The Arts and the SAT
Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT, according to reports by the College Entrance Examination Board. In 2006, SAT takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 43 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or experience in the arts.
Vocational Preparation
“GE hires a lot of engineers. We want young people who can do more than add up a string of numbers and write a coherent sentence. They must be able to solve problems, communicate ideas and be sensitive to the world around them. Participation in the arts is one of the best ways to develop these abilities.”
V. Smith, President of The General Electric Foundation
“In fact, mastery of the arts and humanities is just as closely correlated with high earnings, and, according to our analysis, that will continue to be true. History, music, drawing, painting, and economics will give our students an edge just as surely as the study of math and science.”
Tough Choices or Tough Times: The Report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, 2007 page 29
“The academic benefits of arts education also go beyond math and reading. An analysis of U.S. Department of Education data on 25,000 middle and high school students found that students who were highly involved in the arts performed better on a variety of academic measures than other students.”
Commentary by Rod Paige and Mike Huckabee: Education Week, January 26, 2005, Pg. 40, 52
Personal Growth
The arts are critical to the development of ways of thinking and learning that equip students to see relationships, elaborate on ideas, approach problems in multiple ways, reconcile differing methods and viewpoints, stick with a task and demonstrate other hallmarks associated with success in school and that basically make getting through life a lot easier.
Time for Teachers, Vol. 3