Research Reports [CAAE]

Research Reports
Updated: October 2007

Check here for links to recent research about the design, implementation, and impact of the arts in education, careers, and society.

Below is a list of research-related web pages, as well as annotated links to key reports.

To submit an annotated link for potential inclusion on this page, please send title, annotation, and full URL to: [email protected].

Research Sites (web pages that post new arts education studies)

Annotated Links

Acts of Achievement: The Role of Performing Art Centers in Education
This first study of K-12 education programs offered by performing arts centers nationwide showcases 74 performing art center institutions, large and small, partnering with their local schools. Performing arts centers, many for the first time, are expanding their missions to provide arts education for nearby schools, at the request of their communities. In many cases, artist residencies and other educational outreach projects represent the only arts programs available in schools.

An Unfinished Canvas. Arts Education in California: Taking Stock of Policies and Priorities
Commissioned by the Hewlett Foundation, this report is the most current assessment of arts education in California’s K-12 public schools. It inventories state and federal policies affecting arts education in California; assesses whether or not California schools offer sequential, standards-based courses of study in the arts; describes the roles played by districts, counties, and partner organizations in support of sequential, standards-based programs; examines student access to arts instruction, including participation rates, and the duration and intensity of students’ experiences; describes who provides arts instruction to California students, as well as their preparation and ongoing professional development; describes arts education funding, facilities, and materials; and offers recommendations for state policy-makers, school and district leaders, and parents.

Arts & Economic Prosperity Report
Arts & Economic Prosperity: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts Organizations and Their Audiences, released on June 10, 2002, reveals that America's nonprofit arts industry generates $134 billion in economic activity every year, including $24.4 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenues.

Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 1999-2000
This report provides national data on arts education in public elementary and secondary schools during 1999–2000 on a wide variety of topics related to how the arts were delivered, such as: the availability and characteristics of instructional programs in music, visual arts, dance, and drama/theatre; staffing; space for arts instruction; and funding sources. Topics included: the educational backgrounds (e.g., degrees, certification, years of experience) of music specialists, visual arts specialists, and classroom teachers; participation in professional development activities; teaching load; teaching practices; collaboration and integration of the arts into other areas of the curriculum; and teacher involvement in arts-related activities outside of school.

Arts Education in Public Schools Resource Center: Supportive Research

Americans for the Arts and the National School Boards Association have teamed up to compile a very comprehensive online resource center, Arts Education in Public Schools, which covers topics such as arts and academic achievement, arts education policy, assessing the needs of your district, making arts education a priority, funding resources and other valuable resources.

Arts Education Partnerships: Influencing Policy and Programming in U.S. Public Schools
Local arts agencies and organizations have long served schools through professional development training for teachers, grant making, in-school artist residencies, and access to cultural events and facilities. This Monograph outlines efforts of local arts agencies and organizations that are effectively partnering with school districts in their service area. Through collaborative partnerships, technical assistance, program design, and advocacy campaigns, they are building the infrastructure and capacity for arts education at the school district level.

Arts Education Partnerships: Lessons Learned from One School District's Experience
The Los Angeles Unified School District in 1999 approved a ten-year program to implement a substantive, sequential curriculum in arts education. A central goal of the plan calls for schools to build partnerships with the Los Angeles arts community to provide educational programming, beginning with elementary schools in the Arts Prototype Schools (APS) program. This study examined the range of partnerships in operation and identified partnership challenges and facilitators through interviews with APS principals and teachers, local district arts advisors, and directors of arts organizations.

Arts Education Research Compendium
Published by the California Arts Council in 2001, this compendium is a collection of research on the arts and academic achievement and arts learning and the brain, model partnerships, policy initiatives, and workforce development. The compendium focuses on research published between 1995-2001, and that was published and/or publicly available and educationally significant. Large- and small-scale studies, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, are represented. In some cases, research is included which was not written about arts education, but which has implications for arts education policy and practice.

Arts Lab 101: The Results Are In
This report provides a summary of the WestEd evaluation of the California Arts Council's Arts in Education Demonstration Projects. Projects show how arts organizations and educational institutions could partner to demonstrate advances in cognitive and affective learning for school children. More than 92,000 students and 4,100 teachers in 496 schools participated in the programs which produced positive results.

The Arts in a New Millennium: Research and the Arts Sector
This book examines underlying trends and ways to achieve the well-developed, field-wide research capacity in the arts that will be needed by artists, arts administrators, and policy-makers in the 21st century. Order from Praeger Publishers.

Arts in Public Policy
The newest issue of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) Advocate publication, "The Arts in Public Policy: An Advocacy Agenda," provides research findings and facts demonstrating the impact of the arts in five areas: education, youth at risk, business, tourism and economic development. Presented in an easy-to-read, bulleted format, it also incorporates quotations from non-arts leaders. This latest addition to the Advocate series is a useful tool for illustrating the benefits of public investment in the arts and getting the arts on the policy agenda. Download the publication as a PDF or order a $7 print copy.

Arts & the Creation of Mind
A publication written by Elliot W. Eisner, Lee Jacks Professor of Education and Professor of Art at Stanford University, that aims "to dispel the idea that the arts are somehow intellectually undemanding, emotive rather than reflective operations done with the hand," Chapters include: What the Arts Teach and How It Shows; Describing Learning in the Visual Arts; The Educational Uses of Assessment and Evaluation in the Arts; What Education Can Learn From the Arts; Agenda for Research in Arts Education, and more. To order this publication, call 800-299-8321.

Arts with The Brain in Mind
Arts with The Brain in Mind, written by neuroscientist Eric Jensen, explores research on the arts and its affect on learning. More information on this publication.

California Arts Council's Public Opinion Survey
The California Arts Council (CAC) conducted a survey that explodes Californian's impressions about the arts. The results showed remarkable broad-based support for public funding for the arts among all segments of the population: young and old, rural and urban, among all racial and ethnic groups, and across all economic strata. Download a PDF of the survey

Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning
A report that compiles seven major studies providing new evidence of enhanced learning and achievement when students are involved in a variety of arts experiences.

Creativity, Culture, Education, and the Workforce
Skills developed through an education in the arts and humanities can help America’s workforce remain competitive in the global economy, argues the author of this issue paper. These areas of study, for example, can foster the ability to master fast-paced technological advances; understand and work with other cultures; and solve problems through creative thinking. Further, the arts, cultural and intellectual property sectors are among the largest and fastest growing areas in the U.S. economy. This paper suggests, therefore, that our nation needs a comprehensive strategy that links education in the arts and humanities and workforce development at all levels of government.

Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development
The Compendium summarizes and discusses 62 research studies that examine the effects of arts learning on students' social and academic skills.

DataQuest
Searchable database of facts about California Schools and districts.

Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate About the Benefits of the Arts
During the past decade, arts advocates have relied on an instrumental approach to the benefits of the arts in arguing for support of the arts. This report evaluates these arguments and asserts that a new approach is needed. This new approach offers a more comprehensive view of how the arts create private and public value, underscores the importance of the arts’ intrinsic benefits, and links the creation of benefits to arts involvement.

Handbook of Research and Policy in Art Education

This 36-chapter handbook profiles the history, policy, learning, curriculum and instruction, assessment, and competing perspectives in the field of art education. Because the scholarly foundations of art education are relatively new and loosely coupled, this handbook provides researchers, students, and policy makers (both inside and outside the field) a snapshot of its current boundaries and rapidly growing content. Available at most online bookstores (e.g., http://www.amazon.com)

How the Arts Can Enhance After-School Programs
This document, published by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, focuses on the role of the arts in after-school activities in neighborhood schools. Summaries of recent research, key elements of successful programs, and highlights of effective partnerships between schools and community-based organizations are also provided. Download this publication.

The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation
This Issue Brief provides examples of arts-based education as a money-and time-saving option for states looking to build skills, increase academic success, heighten standardized test scores, and lower the incidence of crime among general and at-risk populations. It offers examples drawn from states that are utilizing the arts in education and after-school programs, and it provides policy recommendations for states looking to initiate or strengthen arts education programs that improve productivity and foster workforce development.

Improving Arts Education Partnerships
Although arts education enjoys public support and has been shown to help school children in many ways, it has recently become marginalized through budget cuts and redirection of resources to other subjects. One way to supplement arts education is through partnerships between schools and arts organizations. This research found that joint-venture partnerships can yield many benefits but are less common than simple-transaction partnerships in which schools typically select prepared programs without a needs assessment.

Making a Case for the Arts: How and Why the Arts are Critical to Student Achievement and Better Schools
This brochure describes the benefits of arts education based on new research published by the Arts Education Partnership and can be used for many advocacy purposes.

Music Lessons Enhance IQ
The idea that music makes you smarter has received considerable attention from scholars and the media. The present report is the first to test this hypothesis directly with random assignment of a large sample of children (N=5144) to two different types of music lessons (keyboard or voice) or to control groups that received drama lessons or no lessons. Compared with children in the control groups, children in the music groups exhibited greater increases in full-scale IQ. The effect was relatively small, but it generalized across IQ subtests, index scores, and a standardized measure of academic achievement. Unexpectedly, children in the drama group exhibited substantial pre- to posttest improvements in adaptive social behavior that were not evident in the music groups.

National Education Data Web Site Launch
Schoolmatters.com collects and aggregates state data on per-pupil expenditures, standardized test scores and enrollment demographics, teacher compensation and other factors to facilitate comparisons across school districts and between states. The site is administered by Standard Poor's School Evaluation Services, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, and gets funding from governmental and institutional sources. Go to /www.schoolmatters.com or view the original report.

Putting the Arts in the Picture: Reframing Education in the 21st Century
The Center’s book on arts education, makes a new argument for moving the arts, usually located on the margins of public education, to its center. By examining the role of the arts in education, investigating the cognitive benefits of learning in the arts, and suggesting practical solutions for improving education and learning, Putting the Arts in the Picture seeks to demonstrate that arts education is an effective strategy for improving education and learning opportunities for children and young people. In cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and Boston, arts integrated schools are defying educational odds and expectations. Their stories, documented in this volume, show that arts integration can profoundly influence student achievement, and that it is a strategy within the reach of most schools, districts, and communities.

Quality, Equity and Access: A Status Report on Arts Education in California Public Schools Grades Pre-K through 12
This 27-page briefing paper reports on the state of visual and performing arts education in California's K-12 schools, with a comprehensive analysis of the status of arts education and the need for stronger policies to support arts instruction for all California students.

Role of Performing Art Centers in Education
Dana Press, the publishing division of the Dana Foundation, recently released a 168-page publication providing the first study of K-12 education programs offered by performing arts centers nationwide. Acts of Achievement: The Role of Performing Art Centers in Education provides case studies of eight model arts education programs at performing arts centers, among them Cal Performances, the performing arts presenter at the University of California, Berkeley. Press copies of Acts of Achievement are available by e-mail request to [email protected]. Print copies for institutions are available free by writing on institution letterhead to: The Dana Press, Attn: David Balog, 745 Fifth Ave, Suite 900, New York, NY 10151 or by fax at 212-317-8721. The book is available in a downloadable PDF form on the Dana web site at:
www.dana.org

The Sound of Silence: The Unprecedented Decline of Music Education in California Public
Schools — A Statistical Review
This report documents for the first time the impact of budget cuts, high-stakes testing, and the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act on actual student participation in music education programs. Using data available from the DataQuest database at the California Department of Education and compiled by the Music for All Foundation in cooperation with several music and arts education organization in California and around the country, the report unveils startling revelations regarding the status of music education programs in California.

Studio Thinking
Many people believe that arts education is important, but few can say exactly why. Here at last are the results of the first in-depth research on the "habits of mind" that are instilled by studying visual art -- habits, the authors argue, that could have positive impacts on student learning across the curriculum. Studio Thinking provides art teachers with a research-based language for describing what they intend to teach and what students actually learn. This language will help advocates explain arts education to policymakers, help art teachers develop and refine their teaching and assessment practices, and help educators in other disciplines learn from existing practices in arts education.

Third Space: When Learning Matters
Third Space tells the riveting story of the profound changes in the lives of kids, teachers, and parents in ten economically disadvantaged communities across the country that place their bets on the arts as a way to create great schools. The schools become caring communities where kids - many of whom face challenges of poverty, the need to learn English, and to surmount learning difficulties - thrive and succeed and where teachers find new joy and satisfaction in teaching.

True Needs, True Partners
Published in 1998 and 2002 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, these reports examine the relationship between museums and schools. They provide survey results as well as a sampling of educational programs in a wide variety of museums from art to zoo.

Young Achievers: A National Summit On Arts Learning
This document, released by national arts provider Young Audiences, summarizes topics discussed during an arts-in-education summit held in November of 2001 as part of a 50-year anniversary celebration. Three moderated panels focused on the topics of accountability, program quality and community engagement. A condensed version of this report is available in PDF format on the Young Audiences web site.