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Advocating for the Arts
Part Two: Tracking Progress, Getting Parents Involved By Kim Byrum Skinner
But Hatfield's conservative approach to the new SAT findings doesn't mean he remains unconvinced. Evidence does show that the arts – music, dance, drama and art – often assist in the transfer of learning among a broad range of subjects, similar to the way learning foreign languages, for example, broadens our own English vocabulary.
"I'm just kind of cautious with the SAT study because we don't have cause-effect," Hatfield says. "But what we do think is that kids who understand the arts understand a lot more. I've had testimony from principals who say vandalism has dropped because we put an art program in, or that reading scores have gone up."
Arts education also helps students develop and strengthen a variety of learning styles and "addresses whole-child issues of self-esteem, self-worth and positive development," says Tim Katz, director of Community Arts Education for the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC).
According to the GCAC study, for example, 69 percent of Franklin County Ohio's K-3 schools offer 30 to 60 minutes of both visual arts and music per week – a bit higher, on average, than the rest of the state. Nineteen percent receive between 60 to 90 minutes, with relatively similar statistics at grades 4 to 6. Sixty-three percent of middle school students receive 30 to 60 minutes of visual arts per week, 50 percent receive 30 to 60 minutes in music, and 20 percent receive two hours or more of visual arts and music per week. For grades 9 to 12, roughly 50 percent of schools report two hours or more of both visual arts and music, and 25 percent offer 120 minutes or more of drama and theater.
"Franklin County's doing a good job," Katz says. "There's always room to do more, and of course, as an arts council, it's our position that we advocate for studying arts education in the schools, and also for more and more integration of arts disciplines in the other core academic subjects.
"I think there's a strong argument that if you're looking at things and taking on problems from different angles, you're going to be more successful," he says. "Integrating the arts into other learning is bound to enhance the learning. It's going to make it more interesting and it's going to get kids involved who wouldn't otherwise be involved or engaged."
