How Arts Ifluence Student Achievement

The Arts have a positive influence on student achievement. Through out the research process I have found a large amount of evidence proving that thesis. Also I have discovered there is a large amount of interest in the topic. Some of the facts I learned supporting my thesis are that young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours on three days a week through one full year are; four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, three times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools, four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair, three times more likely to win an award for school attendance, four times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem. Young artists, as compared with their peers, are likely to; attend music, art, and dance classes nearly three times as frequently. They are also more likely to participate in youth groups nearly four times as frequently, read for pleasure nearly twice as often, and, perform community service more than four times as often.

Also being involved in the arts make a impact on the develop mental growth of every child and has proven to help level the "learning field" as well as make a measurable impact on youth at risk having delinquent behavior and truancy problems while increasing academic performance among those youth engaged in after school and summer arts programs targeted toward delinquency prevention.

Businesses also believe the arts affect students. They had this to contribute, the arts help build a school climate of high expectation, discipline, and academics that attracts businesses relocating to those communities where the arts are in schools. The Arts strengthen student problem-solving and critical thinking skills, adding to academic achievement and school success. Students develop a sense of craftsmanship, quality task performance, and goal-setting skills needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond. Once again the Arts can help troubled youth, providing an alternative to destructive behavior and another way for students to approach learning. They can too provide another opportunity for parental, community, and business involvement with schools, including arts and humanities organizations. The arts also supply the ability for all students to gain more appreciation and understanding of the world around, them as well as helps students develop a positive work ethic and pride in a job well done.

Through researching this topic I discovered the many types of Arts students may become involved in and there individual impact on the students achievement. Elementary students who attended schools with arts in the classroom curriculum out performed their peers in math who did not have an arts-integrated curriculum. In 1998, more than 60 percent of the students attending schools integrated with the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education (CAPE) performed at or above grade level on the math portion of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills while the remainder of Chicago Public School students averaged just over 40 percent. Those same numbers in 1992, before the CAPE program began were 40 percent in the pre-CAPE schools and 28 percent district-wide.

When multiple Arts are implied in Elementary students involved they showed higher rates of classroom participation and quality of participation than peers. These students were involved in the arts by creating an opera. The participation of the opera-creating students was more coherent and responsive in the classroom.. The longer students are engaged in the opera-creating process, the more substantial the effects on the quantity and quality of their classroom participation.

The findings of an education reform program that places a high value on the arts found that "the arts do contribute to the general school curriculum, to learning for all students, to school and professional culture, to educational and instructional practices, and to the schools' neighborhoods and communities. It is important that these contributions extend beyond what most arts in education programs promise to educators." This arts education reform program placed high on six dimensions of "effective reform practice: balanced scope, clear focus on teaching and learning, a long-term time frame, a locus of authority that encourages school-level initiative but embraces support from the top, opportunities and support for collaborative engagement, and ongoing professional development directed at instructional change." Schools in South Carolina that made room in their schedules for the arts at the expense of other academic disciplines did not suffer a decline in standardized test scores in the courses that lost time in the school schedule through the addition of the arts.

When using individual arts as focus music produced these results; Preschoolers who were given music keyboard lessons improved their spatial-temporal reasoning. A peer group, who were given computer lessons, showed no improvement. Spatial-temporal reasoning is the abstract reasoning that is used for understanding relationships between objects such as calculating a proportion or playing chess. Spatial-temporal reasoning is important in subjects such as mathematics and science. First graders who received instruction in music listening had significantly higher reading scores than those first graders who did not receive the instruction but were similar in age, IQ and socioeconomic status. The same teacher taught reading to all the students. Those given music instruction were taught for 40 minutes a day for seven months and learned to recognize melodic and rhythmic elements in folk songs. They scored in the 88th percentile for reading performance and the non-instructed control group scored in the 72nd percentile.

Elements of music and reading are highly related in first graders. Students were tested on various elements of music and reading and a strong relationship was found between a student's awareness of pitch and their ability to sound out material in reading. Second grade students given piano instruction in addition to spatial reasoning instruction improved more in spatial reasoning than those given spatial reasoning instruction only, English language training instead of piano, or no special instruction. Fourth-grade students considered "emotionally disturbed" improved their writing quality and quantity when given music to listen to (via headphones) versus writing in silence. "Juvenile Delinquent" males ages 8-19 who were given instruction in and performance opportunities on the guitar improved both their self-confidence in terms of their musical ability and general self-worth versus other "juvenile delinquent" males of the same age group given instruction but no performance opportunities.

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