Institute of Education Sciences
June 2009
Has NCLB sacrificed art, history, and science on the altar of math and reading? Some say yes, others no, but actual data have been elusive. At least in the case of the music and visual arts, this NAEP report suggests some concrete (but complex) answers. NAEP has not gathered data in this area since 1997 (perhaps an indication of how NCLB has deflected our focus from these subjects) so, though not a causal study of NCLB's impact, this report does shed light on how the study of the arts has changed over the past eleven years. The assessment was administered to a national sample of nearly 8,000 eighth graders in both public and private schools; half were assessed in music, half in the visual arts. Student performance can at best be described as middling. Measured on a scale of 0-300, music scores range from 105 for the lowest-performing students to 194 for the high-flyers. Visual arts scores were very similar. (Unlike other NAEP tests, this one included a variety of assessment items, even asking students to create an original work of art. Thus results are not reported in terms of the familiar NAEP achievement levels.) And while comparisons can only be made between 1997 and 2008 on certain items, we see a significant decrease in music performance since 1997 while performance in the visual arts remained steady. Achievement gaps also persist: White and Asian scores were 22 to 32 points higher on both tests than those of black and Hispanic students. But while some scores dropped, availability of music and art classes seems not to have diminished. Fifty-seven percent of eighth graders attend schools where, according to their principals, music instruction is offered at least three times a week and 47 percent attend schools where visual arts is offered at least as often; these figures haven't changed appreciably since 1997. Some might cite this as evidence that the arts haven't been crowded out by NCLB, but note that the data cover eighth grade only; lower grades may have been more vulnerable to a reading-math squeeze. Note, too, that NAEP data don't tell us how many students in schools actually participate in the arts, or whether these offerings are any good for the youngsters who choose to take them. Hence, we don't yet really have as many answers as we might wish. You can find it here.
