Our mission is to foster arts integration across the curriculum with a special focus on addressing the arts education gaps that oftentimes exists in low socio-economic classrooms and rural classrooms. These resources and their literature reviews highlight these arts education gaps and ways educators are trying to bridge them.

Leveraging Change: Increasing Access to Arts Education in Rural Areas (2017)

Leveraging Change: Increasing Access to Arts Education in Rural Areas by Lisa Donovan and Maren Brown highlights the challenges and opportunities in teaching arts education in rural communities. Through its extensive literature review, this working paper describes key barriers to arts education for rural students including the lack of funding (i.e., small schools struggle to afford specialist teachers), geographic distances, poverty, and policies that do not support the arts. It also highlights promising practices that have served rural arts education including established networks and partnerships. Here is a video webinar. 

Bridging the Gap: Expanding Access to the Visual Arts through Distance Technology (2013)

Bridging the Gap: Expanding Access to the Visual Arts through Distance Technology by Greg Welch, Lesley Hawley, and Carina McCormick is a useful resource for art museums and art organizations looking to expand, improve, or create their own distance-learning programs, as well as for schools and educational institutions that may be receiving partners of such programming. This resource offers an extensive literature review of museum education, distance learning and distance technologies, and art education in school communities. Particular attention is focused on the unique challenges and experiences of art education in rural communities. Access the link to learn more about the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that funded this research.

The Arts Education Data Project

While national data and trends are always important, state-level data and trends can help us get a more nuanced perspective of how the arts are taught. The Arts Education Data Project uses a systemic, data-driven approach to understanding the current condition of arts education in the United States. Here are some especially noteworthy findings from state-specific Arts Education Data Projects. While some trends are consistent across regions, others are dramatically different. More reports will roll out in the years to come.

Arizona

Arts Education Data Project: Arizona Executive Summary Report, July 2018, Arizona Department of Education. Download the Executive Summary and learn more at the Arizona Arts Education Research web site.

• The proportion of students without access to any arts courses was greatest in schools where more than 75% of students receive Free/Reduced Price Lunch when compared to the distribution of the total student enrollment.
• Arts participation is highest for students attending elementary schools (80%), schools in the locale designation of “suburb-midsize” (89%), traditional (non-charter) public schools (68%) and schools where less than 25% of students were eligible for free/reduced lunch (75%).
• Arts participation was at the lowest levels for students attending schools designated as high schools (43%), students in schools locale designation of “Rural-Distant” (49%), charter schools (59%), and schools where between than 51% and 71% of students are eligible for free/reduced lunch (68%).

California

Arts Education Data Project: California Executive Summary Report, October 2016, California Department of Education. Download the Executive Summary and learn more at the California Arts Education Data Project web site.

• Arts participation is highest for students attending high schools (42%), schools in the locale designation of “city” (39%), traditional (non charter) public schools (40%), schools where 25% or fewer students were eligible for free/reduced lunch (45%), non title I schools (41%) and where the majority of students have a race/ethnicity designation of Other (32%).
• Arts participation was at the lowest levels for students attending schools designated as elementary/high combination (22%), students in schools locale designation of “rural” (35%), charter schools (27%), where 75% or more of students are eligible for free/reduced lunch (35%), Title I school wide (36%) and where the majority of students in the school are African American (32%).
• The proportion of students without access to any arts courses was greater where the majority of students in the school were either African American or Hispanic when compared to the distribution of the total student enrollment.
• The overall student-to-arts-teacher ratio is 232 to 1. For Art the ratio is 441:1; for Dance, it is 1446:1; for Music it is 752:1; for Theatre it is 1075:1; and for AME it is 734:1.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin Arts Education Data Project: Wisconsin Executive Summary Report, April 2018, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Download the executive summary and learn more at the Wisconsin Arts Education Data Project web site.

• Arts participation is highest for students attending elementary schools, schools in the locale designation of “rural schools,” traditional public schools and schools where between than 51% and 71% of students are eligible for free/reduced lunch.
• Arts participation was at the lowest levels for students attending schools designated as high schools, students in schools locale designation of “City Schools,” charter schools, and schools where less than 25% of students were eligible for free/reduced lunch.
• The proportion of students without access to any arts courses was greatest in schools where more than 75% of students receive Free/Reduced Price Lunch when compared to the distribution of the total student enrollment.
• Access to music programs is significantly lower for students in schools where more than 75% of students receive Free/Reduced Price Lunch when compared with access to art (48% for Music and 98% for Art).
• The overall student-to-arts-teacher ratio is 159 to 1. For Art the ratio is 284:1; for Dance it is 585:1; for Music it is 398:1; for Theatre it is 637:1; and for Other it is 932:1.