Conclusion

Our analysis finds that the New York City high schools that are struggling most to keep their students on track to graduate are offering the least in the way of music, theater, dance, and visual arts—all subject areas that have well-documented success in motivating students to stay in school. The struggling schools have fewer arts teachers, fewer arts classrooms, and fewer cultural partnerships, among a host of other disparities. The analysis further shows that schools offering students the most access to arts education have the highest graduation rates.

Beyond the traditional benefits that an arts education provides—the opportunity to learn to play an instrument, to express oneself through dance and movement, to develop creative and critical thinking skills and the ability to work collaboratively with peers—the arts cut across learning styles and language barriers and engage students who might otherwise be uninterested in school and on a path to dropping out. The arts give students something to look forward to, and in New York City, a school system with one of the lowest graduation rates in the country, engagement is critical.

The findings suggest that both locally and nationally, we need to take into account the benefits of arts education when addressing the graduation crisis and improving struggling high schools. Strategies that rely on intervention only when students are on the verge of dropping out are insufficient. Relying on a credit recovery process or “discharging” the habitually truant to mask a portion of systemic failure does not contribute to school improvement.

Curriculum and instruction do matter—and participation in the arts has been shown to produce positive outcomes for students. School and education leaders would be well advised to expand their approach to school reform by providing a greater array of course offerings and resources to support learning in and through the arts.

This is true not only for high schools. Students at all grade levels benefit from a robust arts education. Indeed, for students to fully reap the benefits of high school arts instruction, it is critical that they build on a solid foundation of knowledge and understanding that comes with coursework in earlier grades.

New York State has some of the most rigorous and well-developed learning standards for arts instruction in the nation. Adhering to the state’s standards and requirements would be a valuable first step toward ensuring that every student receive a minimum level of instruction in the arts, regardless of socioeconomic background, their school leadership, or the uncertainties of the budget process. To that end, the State Education Department should develop a protocol to ensure compliance with existing mandates at public schools in New York City and across the state.

The section that follows outlines several other policy recommendations that would improve schools through a renewed emphasis on providing quality arts education at all grade levels. Implementing these recommendations would ensure that all of New York City’s 1.1 million public school students would gain greater access to the benefits that an arts education has to offer.

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