Statewide arts ed database highlights gaps in hopes of spurring change
At first, the numbers don't seem so bad.
Last school year, 101,374 students attending California schools had no access to arts instruction at school, according to data released Thursday by a statewide arts education collaborative. That's just 3 percent of students who had not a single arts course offered at their school.
But if you examine the data through the lens of the little-known part of the education code that references arts instruction, the picture is much more bleak.
While 97 percent of secondary students have access to some level of arts education (at least one course at school), only 26 percent have access to all four arts disciplines – music, theater, visual and dance – as required by state law.
California’s education code requires schools to give students access to music, theater, dance and visual art from first to twelfth grade. In first through sixth grade, schools are required to teach all four disciplines every year. And for older students,districts are required to at least offer the classes.
While 86 percent of schools provide at least one arts discipline, only 12 percent offer all four required by law.
But the law is not enforceable: many districts are unaware of it and there's no penalty for noncompliance.
"A lot of people will stand up and say we want all students to have access to participate in arts education, but they’re not really serious about it until we start counting," said Bob Morrison, chief executive officer of Quadrant Research, one of the research partners. "Because that’s the only way you’re going to know if you’re on your way to that goal or not."
The statewide arts coalition Create CA, in partnership with the California Department of Education and the nationwide Arts Education Data Project, released the findings Thursday along with a first-of-its-kind online database that slices arts instruction offerings by county, school district and individual school sites. The goal is to give school leaders, arts advocates and parents a clear picture of the state of arts education in California and hopefully increase access.
"We’ve known that having good data has been a challenge," said Craig Cheslog, chair elect of Create CA, the state's arts education coalition. "We knew that if we wanted to try to get better equity in arts education, the first step is knowing what students are receiving it and this gives us a baseline."
The source of the data is student enrollment in arts courses at specific school sites for grades 6 to 12 submitted to the state's data system for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years.
Elementary schools aren’t required to record courses in the same way, which is why those schools are not included. Community partnerships, teaching artist visits or Statewide arts ed database highlights gaps in hopes of spurring change | 89.3 KPCC: