Advocating the Arts in Education
The Kansas Legislature is currently trying to come to grips with one of the worst economic dilemmas it has faced – how to fund a suitable education for K-12 students. Funding for arts activities has come under scrutiny, and, no doubt, public school administrators will be tempted to scavenge music, art, and drama programs to balance likely cuts. Such actions would be regrettable and shortsighted. Money spent on the arts has a far more significant return on investment than almost anything publicly funded with tax dollars.
One of the most acute budget problems being debated is what to do about prison overcrowding. Legislators are faced with allocating funds the state doesn’t have to build more prisons. It’s too late to do anything about our current crop of prisoners, but, I have a solution for the long term – more arts education in our schools, not less. I propose this in the context of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The National Governor’s Alliance agrees with me. Their review of research reveals that “when young people, both general and at-risk populations, study the arts they show heightened academic standing, a strong capacity for self-assessment, and a secure sense of their own ability to plan and work for a positive future.”
One report, Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning, reviews research conducted by scholars from Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and Connecticut. They found that arts education enhances academic achievement and reaches students on the margins of the educational system. So what? Anything “touchy-feely” like drama or choir makes kids feel better about themselves and when they feel better, they do better in school. You can say the same thing about the Boy Scouts. Why should the taxpayers of Kansas be expected to pay for programs just so kids can feel better about themselves, especially in hard economic times when sacrifices must be expected to all but the basic core curriculum?
The point is - art should be an essential part of the core curriculum, and in far too many schools it isn’t. Last year, the Center for Best Practices issued a report entitled The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation. It reports the results of multiple studies on the effects of arts instruction on learning. The reports all found that children who study the arts develop key competencies of cognitive growth: perception of relationships, skills in finding multiple solutions to problems, attention to nuance, adaptability, decision-making skills, visualization of goals and outcomes.
In other words, training in the arts makes your child think better, think better of himself, and think better of the world around him. This is all well and good, but how does this prevent crime? The NGA report cites a myriad of successful programs in numerous states specifically targeting at-risk students. The results? - higher test scores, increased academic achievement, and lower absenteeism.
In Ohio, a program called SPECTRA+(Schools, Parents, Educators, Children, Teachers Rediscover the Arts) places the arts in the daily curriculum as a basic subject. SPECTRA+ schools showed significant gains in student creativity, attitudes, academic and thinking skills, attendance, discipline, school climate, and self-esteem.
In Florida, Success Through Academic and Recreational Support (STARS) is a multifaceted arts studies and crime prevention program for at-risk youth that offers a variety of arts classes. The cost for each participant in Florida’s arts intervention program is only $850 per year compared with as much as $28,000 per youth in the typical juvenile boot camp. At the start of the STARS Program, 75 percent of the children were making less than a C average; now 80 percent are making a C average or better. Since the program’s inception, juvenile crime has dropped 28 percent, and for youth ages 11 and 12, the rate of recidivism has dropped 64 percent.
Kansas’ budget woes over prison space will soon drive up the cost of incarceration beyond the current $22,750 per year average. That’s more than the annual tuition, room and board to any public college or university in Kansas, by the way, and $21,900 more than Florida’s STARS program.
Know what? Sometimes you can kill two birds with one stone – if you’re willing to look at the big picture, that is.
The Kansas Legislature is currently trying to come to grips with one of the worst economic dilemmas it has faced – how to fund a suitable education for K-12 students. Funding for arts activities has come under scrutiny, and, no doubt, public school administrators will be tempted to scavenge music, art, and drama programs to balance likely cuts. Such actions would be regrettable and shortsighted. Money spent on the arts has a far more significant return on investment than almost anything publicly funded with tax dollars.
One of the most acute budget problems being debated is what to do about prison overcrowding. Legislators are faced with allocating funds the state doesn’t have to build more prisons. It’s too late to do anything about our current crop of prisoners, but, I have a solution for the long term – more arts education in our schools, not less. I propose this in the context of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The National Governor’s Alliance agrees with me. Their review of research reveals that “when young people, both general and at-risk populations, study the arts they show heightened academic standing, a strong capacity for self-assessment, and a secure sense of their own ability to plan and work for a positive future.”
One report, Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning, reviews research conducted by scholars from Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and Connecticut. They found that arts education enhances academic achievement and reaches students on the margins of the educational system. So what? Anything “touchy-feely” like drama or choir makes kids feel better about themselves and when they feel better, they do better in school. You can say the same thing about the Boy Scouts. Why should the taxpayers of Kansas be expected to pay for programs just so kids can feel better about themselves, especially in hard economic times when sacrifices must be expected to all but the basic core curriculum?
The point is - art should be an essential part of the core curriculum, and in far too many schools it isn’t. Last year, the Center for Best Practices issued a report entitled The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation. It reports the results of multiple studies on the effects of arts instruction on learning. The reports all found that children who study the arts develop key competencies of cognitive growth: perception of relationships, skills in finding multiple solutions to problems, attention to nuance, adaptability, decision-making skills, visualization of goals and outcomes.
In other words, training in the arts makes your child think better, think better of himself, and think better of the world around him. This is all well and good, but how does this prevent crime? The NGA report cites a myriad of successful programs in numerous states specifically targeting at-risk students. The results? - higher test scores, increased academic achievement, and lower absenteeism.
In Ohio, a program called SPECTRA+(Schools, Parents, Educators, Children, Teachers Rediscover the Arts) places the arts in the daily curriculum as a basic subject. SPECTRA+ schools showed significant gains in student creativity, attitudes, academic and thinking skills, attendance, discipline, school climate, and self-esteem.
In Florida, Success Through Academic and Recreational Support (STARS) is a multifaceted arts studies and crime prevention program for at-risk youth that offers a variety of arts classes. The cost for each participant in Florida’s arts intervention program is only $850 per year compared with as much as $28,000 per youth in the typical juvenile boot camp. At the start of the STARS Program, 75 percent of the children were making less than a C average; now 80 percent are making a C average or better. Since the program’s inception, juvenile crime has dropped 28 percent, and for youth ages 11 and 12, the rate of recidivism has dropped 64 percent.
Kansas’ budget woes over prison space will soon drive up the cost of incarceration beyond the current $22,750 per year average. That’s more than the annual tuition, room and board to any public college or university in Kansas, by the way, and $21,900 more than Florida’s STARS program.
Know what? Sometimes you can kill two birds with one stone – if you’re willing to look at the big picture, that is.
posted by Rodney E. Miller at 6:38 AM
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