To Parents of Prospective Student-Artists
The evidence is overwhelming: when students combine arts education with their core curricula, overall performance improves.
Studies across the past several decades have shown that students who engaged with the arts in a classroom setting:
increased their scores in traditional classes;
displayed improved motivation across the board;
cultivated a heightened sense of community, and;
developed crucial social skills such as, yes, ’sharing and caring.’
“Students who took four years of arts and music classes while in high school scored an average of 92 points higher on their SATs than students who took only one-half year or less.”
The Brookings Institute, in a wide-scale study that randomly assigned appropriate funding for arts education to certain schools, found that the schools with meaningful arts education had “remarkable impacts on students’ academic, social, and emotional outcomes. Relative to students assigned to the control group, treatment school students experienced a 3.6 percentage point reduction in disciplinary infractions, an improvement of 13 percent of a standard deviation in standardized writing scores, and an increase of 8 percent of a standard deviation in their compassion for others.”
Writing for Americans for the Arts, arts leadership educator Lisa Phillips distills the benefits to students of arts education into ten distinct skills: “Creativity, Confidence, Problem Solving, Perseverance, Focus, Non-Verbal Communication, Receiving Constructive Feedback, Collaboration, Dedication, and Accountability.”
Choosing where to send your child to receive an education is incredibly important, and Arcadia Unified Arts is sensitive to the weight of that decision. We believe in the ‘whole child.’ Core classes are vital and should be studied rigorously. Just as important, though, is the lens through which your child interacts with those core classes, their peers, and the world at large. Is rigorous adherence to the standardized-test model going to instill confidence in your child? Does creativity and constructive feedback blossom from arithmetic?
If you’re doubtful about the benefit of arts education on standardized-test scores, consider this: Americans for the Arts studied SAT scores in 2015, and found that “students who took four years of arts and music classes while in high school (only 18 percent of test-takers) scored an average of 92 points higher on their SATs than students who took only one-half year or less (16 percent of test takers). Scores of 1077 vs. 985, respectively.”
“Every child is an artist”
Sharpening the brain in core classes must be matched with an educational playground in which your student learns how to live. Heightened confidence, originality, positive interactions with colleagues and teachers… The arts assists your child in achieving everything you hope they garner from an education.
Simply put: an education is complete only when the arts are involved.
The benefits of arts education, as shown here, are practically useful, constantly applicable skills that, within your student’s education, are practiced most rigorously and successfully through the arts.
The world is more demanding of children today than ever before, and the outlet provided by arts education reaps incredible empirical and emotional benefits. We believe Picasso when he said, “Every child is an artist.” We believe in your student-artist, too.
Arcadia Unified Arts has state-of-the-art facilities, professional faculty, and a program for every child, be their interest music, dance, theater, and/or visual arts.
Take a look around. We’re here for you and your future student.