It’s
an old issue: What role, if any, should
the arts play in public education? In this pressured era of standardized testing, benchmarks,
and basic skills, how can educators justify spending precious
time and money on the arts?
Extensive research demonstrates that experience with the fine
arts is a key component in improving learning across all academic
areas. Within the past twenty-five years, researchers have compiled
compelling evidence of the important role played by the arts
in the development of the human mind. According to Eric Jensen
of the Society of Neuroscience (Arts with
the Brain in Mind), “The
arts enhance the process of learning. The systems they nourish,
which include our integrated sensory, attentional, cognitive,
emotional, and motor capacities, are, in fact, the driving forces
behind all other learning” (Jensen, 2001).
Arts programs have been shown to be effective in raising student
attendance, reducing student dropout rates, developing better
team players, fostering a love for learning, improving greater
student dignity, enhancing student creativity, and producing
a better prepared citizen for the workplaces of tomorrow (Bryant,
2005). A Columbia University study of more than 2,000 children
found that those in an arts curriculum were far superior in creative
thinking, self-concept, problem-solving, self-expression, risk-taking,
and cooperation than those who were not (Burton, et al., 1999).
Despite this evidence, public support for arts education has
diminished steadily, even as dropout rates soar and schools fail
to meet their NCLB targets. Arts programs are continually under
attack as expensive “frills,” first to be abandoned
in the name of “higher standards” or “basic
skills.” Once lost, arts programs are rarely, if ever,
restored to the curriculum.
A little bit of local history may serve as a case in point:
Sixty years ago
in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the halls
were alive with the sound of music. Every elementary
school had a full-time music teacher, a school choir
and a beginning orchestra (with instruments provided
by the district). Every classroom had a piano and set
of music textbooks that taught songs, dances, musical
games, and even abridged operettas. I attended three
LAUSD elementary schools in that era, where I learned
songs I can sing to this day, and made my operatic debut
in 2nd grade as a cookie in the school production of Humperdinck’s
Hansel and Gretel.
Most high schools in those days had an orchestra, marching
band, and choir. Many schools, like mine, had boys’ and girls’ glee clubs as well. Every
Spring, the Music, Art, and Dance Departments collaborated to produce a fully-staged
Broadway musical. While not everyone participated in the arts programs, for those
of us who did, they were a lifeline that kept us in school until we graduated—to
the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” played
by our own orchestra.
But thirty years later, in the mid ‘70s, support for
music and arts programs in public schools had largely dried
up. And the past twenty-five years has seen a steady, steep
reduction in the amount of time and money to support arts
programs. Today, with a few notable exceptions, the arts
in schools are largely marginalized, and only a few select
students in some schools have access to a rich arts curriculum.
Arts Integration and Academic Achievement
The good news is that more documented studies than ever reveal
that students often learn better when the arts are integrated
into the core of the school day and connected with academic subjects
such as history, literature, science, and math. According to
Jensen, studying the arts "may lay critical neural pathways
important for later development" (Jensen, 2001). Research
at Columbia University showed that academic subjects such as
mathematics, science, and language require the kinds of complex
cognitive and creative capacities that are typical of arts learning
(Burton, 1999).
According to Glenn Ray, executive director of the Association
for the Advancement of Arts Education, “Studying the arts
reaches some children in ways that other instruction doesn't” (Rasmussen,
1998). Arts-integrated programs are linked to gains on standardized
test scores, particularly for students who are struggling. “Gains
associated with high arts participation were greatest for students
in the lowest-socioeconomic-status quartile, those most at risk
of academic failure” (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga,
1999). For many students, the arts may be the ONLY way they will
ever be successful in school.
Arts Integration Supports the Curriculum
Arts integration involves teachers from different disciplines
creating a curriculum together. A visual arts teacher at a Columbus,
Nebraska, high school worked with a history teacher and an English
teacher to develop an American Studies course. Eleventh graders
gained a greater understanding of historical eras through small
group projects exploring the music, visual arts, sports, and
politics of particular historical periods (Rasmussen, 1998).
Artists and teachers in Chicago identified parallel processes
between an arts-related activity and a traditional academic activity—for
example, pairing journal writing with sketching or reading literature
with looking at art. Then they developed lessons to exploit the
relationship between the processes (Burnaford, 2001). “The
paired subjects engage in the same cognitive processes: attentive
observation, identification of meaningful detail, selection of
appropriate representational strategies, and student reflection
and self-critique. Setting these parallel processes in motion
appears to generate a cognitive resonance between the two subjects,
deepening learning in both.” (Jensen, 2001),
At the Conservatory
Lab Charter School, a public elementary school
in Boston based on learning
through music, “music and classroom
teachers co-plan and co-teach their lessons, providing a cohesive
context for the students' studies across the curriculum. This
integration of subjects engages student interest by providing
depth of analysis, and it amplifies student understanding by
making important connections between disciplines.”
We need to help our students learn it all and learn it well.
Art may reach our students that no other approach can. A renewed
focus on the arts may show us the way.
Notes:
Bryant, B. (2005) Bob Bryant,
Executive Director of Fine Arts,
Katy Independent School District, Katy, Texas (The
Importance of Fine Arts Education).
Burnaford, G. (Editor), Aprill, A. (Editor), & Weiss, C.
(Editor) 2001. Renaissance in the Classroom:
Arts Integration and Meaningful Learning. Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Burton, J., Horowitz, R., & Abeles, H. (1999). Learning in
and Through the Arts: Curriculum implications. In E. B. Fiske,
(Ed.), Champions of Change: The Impact
of the Arts on Learning (pp. 35-46). Washington,
DC: The Arts Education Partnership and The President’s
Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Catterall, J. S., Chapleau, R., & Iwanaga, J. (1999). Involvement
in the Arts and Human Development. In E. B. Fiske (Ed.), Champions
of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning. Washington,
DC: Arts Education Partnership.
Heath, S. B. (1999). Imaginative Actuality: Learning in the Arts
in the Nonschool Hours. In E. B. Fiske (Ed.),Champions of
Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning. Washington,
DC: Arts Education Partnership.
Jensen, E. (2001). Arts with the Brain
in Mind. ASCD.
Rabkin, N., & Redmond, R. (February 2006). The Arts Make
a Difference. Educational Leadership.
Rabkin, N. & R. Redmond (Eds.), (2004) Putting
the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century.
Chicago: Columbia College Chicago.
Rasmussen, K. (Spring 1998). Art Education: A Cornerstone of
Basic Education. Curriculum Update. ASCD.
Below are links to resources
and education centers mentioned in this month’s
issue:
Renaissance in the classroom: Arts integration
and meaningful learning. Burnaford, G.
(Editor), Aprill,
A. (Editor), & Weiss,
C. (Editor) 2001. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. A
nuts-and-bolts guide to arts integration across the curriculum
in grades K-12. Frames art integration in the larger
context of curriculum integration, problem-based learning,
and the multiple intelligences
Visit the Conservatory
Lab Charter School,
a public elementary school in Boston with high academic standards
and a unique “Learning Through Music” curriculum
that helps children build skills in all academic areas, particularly
reading and math. The website shows sample
interdisciplinary "Learning Through Music" lessons and units:
music taught with math, language arts, science and social
studies.
“All
arts (visual, industrial, performing) should be mandatory. Give
children a choice of several art options, but make it mandatory.
Start early—age
3 is perfect—and continue throughout K-12 schooling.”
-- Eric Jensen, author
of six books on brain-based learning and a member of the Society
of Neuroscience
In
the 2001 landmark school financing case, Campaign
for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York, Justice DeGrasse
addressed the role of the arts in education. In his
ruling, access to a complete education—an education
that includes the arts—is the right, not the privilege,
of students attending public schools in the State of New
York.
We invite you to share your
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your responses to this month's Combined Brainpower. We look
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In honor of St. Patrick's Day:
"May
you have the hindsight to know where you have been, the foresight
to know where you are going, and the insight to know when you
have gone too far." --Irish Toast
We are pleased to welcome two new
members of the UCLA SMP family:
is the Office Coordinator for UCLA SMP. She is responsible
for meeting room, parking, flight, and hotel reservations. She
coordinates all office related functions, administrative support,
and serves as the liaison with campus facilities and support services.
She assists in the supervision of student support staff and handles
matters in the absence of the Administration Team Leader. Sheena's
background includes being a previous member of the Administration
Team during her undergraduate academic career at UCLA. She completed
her B.A. in American Literature and Culture at UCLA in December 2005.
Sheena's prior experience before joining SMP includes working in
the UCLA Life Sciences South Administration office as well as other
inter-departmental offices within the Life Sciences core.
Monica Sanchez is a Graduate Student Researcher
(GSR) for UCLA SMP. She received her B.A. in Psychology and
Social Welfare from UC Berkeley and her M.A. from UCLA's Graduate
School of Education where she is currently a Ph.D. student
in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with a concentration
in race and ethnic studies. Prior to joining SMP, Monica worked
as a Teaching Assistant in the UCLA Chicana and Chicano Studies
department. Monica has previously worked as a teacher in the
Norwalk-La Mirada School District and has also been an assistant
coordinator for the Los Angeles County Office of Education
in the Parent and Community Services division.
Music
Center Education Program
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Out This Website!
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It’s
an old issue: What role, if any, should
the arts play in public education? In this pressured era of standardized testing, benchmarks,
and basic skills, how can educators justify spending precious
time and money on the arts? 
is the Office Coordinator for UCLA SMP. She is responsible
for meeting room, parking, flight, and hotel reservations. She
coordinates all office related functions, administrative support,
and serves as the liaison with campus facilities and support services.
She assists in the supervision of student support staff and handles
matters in the absence of the Administration Team Leader. Sheena's
background includes being a previous member of the Administration
Team during her undergraduate academic career at UCLA. She completed
her B.A. in American Literature and Culture at UCLA in December 2005.
Sheena's prior experience before joining SMP includes working in
the UCLA Life Sciences South Administration office as well as other
inter-departmental offices within the Life Sciences core.
