New Data on Learning and the Arts by Noelle Backer

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The "Champions of Change" report was funded by the GE Fund and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It reveals many other findings regarding the impact of the arts on education and quality of life. Complete copies can be requested from The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities via e-mail at pcah@neh.gov, or on the Web site at http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/.

The results of a recent report provide new evidence that the arts have a major impact on the quality of education in America. The "Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning" is a report comprising the results of seven studies initiated by The Arts Education Partnership and The President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

The initiative called on top educational researchers to examine the impact of the arts on today's youth. The researchers first examined well-established models of arts education. Next, they were asked to look beyond these models to study the impact of arts in general American education. Finally, the study delved beyond classrooms and schools to out-of-school settings to better understand the impact of the arts on learning, not just on formal education.

Student performance increases across the board
Throughout the report, integrating the arts into learning is shown to increase student performance. For example, the report examines the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE), one of the model programs that integrates arts and education. It has pioneered new ways to integrate the arts with learning across the curriculum.

While student performance levels have risen in many schools throughout Chicago, the 14 high-poverty schools examined in the Champions study demonstrated that the CAPE schools advanced more quickly than "arts-poor" schools in the same neighborhoods.

But the affect of in-school arts programs was not the only subject of examination. The study also explored the affects of after-school programs for disadvantaged youth. Two researchers spent a decade studying dozens of programs, and categorized them in three broad categories: sports/academic, community involvement, and the arts.

While the research showed that children enrolled in after school programs were doing better in their academic and personal lives in general, the children enrolled in arts-specific programs were doing the best.

An important finding
The study also found that the improvements in student performance were more significant in low-income backgrounds than high-income backgrounds.

Why is this important? Involvement in the arts has often been associated with social status and wealth. Social status and wealth have long been considered the predominant factors in academic performance. (That is, the more money you have, the better education you can afford.) The impact that the arts are shown to have on poorer segments of the population puts more weight on the importance of the arts in higher academic performance than on the importance of social and economic factors.

The message is clear
Richard (Dick) Riley, secretary, Department of Education, comments in his message about the report, "Through engagement with the arts, young people can better begin lifelong journeys of developing their capabilities and contributing to the world around them. The arts teach young people how to learn by giving them the first step: the desire to learn. 'Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning' also shows that the arts can play a vital role in learning how to learn, an essential ability for fostering achievement and growth throughout their lives. ...

" ... If young Americans are to succeed and to contribute to what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan describes as our 'economy of ideas,' they will need an education that develops imaginative, flexible and tough-minded thinking. The arts powerfully nurture the ability to think in this manner."

Noelle Backer is senior editor of The Crafts Report.

APRIL 2000: TABLE OF CONTENTS