates an uneven distribution of funding betwixt wealthy and underresourced neighborhoods that exacerbates racial disparities in student admission to an arts instruction.

These reductions and inequities fit against a backdrop of other troubling trends with serious implications for our republic and national well-existence. Nationally, we are more divided than always. We have recently witnessed the legitimacy of our system of government weakened, the value of our free press undermined, and intolerant views emboldened. Crimes motivated by racial and religious bigotry are occurring at heightened levels, and the number of hate groups in the U.s.a. has been steadily increasing.5 Against this backdrop, our youth are suffering. Mass school shootings have become commonplace. Adolescent depression and anxiety have been steadily rising, and suicide rates among young people are at a twenty-year high.6

In the midst of these education crises, the world has been challenged past the COVID-19 global pandemic, which has drastically inverse the lives of students and families across the globe, exposing them to illness, task loss, housing displacement, and the devastating loss of friends and family. The strain on school budgets due to the economic challenges of the pandemic response has also negatively impacted arts education, including cuts to arts programs. 7 These impacts have disproportionately afflicted Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, and proximity to this tragedy has dire effects on the mental wellness of children and youth. eight

---

"As a dancer and as an artist, I'm forever a educatee, and I have so many incredible teachers that have influenced me and gotten me to where I am today. Growing upwardly the way that I did—in underprivileged communities, one of six children in a single-parent abode, changing schools constantly—I was twelve-and-a-half years erstwhile the start fourth dimension I had a teacher that made me experience seen and heard and not judged. . . . It was the showtime time that I really decided I was going to go for something exterior of my condolement zone, and it was the first time I was venturing into performing and dancing. It was the only thing that allowed me to feel like I was really expressing myself in a style I was comfortable. . . . Dance allowed me to develop as a person and as a human being. . . . [Without my trip the light fantastic instructor] I wouldn't be—non only what people see: the commencement Black main ballerina at American Ballet Theater—merely I wouldn't be the woman that I am today, and I think that'due south what's so incredible and of import about arts in public schools in detail and dance as an art form in public schools. . . . I am forever grateful for that opportunity."

—Misty Copeland, Principal Ballerina at American Ballet Theater

---

1 would exist hard pressed to expect at America in 2021 and not admit the crisis in the health of our democracy, our social lives, our collective mental health, and our ability to interact peacefully and civilly. John Dewey argued that schools were the central to creating citizens who could maintain a democracy. 9 If the fundamental measure of a quality education is the wellness of our democracy, contempo events suggest we are falling short of the ideal.

Although not nearly enough data are available in this area, evidence shows that arts pedagogy tin play a vital role in the solution. Nosotros have all witnessed the powerful roles the arts play in people's lives—as a means to cope with loss, discover a sense of pregnant and belonging, and as a style to experience joy. Nosotros have too seen how the arts motility u.s.a. to sympathize with others, claiming us with different points of view, and play a unifying role in social movements. Take the devastating effects of the pandemic on the well-being of children as an example: Equally we look toward the long process of recovery, we can be confident that arts teaching will facilitate emotional well-existence, reconnects students with friends and teachers, and foster resiliency. ten

For all Americans to reap the full benefits of the arts, nosotros demand to ensure that admission to arts education is not merely a privilege enjoyed by some only a right guaranteed to all. This report builds on past research linking the arts and arts learning to social and emotional development, while as well trying to button past one-time and obsolete notions. One instance is the use of the term tolerance. Terminology that is more than culturally responsive and centered on equity, such as acceptance, will be more useful for an increasingly diverse nation where but agreement and acceptance can bring people together effectively. If arts education is to serve all students, it needs to be situated within our nowadays demand for social justice.

---

"When I was fourteen years former, I was going through a crude patch. I was abusing drugs and alcohol, and it wasn't looking practiced. Luckily, I met a teacher that would change my life. . . . She was a theater instructor at my school. . . . Through her joy and her passion for theater, she was able to find deep reservoirs of creativity inside me and inspired me to go the hell out of my rut that I was in—my death spiral—and just accept fun. And it doesn't sound important when I say it, y'all say, 'Fun? You could just go out and play stickball in the street, become ride a bike.' It's not the same kind of fun: theater fun is like a chatty fun, it'southward a healing kind of fun, it's a joy. And by the way, I learned more in that theater grade than I did in whatever of my other studies—English, mathematics. . . . My brain grew twelve sizes cheers to theater, and not only that, it built conviction and muscles in my soul. I tin can clearly chart a path on my life'south journey through the theatrical productions I was a office of and my theater teachers—God bless them all. I'1000 a house believer that every school in this land should have a theater arts plan. It saved my life, and I honey it."

—Jack Black, Actor and Musician

---

To make the case for the importance of arts education, we first review some of the research on the benefits of arts education while highlighting current inequities in access. Then (in The Values of Arts Education) we offering a more expansive frame for articulating the benefits of arts education, drawing on personal examples from a few of the many people who shared their stories with u.s.. Finally (in Policy Recommendations), nosotros lay out a comprehensive set of tangible policy recommendations that can bring us closer to our goal of ensuring every student in the United States has admission to a quality arts instruction.

Endnotes

Educational theorists and practitioners have articulated a variety of potential benefits for the arts. Most broadly, some note that the arts are a way of imparting the rich history of the human experience. As some scholars take put it, "the arts are a fundamentally important part of culture, and an education without them is an impoverished pedagogy leading to an impoverished gild." 11 Some notation that arts pedagogy is particularly beneficial because it helps develop self-expression and creativity or because it enhances cognitive and disquisitional thinking skills.12 Others debate that the arts learning process builds qualities in students that are essential for a democracy.13

Emerging empirical research testing such theories sheds new light on some of the measurable benefits of the arts. Early on correlational studies identified relationships betwixt the arts and other academic outcomes, such as improved test scores and college graduation rates. xiv Some scholars and stakeholders have resisted framing the benefits of the arts this manner, all the same, and have questioned the validity of research that does non demonstrate causal relationships.15 More than contempo studies have approached the topic with increased rigor and a broader focus on the types of benefits gained from arts instruction. One pioneering written report of a school-museum partnership program demonstrated a causal link between arts pedagogy and critical thinking outcomes,16 increased tolerance, increased empathy,17 and college motivation to engage with arts and civilisation.18 More contempo rigorous studies have found improvements in students' standardized writing scores, reductions in disciplinary infractions, increases in students' pity for others, increased school engagement, improved attendance, and higher college aspirations.nineteen Growing research about music'southward impact on encephalon development offers another insight into the importance of a robust arts curriculum for every student. Researchers investigating neuro-plasticity and music have uncovered links in musicians' brains to stronger language evolution and comprehension, as well equally retentivity and attention.20 Studies accept also shown that musical training correlates with increased grayness matter in specific regions of the brain.21

The Encephalon on Music

Source: Christian Gaser and Gottfried Schlaug, "Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians," Journal of Neuroscience 23 (27) (2003): 9240–9245.

While the research demonstrates a range of benefits from arts education, it likewise points to the social justice challenge in this expanse. A consistent finding accompanying much of the research on arts instruction is that students from historically marginalized backgrounds tend to feel greater benefits from arts educational activity facilitated by schools, likely because they are more than dependent on schools to provide essential arts education experiences. 22 Every bit a result, they are the about probable to experience negative effects when arts funding is cutting or caitiff.

Endnotes

The American public overwhelmingly supports arts education, with 88 percent agreeing that the arts are an essential component of a well-rounded educational activity. 23 All the same despite this broad public support, a range of indicators document a persistent decline in access. The National Endowment for the Arts' Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) found that after a steady trend of increased arts educational activity in the twentieth century, access to arts teaching has been declining for the by three decades.24 Many aspect schools' decreased emphasis on the arts to the increased focus on subjects measured for test-based accountability.25 In i national survey, more than than half of educators reported the arts were receiving less instructional fourth dimension and resource. Only 12 and 10 percent reported similar declines in English language and math instruction, respectively.26 These declines have lasting repercussions that may affect generations. The SPPA has institute that arts education during childhood is the strongest predictor of arts participation as an developed. Adults who received arts didactics as children are twice as likely to engage with the arts compared to those who did not.27 If people are to reap the full benefits of a lifelong engagement in the arts, an introduction during childhood is central.

Figure 1: Share of Parents Reporting Their Child Was Taught Art or Music outside School, 2012

Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.

Virtually troubling, declines in arts didactics reflect the persistent inequities owned to our educational organization. Students in loftier-needs schools and historically underserved populations accept been hitting the hardest. This is specially troubling and bitterly ironic, as the aforementioned students experiencing declines are those who rely nearly on public schools to provide enriching arts experiences. More affluent families are twice as likely to provide such experiences for their children outside the schoolhouse arrangement. 28 Every bit a event, families with fewer resources are much less likely to have arts experiences if schools neglect to provide them.29

Figure ii: Share of xviii- to 24-Year-Olds Reporting Any Arts Instruction in School, 2012

Source: National Endowment for the Arts, 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.

Consider the bear witness:

• According to a federal government study, teachers at schools designated as needing improvement and schools with higher percentages of minority students were more than likely to experience decreases in time spent on arts didactics. thirty
• The SPPA reports that white students are nearly twice equally likely as African American and Hispanic students to take received arts education. 31 And children whose parents accept at least a college degree are six times more likely to take had arts educational activity compared to children whose parents have less than a high school education.32
• Though white students have experienced virtually no declines in arts education since the mid-1980s, African American students accept experienced reductions in arts teaching of 49 percent, and Hispanic/Latinx students take experienced reductions of 40 percent. Children whose parents have less than a high school instruction have experienced a 77 percent decline since 1982. 33
• Numerous local audits have constitute that schools serving depression-income students often provide no arts teaching or lack an arts instructor. In New York Urban center, for example, where spending on arts supplies and equipment dropped by 84 pct from 2006 to 2013, more than than 42 percent of schools in low-income areas did not have a land-certified arts instructor. 34

The impact of the pandemic volition probable widen these gaps, as schools with fewer resources and college needs will face increased resource constraints. Without advisable action from education policy-makers, our most vulnerable students are probable to autumn even further backside. Policy-makers will rightly focus on learning losses in core content areas, such every bit reading and math, as America's children return to some sense of normalcy. But to focus on other subjects at the expense of the arts would be misguided. At a time when students are recovering from the trauma and anxiety of not only the pandemic but the breakup and failing of many of our institutions, the social and emotional benefits of arts didactics are more than important than always.

Source: Americans for the Arts, Americans Speak Out near the Arts in 2018.

Endnotes

The problems facing America'southward youth are dire and need to exist approached with a sense of urgency. If public education has an original purpose, it is to equip a citizenry capable of self-government for the survival of our democracy. Over fourth dimension, our shared vision of what constitutes a well-rounded educational activity has expanded to include additional goals, ranging from workforce skills to social and emotional development. Underlying all these goals is the promise that expanding educational opportunities will enable Americans to add their voices to our shared society and that we as a people will be stronger for information technology. The goals of public teaching are predicated on our common purpose to generate constructive citizens who are emotionally secure, socially empowered, and civically engaged. To fully achieve these goals, we must reclaim our shared vision of a well-rounded didactics and chart a different course. Arts didactics is a correct that should be available to every child in America.

---

"To speak about music for me is, of course, to speak nearly my life, my childhood—that moment when I first encountered the music. Music is more than than entertainment, it'southward about values. When you play in an orchestra, when you sing in a choir, talking about music and interacting together, you are developing an thought non just as an individual, but besides as a team. And having the opportunity to become on a journeying with one another, where the music teaches you the values of sharing with others, about creating harmony together, this is the near important thing. . . . That first moment, playing in an orchestra and swimming inside this sea of sound and beauty, interacting with others, for me that was the key moment. I think it's very important for new generations to accept the opportunity to live a life in beauty, in inspiration, in teamwork. And this is what music is nearly: fine art as an element of social transformation."

—Gustavo Dudamel, Musical and Creative Director of the Los Angeles Combo

---

Arts Pedagogy in Our Schools and Communities

The arts education mural consists of a robust network of public, non-for-profit, and private instruction providers. 35 Central to this network are frontline arts educators in schools who reach more 56 meg students every day (90 per centum of whom attend public schools).36 The scale of the public education system makes it fundamental in strengthening the equitable delivery of arts instruction. Other essential components include cultural institutions, such as museums and performing arts centers, cultural heritage groups, master artists and craftspeople, teaching artists, community-based arts organizations, churches, social and civic clubs, libraries, and other arts providers.

Arts instruction is delivered through a variety of formats. At the elementary level, most students receive some grade of general arts education, typically through visual arts and/or music from a certified arts specialist or classroom teacher. In middle and loftier school, students typically receive arts education through required courses and electives, including visual, performing, music, literary, and media arts. In add-on to stand-alone arts classes, some schools integrate the arts with other subjects. Nonprofit cultural institutions and community organizations offering field trips, in-school visits and performances, teaching artists, and out-of-school programs. Some of these nonprofits, supported by philanthropy and other forms of fundraising, provide services for free or at reduced cost to students. But others are self-sustaining; they operate outside of the nonprofit sector due to legacies of institutional racism and/or culturally based values of community sustainability. Community-based cultural organizations too contract with schools or districts to offer supplementary arts courses.

Endnotes

hermanbromentigh.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.amacad.org/publication/case-for-arts-education/section/2

Share this post