Major Arts Education Study Released

A study about arts education in America that has been more than 10-years in the making has been released. Check out Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools 1999-2000 and 2009-10.

According to a blog post on the American for the Arts blog, here are some of the facts and issues highlighted: 

• While music and visual art are widely available in some form, 6 percent of the nation’s public elementary schools offer no specific instruction in music, and 17 percent offer no specific instruction in the visual arts.

• Nine percent of public secondary schools reported that they did not offer music, and 11 percent did not offer the visual arts.

• Only 3 percent offer any specific dance instruction and only four percent offer any specific theatre instruction in elementary schools. In secondary schools the numbers improve somewhat as 12 percent offer dance and 45 percent offer theatre. 

The worst thing the report reveals is that schools with the highest percentage of free or reduced-price lunch-eligible populations are significantly less likely to provide students with access to arts education at both the elementary and secondary levels. So, the nation's poorest students are receiving the least.

Here two resources that provide information about the state of arts education in Oklahoma:

Music Education in Oklahoma Schools
Arts Education State Policy Database Results