Arts Education: Not All Is Created Equal
Evidence has mounted over the last decade that arts study leads to higher levels of achievement in other subjects. That is exciting news for advocates of arts education, who have resisted its erosion in American schools for five decades without such evidence. But what does the evidence tell us about how and why arts education has these positive effects? What does it say about how the arts can be most effectively and strategically provided in real schools under challenging circumstances? These big questions must be addressed before many schools can be expected to embrace arts education with enthusiasm.
Much of the research about arts education, though, is focused on little questions that do not suggest operational strategies for improving instruction: “Does story dramatization improve understanding by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders?” for example. Some of the most widely touted research, such as that showing the strong correlation between arts learning and higher SAT scores, are suspect because of the high correlation between arts learning and higher income, the most powerful predictor of academic success. Encouraging studies that control for income, like those showing that low-income students who are active in the arts do significantly better than those who are not, are not fine-grained enough to distinguish between the arts activities that may provide these benefits. In school or out? Music, theater, dance, or painting? Original creation, exposure, or appreciation?
Over the past two years, we looked for research that asked questions about arts education that matter in more fundamental ways, questions that could guide teachers and artists, schools and districts toward strategies that really deliver the benefits attributed to the arts. We sought research and evaluation that looked deeply into serious arts education programs over time, in multiple schools and classrooms, with particular attention to low- income students. Perhaps our most important finding was that not all arts education is created equal. While virtually all the studies and programs we reviewed showed meaningful benefits for students and schools, some clearly had more powerful effects on...
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