Thursday, November 18, 2010

Findings Paragraph #2

An on-going struggle to keep our fading arts in schools has caused the public to ask a slew of questions; Everyone is asking does art even help students? One case study over a variety of middle schools in the south-eastern United States questioned students taking fine arts classes. Their results were overwhelmingly similar. They all enjoyed these courses and found new friends, new mediums of expression, and new views of themselves in a more positive light. These students all declared to have been positively affected by these classes and have new skills and better encouragement to do better in their core academic classes (Moorefield-Lang). One prominent report by School Administrator boasted the impressive statistic that 41% of Florida's dropouts chose to stay because they were more engaged in their fine arts classes than their academic courses. This same report had the results from a questionnaire filled out by over 10 million high school students, priding in the turn out that those who attended more years of fine arts courses made substantially higher verbal, math, and composite SAT scores than those who did not take as many years of fine arts classes. In Rhode Island Reynolds Art Magnet School was progressively ahead. The 5th grade class took the 2008 standardized tests as any other child, but 90% of the children who took the reading portion were proficient or greater. This public school was shut down for its small size, the art magnet program removed entirely, and all of its prior students sent to a larger school (Reynolds). Who knows how these excelling students are doing now that their special art magnet program has been taken from them. The Florida dropout rate could increase another 41% should they decide to remove art as well. The arts are a core format of learning for special needs students as well as the student body as a whole. Arts have an enormous impact on the scores and learning of children.

1 comment:

  1. This actually makes me really mad to look at this information. The fact that someone would want to take away this class, especially if it is really good for certain people, is unbelievable. I do agree that when you have an art class you tend to pay attention more in school because it is a break and keeps your mind open. Great topic Amanda!

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