Education Law

Good news and bad news when it comes to the arts

Results are in for the 2008 NAEP arts assessment. This is our first look in more than a decade at how much arts instruction our nation’s students receive and how well they know their art and with all the talk about the arts disappearing from our schools BoardBuzz has been quite anxious for the results.

BoardBuzz was (pleasantly) surprised to learn that our nation’s eighth graders are getting just as much arts instruction as they did back in 1997. However, there is room for improvment since just half of eighth graders nationwide have an arts class that meets at least three times a week. Furthermore, less than two in ten eighth graders have taken a school trip to an art museum or gallery to see works of art for themselves instead of in a textbook.

However, the most improvement needs to be made in closing the achievement gaps between poor and minority students and their more advantaged peers. Unfortunately, achievement gaps are not just in academic subjects like math and reading.  The gaps in the NAEP arts scores are similar to those on NAEP’S math, reading, and science assessments as well.

Just as with other NAEP releases and other timely reports, you can get a full summary at the Center for Public Education.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on June 15, 2009 (boomark / email).