Theatre Education Research, Resources and Advocacy Tools
This page provides a list of resources that make compelling arguments for theatre education. Most education policy is made at the local level, which means you are the best advocate for theatre education in your community. Consider using these tools and publications to strengthen your advocacy on the local level.
Benefits of Arts Education
Overview: Critical Evidence
This booklet makes the case that a child's education is not complete unless it includes the arts. Using fact-based non-technical language, it responds to the needs of policymakers, educators, parents and advocates by documenting the most current and compelling research on the value of arts learning experiences. It draws upon scientific research to concisely answer common questions such as why it is so important to keep the arts strong in our schools and how arts education contributes to student achievement and success.
Third
Space: When Learning Matters
Schools with large populations of students in economic poverty, which are often places of frustration and failure for students and teachers alike, can be transformed into vibrant and successful centers of learning and community life when the arts are infused into their daily culture and curriculum. Third Space: When Learning Matters draws on current research in cognitive science, student engagement, and youth development to explore how and why the arts have enabled troubled schools to succeed where others often fail. All of the featured schools involve artists and arts organizations from the community who become an integral part of school life, partnering with teachers and students in programs during and beyond the school day. More Third Space materials may be found here.
Critical
Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development
This compendium of arts education research studies brings together investigations focused on understanding the cognitive capacities developed in learning and practicing the arts and the relationship of those capacities to students' academic performance and social development. The studies suggest that for certain populations — including young children, students from economically disadvantaged circumstances and students needing remedial instruction — learning in the arts may be uniquely able to advance learning success in other areas. More Critical Links materials may be found here.
The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation
Comprehensive arts education helps students meet the ever-growing demands of the global economy and the information age. The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) and the National Governors' Association (NGA) assembled this issue brief to showcase the positive outcomes of integrating the arts into schooling and youth intervention programs. This report is designed to help governors and their top policy advisors learn about how the arts contribute to the human capital of their states’ future workers.
Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning
This report compiles seven studies of successful arts education programs and synthesizes important shared conclusions. Published in 2000, Champions of Change reported the initial conclusions that have become the basis of much future research.
- The arts reach students who are not otherwise being reached. Strong arts participation makes a more significant difference to the academic performance of students from low-income backgrounds than for high-income students. The arts also combat boredom in successful students who need new challenges.
- Arts education need not be characterized solely in terms of discipline specific education or arts-infused curriculums; it is not an either/or choice that needs to be approached in one way. Learning and engagement stimulate more of the same across disciplines.
- The arts teach workplace necessities – the ability to generate ideas, communicate them to others and bring them to life. Project-based learning in the arts mirrors a very practical work environment.
- The arts transform the learning environment by re-energizing teachers and engaging the community.
Of particular interest:
- “Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement in Music and Theatre Arts” (p.1-18).
- “Stand and Unfold Yourself” A Monograph on the Shakespeare & Company Research Study (p.79-90).
Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts that Value Arts Education
This report identifies success factors common among school districts that support the arts. The central finding: "The single most critical factor in sustaining arts education in their schools is the active involvement of influential segments of the community in shaping and implementing the policies and programs of the district." This includes the involvement of arts organizations. The follow-up report More Lessons focuses on how the profiled schools achieved their arts education successes.
Arts Education Policy
From
the Capital to the Classroom: Four Years of the No Child Left Behind
Act
This 2005-06 report identifies the opportunities and challenges of NCLB implementation. The survey finds that schools are making more time for reading and math by reducing time spent on social studies, science and the arts. Nearly one-quarter of the districts surveyed report that instructional time in art and music had been reduced somewhat or to a great extent to make more time for math and reading. The full report can be found here.
No Subject Left Behind: A Guide to Arts Opportunities in the 2001 NCLB Act
Updated with FY2005 appropriations, this document serves as a guide for state and local arts and education leaders to learn more about the federal education legislation "No Child Left Behind" and its designation of the arts as a “core academic subject.” The report provides a brief overview of the legislation and specific programs as well as links for additional information.
Artscan
Artscan is a searchable database of existing state-level policies regarding the arts. Produced by the Education Commission of the States (ECS), it is a powerful tool for arts advocates seeking to improve their state-level education policies. Click here to view a summary report of state-level arts education policies.
The
Nation’s Arts Report Card
The 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress in the Arts (NAEP) measured the ability of eighth-grade students to create, perform and respond to works of art in music, theater, dance and the visual arts. The NAEP report is often referred to as the "Nation's Arts Report Card." Arts advocates are urging the U.S. Department of Education to stay on track with plans to administer the NAEP in the arts again in 2008, which will provide comparative data on the condition of arts learning in the United States. More NAEP data is available here.
Policy Makers, the Public, and the Press
Education Commission of the States: The Arts – A Lifetime of Learning
ECS is producing a series of commentaries by noted leaders in state and national education policy entitled “Arts and Minds: Conversations about the Arts in Education.” Policy leaders that have been interviewed include: Arkansas Governor and ECS Chairman Mike Huckabee, Getty Foundation Senior Advisor Sir Ken Robinson, former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education Susan Sclafani and three State Education Superintendents.
Visions
of the Future: Education in the Arts
This video from the Arts Education Partnership offers reflections on the past and perspectives on the future of arts education from key leaders of education, arts and philanthropic organizations. The complete DVD is available for purchase from AEP. The transcription of the video is provided above as quotes may prove helpful in state and local-level advocacy efforts.
National Opinion Research Findings
Where does the public stand on integrating the arts into the school curriculum? A new project by the Douglas Gould & Co., funded by the Ford Foundation, suggests that understanding the public's perspective on arts integration is key to developing strategies that will result in lasting arts education opportunities for students. Access interviews with business leaders, community brainstorming sessions, a national poll, and focus groups of parents and teachers on their Keep Arts in Schools website.
Media Paints Arts Education in a Fading Light
The media's framing of arts education is crucial to its level of public support (or lack thereof). The article examines how the national media portrays the status of arts education and concludes with strategic recommendations on how arts education advocates and policy makers can influence the framing of arts education media coverage.
Arts in Education Grants from the Dept. of Education
Theatre companies should be aware of the direct and indirect funding opportunities available from the U.S. Department of Education (USED). Through its Arts in Education fund, the USED awards direct competitive grants to arts organizations in the following two categories.
The Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Program is designed to enable schools and organizations to develop and disseminate comprehensive approaches for integrating the arts into elementary and middle school curricula, strengthening arts instruction in these grade levels, and improving students’ academic performance. Approximately $4 million in funding is available, and the average grant ranges between $225,000 and $275,000. This program must be administered in partnership with a local education agency.
The Professional Development for Arts Educators Program supports the implementation of high-quality professional development model programs in K-12 education for music, dance, drama and visual arts educators. Applications must be initiated by a local education agency, but projects may include partnerships with arts organizations. Programs must focus on the development, enhancement, or expansion of standards-based arts education programs or the integration of arts instruction into other subject area content. The program requires that participating schools must have a student population in which at least 50% are from low-income families (Title I). If your organization partners with schools to provide professional development for teachers, consider bringing this grant program to the attention of your school system.
Links to Arts Education Organizations
Arts
Education Partnership
AEP is a national coalition of arts, education, business, philanthropic and government organizations that demonstrates and promotes the essential role of the arts in the learning and development of every child and in the improvement of America's schools. Their website includes a wealth of resources for research, advocacy, funding opportunities, and more.
Arts Education Leadership Network Initiative
NASAA and its national and state partners in arts education are working to improve the environment for arts education leadership, with a focus on arts education managers at state arts councils, state arts education teams and partnerships, and communication/information sharing. This section of the NASAA Web site serves as a locus of information and resources for the project.
ARTSEDGE
This website is a global electronic venue for students, teachers and artist-educators, designed to help educators teach in, through and about the arts. The site features news updates, extensive teaching materials and professional resources, including job listings and searchable databases for grants and funding, competitions, fellowships and internships.