Denton Independent School District

Washington, DC -- At-risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school also tend to have better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement, according to a new NEA report, The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies. The study reports these and other positive outcomes associated with high levels of arts exposure for youth of low socioeconomic status.

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth study uses four separate longitudinal studies (three from the U.S. Department of Education) to track children, teenagers, and young adults who had high or low levels of arts engagement in or out of school. Those activities included coursework in music, dance, theater, or the visual arts; out-of-school arts lessons; or membership, participation, and leadership in arts organizations and activities, such as band or theater.

The study focuses on the potential effects of arts engagement on youth from the lowest quarter of socioeconomic status. Although most of the arts-related benefits in this report applied only to these at-risk youth, some findings also suggest benefits for youth from advantaged backgrounds.

"Arts education doesn't take place in isolation," said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "It has to take place as part of an overall school and education reform strategy. This report shows that arts education has strong links with other positive educational outcomes."

Better academic outcomes -- Teenagers and young adults of low socioeconomic (SES) status who have a history of in-depth arts involvement ("high arts") show better academic outcomes than low-SES youth with less arts involvement ("low arts"). They earn better grades and have higher rates of college enrollment and attainment.

Higher career goals -- There is a marked difference between the career aspirations of young adults with and without arts backgrounds.

More civically engaged - Young adults who had intensive arts experiences in high school are more likely to show civic-minded behavior than young adults who did not, with comparatively high levels of volunteering, voting, and engagement with local or school politics. In many cases, this difference appears in both low-and high-SES groups.

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies was prepared for the National Endowment for the Arts by James S. Catterall, University of California Los Angeles, with Susan A. Dumais, Louisiana State University, and Gillian Hampden-Thompson, University of York, U.K. The report is one of the NEA’s latest efforts to conduct and commission research that examines evidence of the value and impact of the arts in other domains of American life, such as education, health and well-being, community liveability, and economic prosperity. The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth is available at arts.gov.

Brain science specialists (neuroscientists) have discovered something that fine artists have known intuitively for a long time — the arts change the way human minds work. They create cross connections, increase reasoning ability and enhance thinking.

It is not a coincidence that many doctors, engineers, mathematicians and physicists also are artists and musicians.

The first fraternity to step onto the moon was Kappa Kappa Psi — National Band Fraternity when college band member Neil Armstrong took one small step. And numerous doctors continue to play in orchestras. One that I know credits her ability to hear heart murmurs well because of her training with violin.

As visual artists, we teach children to see differently. As musicians, we teach them to hear differently. As dancers, we teach them to move differently and in theater we teach them to act in ways beyond the ordinary.

In the fine arts, we expect our students to do more than be passive receivers of entertainment. Arts educators have known this since the times of the ancient Greeks.

Plato and other Greek philosophers were convinced that teaching aesthetics and music and participating in theater were every bit as important to the growth of a child as were philosophy, mathematics and physics.

Now, some 2,000 years later, the neuroscientists are able to prove the links in how the brain changes when the arts are used. The arts change how the human mind works — in many positive ways.

There are many examples in the current research: “Children exposed to a multiyear program of music instruction involving training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal and practical skills display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers,” according to a study published in the journal of Psychology of Music.

“A Harvard-based study has found that children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training — not only in tests of auditory discrimination and finger dexterity (skills honed by the study of a musical instrument), but also on tests measuring verbal ability and visual pattern completion (skills not normally associated with music).”

The Dana Foundation has recently published a series of articles by renowned experts in brain research that show that the arts have distinct effects on different regions of the brain and different cognitive skills. The report can be accessed through the Center for Educator Development in the Fine Arts by visiting http://www.cedfa.org. The center continues to work with Texas educators to provide the best in Fine Arts instruction and the relation of Fine Arts to other Core courses.

The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization with particular interests in brain science, immunology and education.

In addition to making grants for research in neuroscience and immunology, Dana produces books and periodicals from the Dana Press; coordinates the international brain awareness week campaign; and supports the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, a nonprofit organization of more than 250 neuroscientists, including 10 Nobel laureates, committed to advancing public awareness of the progress of brain research.

Stephen Duncan is director of fine arts for the Galveston Independent School District.

All middle school campuses offer students an opportunity to participate in art, band, choir, orchestra, and theatre arts. At the high school level, students can further enhance their learning through special classes in art, band, jazz band, choir, jazz choir, orchestra, jazz orchestra, theatre arts, and dance. In addition, Advanced Placement (AP) classes are offered in art and music theory. Both middle school and high school programs participate in University Interscholastic League (UIL) contests, as well as in district, region, area, and state levels of competition sponsored by the various disciplines.

Locally, Denton ISD students attend special age-appropriate fine arts programs offered by the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University that are co-sponsored by the Greater Denton Arts Council and the school district. Many students also experience events at various art museums throughout the Metroplex, at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, and at the Bass Concert Hall in Ft. Worth. In addition, students have an opportunity to travel to invitational contests and festivals held throughout the state and nation, as well as to participate in cultural exchange programs and performances on an international level.

All elementary students receive weekly instruction in art and music with approximately 89% of the secondary student population receiving training in one or more fine arts discipline. The district's student participation in arts instruction (K-12) averages 94%. Fine arts programs in Denton ISD are fortunate to enjoy broad support from the school district, Denton arts groups, the universities, and the local community.


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