The I mportance of Art in Elementary Education

Art is an important component of elementary education. Including art in the elementary classroom has shown to have many positive benefits including helping students develop intellectually, creating better understanding of different perspectives and cultures and improving test score. Even though there is evidence supporting the importance of art in the elementary class room, time spent of art has been decreasing. The decrease in time has been contributed to focusing on high-stakes testing, lack of funding and a lack of teacher preparation focusing on art. This project examined the different obstacles which prohibit students from receiving art at the elementary level and focused on the use of art integrated lessons as a means of including art in the classroom. For this project, the author worked with a local fifth grade class, implemented a lesson plan and evaluated the student’s engagement. THE IMPORTANCE OF ART 3 The Importance of Art in Elementary Education In a recent class here at California State University Monterey Bay, the author’s professor asked the whole class what their favorite subject was when they were in elementary school. After ruling out recess as a subject, the most mentioned subject was Art. The author also mentioned art as her favorite subject. Many were able to recall specific projects or plays that they participated in and how it still stuck with them all these years later. As a class the author recalled creating California Missions, relief maps, plays and many other pieces of art that helped the author understand the subject a little more, or learn something that the author wouldn’t have just in a book. Recently, as the author started working in different school sites as a service learner the author has had the opportunity to see the great joy and deeper understanding that creating something brings to the students. In the days of high stakes testing, art education has taken a back seat. In a conversation with one local teacher, she said that “only a handful of teachers at her site teach about different artist or styles of art” (K. Bradley, personal communication, February 21, 2016). There are many different people involved and affected by lack of arts in elementary education. School boards, who set curriculum, principals, teachers, who implement the curriculum, students, parents and the community in which the school are in are all affected by this growing lack of arts in the classroom. Why Arts in Elementary School Classrooms Why art an important component in early childhood is multi-faceted. In To Move Forward: An Affirmation of Continuing Commitment to Arts Education (2001) the author explains that studying one or more forms of art helps a students develop intellectually. In THE IMPORTANCE OF ART 4 addition, art creates a unique access point for the student to understand multiple cultures and different importance historical contributions (To Move Forward, 2001). In addition, arts-based learning pedagogies have shown to have positive impact on multiple student academic performances (Lee, B., & Cawthon, S., 2015). Arts education which includes visual, music, dance and drama. Parsard and Spiegelman (2012) have found that there has been a decrease in time spent on the arts except for music. Recently, there has been an increase is the amount of time spent of math and language arts instruction (Parsad & Spiegelman, 2012). This increase in time devoted to language arts and math has come at a cost to time spent on the arts. In the Parsard and Spiegeman (2012) study that tracked access to arts education for a ten-year period, concluded that over 1.3 million elementary students do not receive any music instruction and over 4 million receive no instruction in visual arts. Which is a decrease from the decade that the study was first conducted in. Arts Instruction in the Era of High-Stakes Testing Under the Bush administration The No Child Left Behind Act was put into law in 2002, requiring all states by law to introduce school accountability systems (Dee & Jacob, 2010). The accountability comes in the form of annual testing of students in mathematics and reading (Dee & Jacob, 2010). This era of test resulted in changes in the way schools focused time, spending less time on the arts. (Hanford, 2016). Part of the reason for this decrease in time spent on the art is due to teachers having to focus on state testing (Hanford, 2016). Baker (2012) argues that students across the United States have little or no access to art because of policies to increase language arts and mathematics scores. These tests, known as high-stakes testing, which is any test that is used for accountability of the school, district, student or teachers (Hanford, 2016; Eckhoff, 2008). More THE IMPORTANCE OF ART 5 time is being spent focusing on material specific to the test themselves. With President Obama’s “Race to the top” initiative, for schools to be eligible for funding, they must accept that a teacher's job is tied to their test scores (A learning point, 2010). That is to say, if a teacher is not able to raise their students test scores, then they will need to find another profession (Hanford, 2016). Which such importance placed on the scores of standardized tests it is no wonder that teachers are spending more time on preparation. In fact, in New York State, during the 2014-2015 school year, for grades 3-6 teachers spent on average 1,100 minutes specifically dedicated to teaching to the standardized testing process. In addition to teaching for the tests, students all across the country spend weeks every year actually taking the test themselves (Hammond, 2011). Funding is also an issue for arts education at the public school. In New York City, in the 20192010 school year alone, the budget for the arts education decreased by almost $14 million or 4.3 percent (Accelerating Arts Education, 2011). This was the fourth year consecutively for a decrease in budget specific for arts in New York City elementary school (Accelerating Arts Education, 2011). This cut meant the loss of not only qualified art instructors either on a part time or a full time bases but also for supplies need to implement art programs across the city (Accelerating Arts Education, 2011). Arts in the California Public Schools In 2001 California adopted art standards for all public schools which include four domains of art; theater, visual art, dance and music (Status of Arts Education in California Public Schools, n.d.). Even though it is a standard for all public schools in California to teach art, this article reports that due to federal accountability requirements of math and reading (high-stakes testing), California school’s arts education is “highly inconsistent” in terms of quality as well as THE IMPORTANCE OF ART 6 in frequency (Status of Arts Education in California Public Schools, n.d.). In addition to there being minimal time being spent across the board on the arts, students who are considered at risk or disadvantaged are often forced to take remedial courses instead of participating in arts based projects to help bring up test scores (Status of Arts Education in California Public Schools, n.d.). Through research the author has found that including art into elementary curriculum in beneficial for student’s intellectual development (To Move Forward, 2001). The need for art in school is clear, there are many obstacles facing art integration in the elementary classroom, the author is focusing on three possible solutions; funding, teacher’s preparation, and art integration with a focus on Studio Habits of Mind (Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema, S., & Sheridan, K. 2007). Reasonableness Cost Time Crowdfunding (Donorschoose.org) Pro-Everyone has access to site. Con-Not everyone may be comfortable setting up page Pro-There is no cost to set up. Con-There is no con for cost. ProTakes little time to set up. Con-May not reach goal in reasonable amount of time, if at all. Arts Integration (with Studio Habits of Mind Framework) Pro-Universal, may be used with any grade level ConTraining, Funding, time. Pro-There is no pro for this option. Con-Can be expensive to purchase supplies ProThere are no pros for this option. Conmay take more time to set up lessons. Teacher Preparation Pro-If teachers have training, they are more likely to include are. Con-Teachers already ProThere are no pros for this option. ConTeachers may not want to pay to take additional classes ProCan be done over length of time. Con-Possible increase length of time of school. THE IMPORTANCE OF ART 7