The Ohio Alliance for Arts Education (OAAE) is pleased to present the 2011 Status of Arts Education in Ohio’s Public Schools (Status Survey Report) with our partners, the Ohio Arts Council (OAC), and the Ohio Department of Education (ODE).

The OAAE, OAC, and ODE engaged Quadrant Arts Education Research (Quadrant) in January 2010 to analyze Ohio Department of Education data (ODE Data) about student enrollment and teachers in dance, drama/theater, music, and visual art, and conduct a survey (Status Survey) about arts education programs in Ohio’s public schools.

The analysis of the ODE Data and the results of the Status Survey are included in this report entitled, 2011 Status of Arts Education in Ohio’s Public Schools (Status Survey Report).

The results of the ODE Data analysis and the Status Survey of arts education call for more Ohio students to be engaged actively in the artistic processes of responding to, creating, and performing works of art.

The analysis by Quadrant of 20,249 records contained in the ODE Data bases provided specific information about student enrollment in twenty-nine courses in the arts for 3,327 community and traditional public schools and 612 school districts by grade level; the number and type of arts courses offered by schools/districts; patterns of student enrollment in arts courses based on school district typology; the qualifications and assignments of 10,673 arts teachers; and more. The information found through the analysis of ODE Data was further clarified through an online survey of traditional public and community schools conducted by Quadrant from April through August 2010. Sixteen percent of schools completed the Status Survey (542 schools) representing approximately 295,000 Ohio students.

The results of the Status Survey provided additional information to better understand the status of arts education programs and policies in the following areas: hours of instruction; academic content standards; student assessment in the arts; graduation requirements in the arts; teacher professional development; budgets for arts education; community partnerships and collaborations to support arts education; coordination of arts education programs, and more.

The 2011 Status of Arts Education in Ohio’s Public Schools report is the fifth in a series of reports on arts education in Ohio’s schools published in 1989, 1996, 2000, and 2005 by the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education. [Introduction, p. 1]

In 2009-2010, 93% of all Ohio public schools provide access to some arts instruction. 10% of the major urban public schools provided no access to the arts, and 54,700 students in the state’s public schools did not have access to arts instruction. Of those who had access to arts education, only a small percentage of public schools offered more than two arts disciplines. 1% offered instruction in all four (dance, music, theatre, visual arts). Music and visual arts are the most frequently offered disciplines, as dance and theatre are seldom taught in Ohio’s public schools. Most of Ohio’s teachers providing arts instruction are appropriately licensed. 83% of educators were licensed in the disciplines they taught, and 64% of schools provided teachers with professional development in the arts. 90% of schools reported implementing Ohio’s art learning standards and 94% reported assessing students in the arts. 84% of high schools surveyed said they assigned the same weight to grades earned in arts courses as they did to grades earned in other academic courses. 78% of schools reported that no one at the district level was responsible for implementing and evaluating arts programs.