Louisiana Arts Education School Survey
Louisiana Arts in Education School Survey 2009 Key Findings i Key Findings School Survey Introduction With the passage of Act 175 (2007), public education in Louisiana received a great engine for the inclusion of arts instruction in public schools. Often quoted wisdom indicates that to know where you want to go you must know from where you come. The goal of this study was to create a baseline of arts education programming in Louisiana s schools and to gauge public support for the arts. Three surveys make up this body public, school and district level. The surveys were commissioned by the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, Office of Cultural Development and conducted by KID smart, a nonprofit arts education organization based in New Orleans. School Survey Respondents from the schools (generally principals or assistant principals) indicate that schools average 64% African American and 34% Caucasian populations with more than 78% of the student body receiving free lunch. Most of the schools (67%) have annual operating budgets of under $500,000 and most schools conduct fund-raising efforts through corporate and individual donors, PTA, grants and fundraising events. While just over 50% of the schools indicated that they do not have a specific budget for art education, 66% indicated that the arts are part of their core curriculum and almost 70% of schools have dedicated space for both visual art and music. Eighty percent of the respondents report that inter-disciplinary learning is encouraged. While schools indicated the arts are part of core curriculum, they also reported a paucity of arts specialists on staff: almost half of the schools had no visual art specialist and almost 40% had no music specialist on staff. Dance and theater specialist were even rarer: 91% of schools had no dance specialist and 86% had no theater specialist on staff. Paid by the school NO full time specialist ONE specialist MORE THAN ONE specialist Visual Arts 49% 37% 14% Music 39% 40% 21% Dance 91% 7% 2% Theater 86% 13% 2% Where schools did have arts specialists, most schools had only one specialist in a discipline to serve the full student body of a school. A small number of schools reported the use of part-time arts specialists or specialists paid by grants and a handful of schools used volunteers to teach visual and performing arts. Where arts instruction is taking place, survey results indicate a lack of depth in the instruction: the majority of schools teach general arts with very little specialization or depth of instruction, extremely limited AP instruction in the arts (77% have no AP arts program) and minimal summer enrichment (81% reporting no summer enrichment in the arts).
Louisiana Arts in Education School Survey 2009 Key Findings ii These responses indicate that general classroom teachers are providing arts instruction, and not surprisingly, schools opined that of professional development opportunities in the arts, arts integration would hold the most interest (84%) with strong interest in understanding how arts instruction affects school climate and student performance (65%), arts concepts, skills and techniques (61%), art instruction (56%), and ongoing criteria-based arts assessment (38%). Schools indicate the factors that currently impact schools ability to integrate more art is funding (90%), space/facilities (65%), access to materials and supplies (55%) and qualified artists and teachers (49%). Schools access to information about available arts resources is also limited with 83% of respondents indicating that there is not a current list or directory of community arts resources available to schools and 62% of the schools lacking collaborations with local cultural institutions. When asked how supportive schools thought their parents/guardians would be of additional efforts to incorporate the arts in the classroom, a resounding 78% felt either enthusiastic or somewhat positive about the prospect. When asked the same question about how teachers would respond, answers were similar with 84% of the schools indicating that teachers would be either enthusiastic or somewhat positive about having the opportunity for additional training and resources to assist them in incorporating the visual and performing arts during active class time. School responses indicate more of a will toward arts education than a way of teaching and funding arts education in their schools. Results at a school level mirror what the district survey demonstrated - that the arts are suffering in both quantity and quality and also that arts experiences are limited.