Arts Research Summary

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Annual Meeting Report

THE STATUS OF THE ARTS: 

THE STATUS OF THE ARTS 1994, the U.S. Congress adopts The National Education Goals. The ARTS are included as part of the“challenging subject matter.” “All students will achieve the essentials level in the four arts disciplines (dance, music, theatre, and visual art) and attain the proficiency level in at least one art form on or before graduation.” 1996, the Arizona State Board of Education adopts the Arizona Academic Standards in nine content areas, one of which is the ARTS. The Standards state:

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December 18, 2001: U.S. Congress sends to the President a new education bill titled “No Child Left Behind” which includes the ARTS as a core academic subject equal in status to math, reading and other academic subjects. January 8, 2002: President George W. Bush signs the education bill into law.

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WHY ARE THE ARTS CONSIDERED VITAL TO CHILDREN’S EDUCATION? In 1999, the U.S. Department of Education released new and important findings on actual learning experiences involving the ARTS. Richard Riley, former secretary of the U. S. Department of Education, in an introduction to the report, states:

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“…A key factor in changing American education for the better is to increase high quality arts learning in the lives of young Americans.” “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.”

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The Champions of Change researchers found that learners can attain higher levels of achievement through their engagement with the ARTS. Learning in and through the ARTS can help “level the playing field” for youngsters from disadvantaged circumstances. Students with high levels of arts participation outperform “arts-poor” students by virtually every measure. Specifically:

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Although the Champions of Change researchers conducted their investigations and presented their findings independently, a remarkable consensus exists among their findings. The ARTS: reach students who are not otherwise being reached in ways that they are not otherwise being reached; connect students to themselves and each other; transform the environment of learning;

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In today’s workplace, “ideas are what matter, and the ability to generate ideas, to bring ideas to life and to communicate them is what matters to workplace success.” Riley, Richard. Champions of Change, preface, 1999, pg. x connect learning experiences to the world of real work. provide new challenges for those students already considered successful; provide learning opportunities for the adults in the lives of young people;

How the ARTS Change the Learning Experience: 

How the ARTS Change the Learning Experience These general characteristics are identified by researchers in effective learning models which make a real difference to young people*: authenticity academic rigor applied learning active exploration adult relationships assessment practices * from Real Learning, Real Work by Adria Steinberg These six elements are critical to what researchers call “project-based learning.”

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Dick Deasy, director of the Arts Education Partnership, believes that research indicates that students engaged in the ARTS demonstrate persistence and resilience; are accustomed to risk taking; have focus and discipline; and show respect for authentic achievement. These qualities are vital to a child’s success in school as well as being essential to survival in the workplace and the journey through life’s experiences.

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DOES STUDYING THE ARTS MAKE ONE SMARTER? “One piece of evidence that can be gleaned from the available data is that music participation does not interfere with academic progress. Students in music pull-out programs and those with greater years spent in arts education maintain a higher than average level of academic achievement. This is a direct contradiction to the ‘back to basics’ mentality that views [the arts] as frills that distract students from more important subjects… Demorest and Morrison, Music Educators Journal, September 2000, pgs. 38-39

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The path to academic excellence would seem to involve multiple avenues rather than the single road of reading, writing, and arithmetic.”

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Recent research studies conclude that the study of music has a direct positive effect on students’ ability in math. Shaw and Rauscher, 1997 CASE STUDY 1: Second graders who received piano instruction plus practice with a math video game along with math instruction, scored 15 to 41 percent higher on a test of ratios and fractions than second graders who received extra English lessons plus the math video game, and students who received no special lessons in addition to traditional math.

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Psychologist Martin Gardner of Brown University states: “There is something specific about music and math.” That something might be that music involves proportions, ratios, sequences - all of which underlie mathematical reasoning. The connection between music and math is physiological. Through the study of brain function it is learned that the key math areas of the brain are in the left temporal lobes, an area highly involved with music. (Eric Jensen, Arts with the Brain in Mind, pg. 21)

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Music study may also have a positive effect on content areas other than math. CASE STUDY 2: Professor Spychiger of the University of Fribourg in Switzerland studied 70 classes for children, ages 7 - 15. 35 experimental classes received daily 45-minute music lessons while the control group received the usual one music lesson per week. The 35 classes which had increased music instruction at the expense of language and math, got better at language and reading and did as well in math as those students who spent more time on math. (Jensen, pg. 23)

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CASE STUDY 3: Two groups of 1st graders, matched for age, IQ, and socioeconomic status, were taught by the same teachers. The only difference was in the amount of music instruction they received. One group received daily lessons for seven months. Both groups were tested for reading ability at the outset and at the end. The music group scored higher by 16 percentile points in both the first and second years over the control group. (Jensen, pg. 35). Another study supports the theory that music improves reading.

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Research also reports that music can help bridge the socioeconomic gap. CASE STUDY 4: Comparing second graders in inner-city Los Angeles to fourth and fifth graders in more affluent Orange County, CA, the second graders who received twice-a-week piano training scored as well as the fourth graders who did not receive piano training. Half of the second graders scored as well as fifth graders. Begley, “Music on the Mind,” Newsweek, July 24, 2000, pg. 51

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CASE STUDY 5: A group of students, 2 - 5 years old, who were developmentally delayed in vocabulary and language, had singing and related musical activities. After 10 weeks of instruction, their test scores increased. (Jensen, pg. 36) There is also a connection between special needs students and music instruction.

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CASE STUDY 6: One group of 3-year-olds got twice weekly singing instruction over a three year period. Another group received regular preschool programs. There were no measurable differences in IQ scores, typically weighted toward math and memory. But the group which received singing lessons improved motor development coordination, abstract conceptual thinking, improvisation, verbal abilities, and creativity. (Jensen, pg. 36)

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Music is not the only art form which impacts brain development and learning. There are also connections formed through experiences in the visual arts. Studies of brain activity show that all areas of the brain are developed and engaged through art activities. When an image enters the eyes, this path occurs: To understand how the visual arts affect brain development, an understanding of how the brain functions is necessary.

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The light image strikes the retina and is transmitted to the optic nerves where they cross over (left to right and right to left side) and the information is transmitted to the thalamus, located mid-brain. How We View Images

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The information is organized mid-brain and is sent to the occipital, temporal or parietal lobes: The occipital lobe processes color, movement, contrast, form and other elements of vision; the temporal lobe processes names and memory; the parietal lobe processes the spatial layout. The frontal lobes are involved in both the attentional process and the decisions about how long to look at the image.

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“In short, visual art-making and seeing are a whole-brained experience…Visualizing requires both sides of the brain, and image generation is critically dependent on the left as well as the right hemisphere.” (Jensen, pgs. 54-55 & 57)

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CASE STUDY 7: A 1996 study by Howard Gardner involved 96 1st graders in eight classrooms. Four classes were arts enriched and four were controls which received only the standard arts curriculum. After seven months, 77 percent of the arts-enriched classes scored at grade level, compared to 55 percent of the control group. The reading scores of the experimental classes, which averaged below the control groups at the beginning, caught up. (Jensen, pg. 59)

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Researcher James Catterall studied the effect of drawing experiences on writing among limited English proficient students. His research revealed kids who drew wrote 20% more; drawing became a way of organizing what they wrote. Focusing on students whose parents dropped out of high school, or never attended high school, Catterall found an increase in reading improvement in all standardized test scores better attitudes toward community service less time watching television and that the advantages improved each year from 8th, 10th and 12th grades.

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Theatre and dance are arts which require kinesthetics, or movement, by their participants. The brain is a system of systems, and a strong kinesthetic arts program will activate multiple systems. Using the body means using more of the brain than what we typically use for seatwork. (Jensen, 2001)

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Though drama and dramatic play have many direct benefits, one indirect benefit is that it facilitates the maturation of the brain’s cortical systems.* Reading, counting, speaking, and problem-solving are all maturation correlated. And it’s play that speeds the process because it usually has the recipe for brain growth built in: *Allman, 1999 challenge, novelty, feedback, coherence, and time.

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There are correlations with movement arts and higher college entrance scores. The College Board reports that for the 1999 school year, there are differences between scores of students taking dramatic arts and dance and those with no coursework in these content areas. Students taking four or more years of dance scored 27 points higher; students in drama study scored 44 points higher; students with acting or production experience scored 53 points higher on the averaged math and verbal scores. College Board, 2001

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CASE STUDY 8: Improved learning is evidenced in research studies. In Seattle, 3rd grade students studied language arts concepts through dance activities. Although the district-wide reading scores showed a decrease of 2 percent, the students involved in the dance activities boosted their Metropolitan Achievement Test reading scores by 13 percent in six months. (Leroux & Grossman, 1999)

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The Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) program is an example of the impact an innovative arts-integrated curricula can have on an entire school and district. This “large and deeply troubled” school district has been improving student performance. But 14 high-poverty schools which have incorporated CAPE advanced even more quickly and now boast a significant gap in achievement along many dimensions compared to arts-poor schools in the same neighborhoods.

CAPE RESULTS: 

CAPE RESULTS By 1998, 40 percent of 6th graders in CAPE schools were at or above grade level in math. Other Chicago Public Schools averaged 28 percent.

CAPE RESULTS: 

CAPE RESULTS In 1993, 6th grade CAPE students were an average of 8 percentage points ahead of non-CAPE students in reading. By 1998, the difference favoring CAPE schools grew to about 14 percentage points.

CAPE RESULTS: 

CAPE RESULTS At the 9th grade, in 1993 both CAPE and non-CAPE students read at the low 8th grade level. By 1998, CAPE 9th graders were averaging 9th grade, 5th month performance in reading, while comparison schools were averaging 8th grade, 5th month - a full grade level lower.

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The ARTS are the heart of education. They can improve nearly everything that schools need today: SELF-ESTEEM HEALTH INCLUSION MOTIVATION ATTENDANCE GRADES COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT COMMUNICATION SKILLS Catterall, et. al. Champions of Change, 1999

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AN EDUCATION WITHOUT THE ARTS RECEIVES AN INCOMPLETE.

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Prepared by: Larry Whitesell Educational Consultant e-mail: kinglar2@cox.net phone: (602) 370-8453