a paper i wrote for Poli Sci... its amazing!!
What Happened to No Child Left Behind?
For your child to excel at problem solving, you may think he or she needs to study math and sciences. While that may be true, there is an easier way -- through art. You may think this is silly; you may think I am only suggesting that because I am an artist. However, it is a proven fact that the arts help children in all aspects of life; specifically academics, including tests and grades, and also socially, including temperament and human interaction. It is so important for our children that the government added arts education to the No Child Left Behind Act.
Arts education is slowly being cut out of school budgets when it is so important to our children’s education. Due to budget cuts across the country, many schools feel they can cut out certain classes, namely art and music classes, claiming they are less important than other academic staples. It seems that since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (U.S. Congress), also known as NCLB, many schools care more about the kids doing well on federal tests than getting a well-rounded education. Standardized tests, which examine reading, writing and math, are what most of a child’s education is concentrated upon.
There are countless schools across the country that have had astonishing budget cuts, cutting important items such as textbooks and all day pre-school and kindergarten. “A total of 68 teaching and other positions have been eliminated for the school year in New Britain, and there are now six fewer buses serving K-3 students, so those who live within a mile of school will have to walk.” (National Education Association) And that is just a few of the cutbacks in Connecticut; there have been many more in the country. In Florida, art teachers have been taken from their rooms and forced to use carts that they wheel from class to class. In Boise, Idaho 78 positions were eradicated increasing their classroom sizes. And in Providence, Rhode Island 28 positions were cut, as was funding for the arts. If that wasn’t bad enough they eliminated elementary science and technology-enrichment classes. All of these cuts were due to NCLB.
Arts education has been proven to help raise test scores. A study of 25,000 middle and high school students conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles researchers, found that students with high arts involvement did better on tests than students who didn’t participate in the arts. The researchers also found that those arts students watch hours less of TV, participated in community service and were less bored in school. (Ruppert 8) Research has proven that there is a positive relationship between arts education and students’ SAT scores, as shown in the chart below; integration of the arts is of substantial importance. There have been various independent studies that have shown a direct correlation between increased years of arts education and higher SAT test scores. Studies have also shown that the students who have had over four plus years of arts education have SAT scores of almost 100 points higher than their non-artistic counterparts, who have taken one-half year or less (Ruppert 9). Arts education is certainly not the only way to get those scores up, but many studies like these have proven it; the government added the arts to NCLB so they must have realized it’s importance.
Arts Course-taking Patterns and SAT Scores, 2005
VERBAL
MATH
4+ Years arts
534
540
4 years
543
541
3 years
524
516
2 years
508
517
1 year
501
515
½ Year or less
485
502
Average for All SAT tests Takers
508
520
(Ruppert 9)
Critical Links published a study that investigated how arts learning, understanding, and knowledge shape academic triumph and the social advancement of students. The five most important art forms they talk about are visual arts, music, drama, dance and multi-arts (Ruppert 10). Over sixty-five distinct relationships between the arts and academic and social outcomes are documented. These relationships include such associations as: “visual arts instruction and reading readiness; dramatic enactment and conflict resolution skills; traditional dance and nonverbal reasoning; and learning piano and mathematics proficiency” (Ruppert 10). It really is amazing the studies that are done on students and art, studies that government officials have seen and read. Basically, the six major areas of benefit associated with the studying of arts are: reading and language skills; mathematical skills; social skills; motivation to learn; and positive school environment (Ruppert 10). Students who have had arts education have also demonstrated a larger vocabulary than their friends who have had none.
As mentioned earlier, the U.S. Government acknowledged the importance of arts education by incorporating it into NCLB. Subpart 15 of the Act is entitled Arts in Education. Sec. 5551, entitled Assistance for Arts Education, talks about funding for arts education including museum trips and research on its importance (U.S. Congress). It also talks about the relationship and arrangements made with the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts (U.S. Congress). The Act was created to help reshape public education system. In summary, the “law articulates the idea that all students can learn far more than teachers may currently expect of them” (Chapman 3). Schools are required to hire teachers with the proper qualifications for the subjects they teach; parents are asked to monitor the school and their child’s education (Chapman 3). When NCLB was signed into law in 2002, teachers of the arts cheered that the arts were declared a “core” class, but the cheering soon faded when, because of NCLB, it was decided that schools needed to focus more attention and money on the classes that were actually being tested by standardized examinations (MacPherson A-1). Since there is no mandated test on arts as part of NCLB, many schools cut out the program without giving it a second thought. While officials are attempting to develop tests to measure arts knowledge of the students, there is no such test at this point. NCLB points out research that has proven the importance of teaching the arts, yet the government has no protest to schools cutting it out. “Poor, inner-city and rural schools bear a disproportionate share of the losses. Studies show children from low-income families are less likely to be consistently involved in arts activities or instruction than children from high-income families” (Ruppert 1). These are the inner-city and low-income students that may need any extra effort to help excite them in the learning process, but they are the ones that are missing out. The government insists they want to help these kids better their scores but they are not enforcing the entire act that they themselves had researched and put together as NCLB.
According to NCLB Subpart 15, Sec. 5551, subsection (a), the assistance that NCLB gives to a school is:
(1) To support systemic education reform by strengthening arts education as an integral part of the elementary school and secondary school curriculum;
(2) To help ensure that all students meet challenging State academic content standards and challenging State student academic achievement standards in the arts; and
(3) To support the national effort to enable all students to demonstrate competence in the arts.
While this is a good plan for improving schools, none of this is actually implemented. Everything looks good in theory, but there are schools all over Connecticut, furthermore, all over the country that have had to cut their arts education due to lack of funds. When the arts were integrated into the curriculum as part of a complete educational plan, it is documented that an encouraging transformation in the school surroundings and in enhancement of student performance occurred (Ruppert 1). Why then, would the government sit idle while these arts classes are cut out of the curriculum of so many schools?
Part of the problem is that many people do not care as much about arts education. These are the people that see it as a frill, and unnecessary. It is because of this way of thinking that art classes may just become a “lost curriculum” says Brenda Welburn, who is the executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education (MacPherson A-1). “Fact is, however, that these subjects should be considered as fundamental to a child’s education as the three “R’s.” “Art isn’t just a frill in children’s lives,” says Christine Stevenson, who was the chair for a symposium of art educators at Macquarie University in March 2000. “In some centers and schools, art is unfortunately undervalued. It is often put at the end of the day, or considered to be something you do on a Friday afternoon when the teacher is tired. There is often no dedicated space and therefore no opportunity to develop or work on a concept” (Stapleton 16).
“We all want a high-quality education for our children and we want schools to be accountable for providing that,” said Donna Collins, executive director of the Ohio Alliance for Arts education. “But we can’t just be focused on reading, writing and science” (MacPherson A-1). It is by an amazing and awesome margin that the American public believes that the arts are vital to a well-rounded education. More then one-half of Americans rate the significance of arts education a “ten” on a scale of one to ten (Ruppert 1). The people have spoken; shouldn’t this be enough to get the ball rolling?
A report titled “Academic Atrophy: The Condition of the Liberal Arts in America’s Public Schools” establishes that schools with school bodies comprised predominantly of minorities have been primarily affected by cutbacks in arts education. The writers of this report believe this disconcerting with regard to “studies that suggest the arts can help Blacks and Hispanics close the achievement gap with Whites and Asians” (Macpherson A-1). Doesn't this mean that children are being left behind?
If the government didn't push and pressure states and schools to have specific goals there wouldn't be such a scramble to get the kids ready for the tests. What happened to Federalism? The government seems to have set standards that states can’t live up to. They push the states to follow NCLB or they don’t get money for something they need; the states get pushed between a rock and a hard place. Because they are now following NCLB, the schools must achieve the goals set for them; or actually the students must now achieve good grades on these tests that the government has made. The schools thus spend as much time as possible getting the students ready for those government tests.
I have met many teachers who have told me how being a teacher now is worse than ever; it is no longer fun or exciting because their job has become getting these students ready for these standardized tests. I ask you, how is that a well rounded education? Students do not have very much, if any, time in the arts classes that the government itself admitted is important in education. If you talk about NCLB to a teacher they’ll probably make a face, quickly changing their mood. Principals don’t particularly like the Act but put up with it because they must. Superintendents of schools think its fine and governors love it (Toppo). "The kids were all jaded. They were tired - they hated school," said Carmen Meléndez, a bilingual language arts teacher at an elementary school in Orange Country, CA (Toppo). She quit her job last spring after her principle made some changes in the curriculum that made it impossible to give the students the one-on-one help and teaching that she felt they needed. "They're 8 years old, and they're so worried about a passing score," Meléndez says. "I think that's inhumane" (Toppo). Teachers are getting so frustrated by the effect of NCLB that they actually quit their jobs; they would rather lose their jobs than try to work with what the government has given them.
Having grown up before NCLB was even a thought in Bush’s mind; I feel that it is ridiculous that the education of the youth of our nation has come to this. I went through the Connecticut School Systems from first grade through high school and feel that I received a well rounded and good education. While I, like many people, have my weaknesses and strengths in certain subjects, I think I turned out to be an exceptional individual. I am also an artist and cannot imagine my life without the fine arts or music. I also love math but I feel that butting out my art and choir classes for algebra is inconceivable.
While we celebrate the arts for what worth they bring to our children’s’ learning and life, arts education is silently vanishing from our schools (Ruppert 1). A shift in priorities and budget cuts result in arts instruction and activities being cut out of out the class curriculum (Ruppert 1). Rather than taking time from the arts for the societal defined “important” courses, arts education should be left alone! It enhances the learning of our children by helping to raise test scores, making them more well-rounded individuals, and (while you would never know by looking at the school systems) is actually a requirement of NCLB -- so why eliminate it? The government is saying it is important, yet ignores its diminishing presence.
Works Cited
Chapman, Laura H. “No Child Left Behind in Art?” Arts education Policy Review Nov. /Dec. 2004. Vol. 106, No. 2: 3-17
Eisner, Elliot. Ten Lessons the Arts Teach. 2005. 2 November 2006. .
MacPherson, Karen. “Schools Leaving Arts Behind, Many Feel.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 12 July 2004, Sooner edition: pg A-1.
Mason, Christine, et al. “Arts Integration: How Do the Arts Impact Social, Cognitive, and Academic Skills?” 2 November 2006.
Ruppert, Sandra S. “How the ARTS Benefits Students Achievements.” Critical Evidence 2006
Stapleton, John. “Lost Art of Learning.” The Australian 27 March 2000: Page 16.
Toppo, Greg. How Bush Education Law has changed our Schools. USA Today. January 8, 2007. May 1, 2007. < http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-01-07-no-child_x.htm>.
U.S. Congress. “Subpart 15 - Arts in Education” No Child Left Behind. 24 November 2006.
National Education Association. Cuts Leave More and More Public School Children Behind. December 2003/January 2004. May 1, 2007 .