This report discusses the status of arts education in Maine as the state re-invents its traditional economies and forms of education. It analyzes Maine’s goal of (1)developing strategies that support preschoolers through seniors in life-long learning that can benefit families, communities, and the state as a whole, (2)Ensuring that learning has a strong and sustained emphasis on creativity and innovation; and (3) harnessing both formal and informal learning. Over a third of the arts teachers in Maine, at 44% of the schools, responded to a survey about their programs and their working lives as educators. Building on these findings, a team of Maine arts educators has developed a set of bold recommendations for moving this work forward. View the full report.

 

The Arts Alive survey is a baseline study of the state of the arts in Michigan. There is a wide range on arts activities taking place in school and with community partners, and districts, administrators, and teachers are resourceful in pursuing support for arts education. There is room to adopt policies on all aspects of arts education in many more districts, and there is a need to increase certification of arts specialists in Music and Visual Arts.  There is very little opportunity for students to learn about the disciplines of Dance and Theatre/Drama, as only a very small number of Dance and Drama/Theatre teachers exist in Michigan districts/schools. In the case of Dance teachers, there are so few (146 total) that the number is insignificant—over 95% of all schools responding said they had no dance teacher at all. There is also a great disparity between public school districts, public school academies, and private schools for visual arts teachers. The three most critical needs in their districts or schools were adequate facilities (52%), materials and supplies (43%), and sufficient scheduling time (38%). The survey shows a strong positive trend among schools to hold the line or increase arts education offerings in the next 1-3 years and figures show respondents have a strong commitment to the value of arts education in schools. Only 3% of respondents expect to decrease arts education offerings. View the full report.

The majority of elementary and middle schools offered two arts disciplines, while a majority of high schools offered instruction in three disciplines. 108,000 students are without access to arts education in Michigan. High schools on average budget more money per student ($4.39) than elementary ($1.67) and middle schools ($2.74). The median for all schools was $2.09 per student per year. 88% of schools meet or exceed the state’s one credit graduation requirement in the arts, and 12% do not meet the state graduation requirement. View the full report.
 

In the early 2000s, there was considerable discussion about the role of the arts in public education, but little data about the status of arts education in all schools in Minnesota. To answer this need, the Perpich Center for Arts Education launched The Minnesota Arts Education Research Project during the 2010/2011 school year with funding provided by the Minnesota State Legislature through its Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund of the Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment. The purpose of this project was to gather, evaluate and disseminate quantitative data regarding arts education in the state. The Research Project was designed to document arts education in every school through a statewide voluntary survey, and combine the survey findings with other information to create a 360-degree view of arts education in the state. This report is a summary of the status of arts education, education policy and delivery. The intent is to provide decision makers and the public with a clear picture of the status of arts education in Minnesota. [Introduction, p. 2] View the full report.
 

According to the 2006 Status of Arts Education survey, 81% reported that their district’s instruction is aligned with Mississippi’s 2003 Visual and Performing Arts Framework. 23% of schools reported an increase in the number of students receiving instruction in the visual and performing arts in the 2006-2007 school year. Mississippi requires one unit in the visual and performing arts for high-school graduation, and there are 22 visual arts teachers and 20 music teachers in the state who have obtained National Board Certification. School districts seek funding for the arts including grant proposals, community resources, school-level discretionary funds. View the full report.

According to an analysis of “core” data submitted to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by the state’s public school districts, fine arts education is significantly related to higher standardized test scores, higher attendance and graduation rates, and lower disciplinary rates for serious student infractions. View the full report.

The 2009-10 statewide assesement for Arts Education was completed in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. More than half of the districts in three of the states did not treat the arts as a core subject, and arts teachers had very high and challenging student-to-teacher ratios. Dance education barely existed except in Utah where it was more available, and Utah experienced greater increases in student participation in the arts than the other three states. Wyoming has total (school-wide) enrollment increase of 1%, average dance enrollment decreased by 8.26% and the average music enrollment decreased by 5.30%.The Montana Arts Education Assessment showed that in elementary schools, Music (86% school-wide enrollment) and Visual Art (61%) are offered most frequently, while Theatre (5%) and Dance (3%) were rarely offered. 11% of respondents offer no high-quality arts experiences, and less than half (43%) treat the arts as a core curriculum. Arts education in Idaho reflects the national situation: the arts are core academic subjects and are included as a two-credit high-school graduation requirement, the state has adopted content standards in the Humanities to outline the skills and recommended content for grades K-12. View the full report.

This new project was designed to: document arts education in every school in the state through a statewide-mandated survey; combine the survey findings with other information to create a 360-degree view of arts education; broadly disseminate the results of the survey; create a model that may be deployed in other states; and develop an ongoing system to update, maintain and distribute arts education information across the state. View the full report.

In 2011, 97% of New Jersey students had access to arts education in their schools, with music and visual art nearly universally available. The number of NJ students with daily access to arts has increased by 54,000 since 2006. The percentage of NJ schools adopting core curriculum standards has increased from 81% in 2006 to 97% in 2011. Well above 90% of all schools use certified arts specialists as the primary provider for music and visual arts instruction. Still, the majority of public schools fail to offer instruction in all four arts disciplines. In theater instruction, less than half of schools use certified specialists and for dance, fewer than 40% of instructors are certified specialists. Per-pupil arts spending in support of arts instruction has declined by 30% at the elementary level and 44% at high school level, and more than 25% of schools have had to use outside resources to offset budget cuts. Student participation in arts courses has declined significantly, especially at elementary level, and the number of field trips, assemblies, and partnerships between schools and NJ cultural organizations has declined. View the full report.

The purpose of the Fine Arts Education Act is to encourage school districts to offer opportunities for elementary school students to participate in fine arts activities, including visual arts, music, theater and dance. The report is designed to provide a framework for assessing the impact of the 2003 Fine Arts Education Act (FAEA) on New Mexico public elementary schools. The recommendations provided in this report include 1) supporting districts and charter schools as requested in establishing and maintaining Parent Advisory Councils 2) identifying and planning for appropriate professional development (PD) for districts or charter schools, and 3) streamlining the application process by simplifying and standardizing the Request for Application (RfA) so that it can be effortlessly reviewed and data more easily collected. View the full report.

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. View the full report.

The vision of Ohio’s State Board of Education is “for all students to graduate from the pre-K-12 education system with the knowledge, skills and behaviors necessary to be well prepared for success.” This report builds on Ohio’s continued interest in the strength of arts learning and its role in school academic programs. It provides baseline data for anyone seeking a “big picture” understanding of what the level of support for high-quality arts education has been among Ohio’s public schools and districts, how available resources are being used, and where additional resources and efforts may be needed. It addresses key elements of Ohio’s arts education infrastructure, particularly people, resources and policies at the local level that affect delivery of arts instruction and allocation of resources to the arts. For instance, data show that eighty-three (83%) of Ohio’s public schools were taught be educators licensed to teach one or more arts disciplines. In addition, survey results show that teacher-developed arts assessments were the norm in eighty-four (84%) of schools. View the full report.

80% of K-12 Oregon public schools offer regular, stand-alone arts courses, but one in ten students attended a school without access to arts instruction. 27% of elementary schools did not offer any arts instruction as standalone courses, and lack of access is more pronounced at the elementary level than any other. 98% of middle schools provided some form of arts instruction and 98% of students attended a middle school where the arts were taught. 86% of high schools provided arts instruction as a stand-alone course, but only 6% provided instruction in five disciplines (dance, music, theater, media, and visual arts). Music was the most frequently offered arts course with 74% of schools offering music instruction, followed by visual arts (34%), theater (16%), media arts (13%), and dance (2%). View the full report.

This report summarizes Oregon Department of Education data and provides detailed information about Oregon students’ access to learning in, through and about the arts. Knowing definitively that nearly 65,000 students attend a public school in Oregon without access to any arts coursework taught by a licensed arts teacher, there is an opportunity for a targeted investment to make an impact on schools with a demonstrated need. One of the added components in this year’s report is a county map, highlighting access levels around the state. This, in addition to the interactive database already housed on the Oregon Arts Commission website, the report provides a valuable way to learn from schools that have demonstrated a commitment to maintaining strong arts education access and discover how they made that possible. View the full report.