DID YOU KNOW ARTS EDUCATION CAN:

• Improve student success
Data from the College Entrance Examination Board shows that students who take four years or more of arts classes while in high school score 100 points better on their SATs than those who take one-half year or less. (Source: Education Testing Service, 2000)

• Improve a school and community image
The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) 2000 Report links arts education with economic realities, asserting that young people who learn the rigors of planning and production in the arts will be valuable employees in the idea-driven workplace of the future. (Source: Champions of Change, p. 32. Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Study: Imaginative Actually: Learning in the Arts During Nonschool Hours)

• Improve student retention
Longitudinal data of 25,000 eighth- and 10th-grade students reveal that involvement in the arts results in lower drop-out rates and more community service. (Source: Dr. James Catterall, Americans for the Arts’ Involvement in the Arts and Success in Secondary School Monographs. Vol. 1, #9, December 1997)

• Build better understanding and acceptance of others
Controlled research conducted for the YouthARTS Development Project by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1996 demonstrates that arts programs improve communication skills with peers and adults.

 

PLEASE - MAKE THE ARTS A PRIORITY IN SCHOOLS!