Did you know?
The arts reach students who are not otherwise being reached
Studies show that the arts provide a reason, and sometimes the only reason, for disengaged students to engage with school and learning. The arts connect these students to a community of learners, focused on personal growth and discovery. For students distanced from the traditional linguistic and logical-mathematical styles of learning, the arts act as a bridge to education.
The arts increase overall student success in school
Recent studies have shown that high arts participation improves math and reading scores more for low-economic students than it does for high-economic students. Schools in poor areas that implement arts education programs show substantially increased achievement within a couple years. Furthermore, this enhancement of achievement by the arts is unparalleled by other activities such as sports or community service.
The arts foster skills important for the workplace
According to a U.S. Labor Department’s report (Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills), skills that arts education promotes have been shown to be critically important in the workplace. These skills include creative thinking, problem solving, responsibility, sociability and self-esteem. When students create, they constantly generate ideas and translate them into reality.
Even as funding for arts education has decreased in public schools, demand for arts education programming among administrators and teachers has increased. Recent surveys demonstrate that school leaders understand the importance of arts education and strive to provide a well-rounded arts curriculum, in spite of continued decreases in arts budgets at the highest levels of government. School leaders look to outside organizations like local education foundations and parent-teacher organizations to supplement shrinking arts budgets.
Get Informed and Stay Involved! Check out these links to learn more about Arts Education.
The Bay Area California Arts Project
California Alliance for Arts Education
California Art Education Association
California Department of Education
City of San Jose, Office of Cultural Affairs
Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory website
National Education Association
