June 2006

Few national studies have been conducted on students’ 

receipt of arts instruction, particularly in the early grades.1

To address this gap in the literature, this Issue Brief provides 

a descriptive look at the prevalence of arts instruction 

received by first and third grade public school students in 

their schools. Using spring 2000 and spring 2002 data from 

the School Administrator and Teacher Questionnaires2 of 

the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class 

of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), this analysis examines public school 

students’ receipt of arts instruction in first and third grade 

and the changes in weekly arts instruction between these 

grades.3,4

Four areas of the arts are considered in this Issue Brief: music; 

art; dance or creative movement (hereafter referred to as 

dance); and theater or creative dramatics (hereafter referred 

to as theater). For each area of the arts, the prevalence of 

instruction is measured by whether students worked on 

lessons or projects in that topic area at least once per week.5

Measures were also created to examine changes between 

grades for students who had arts instruction in at least one 

grade.6

Schools may differ with respect to their capacity to provide 

instruction in the arts. Therefore, differences by selected school 

characteristics, namely, community type7 and percentage of 

students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch,8 are also 

examined in each arts area. The former measure is used as a 

proxy for the potential availability of instructors, while the 

latter tests whether schools with more scarce resources are 

able to offer the same breadth of instruction as those with 

greater resources available to them.

Weekly Prevalence of Arts Instruction for 

First and Third Grade Public School Students 

In both first and third grade, greater percentages of students 

received at least weekly instruction in music and art than in 

dance and theater, but weekly dance instruction was more 

prevalent among students than weekly theater instruction 

(table 1). However, compared to when they were in first 

grade, third grade students were less likely to receive at least 

weekly instruction in each of the four areas of the arts. For 

example, 79 percent of third-graders were taught music at 

least weekly compared with 86 percent of first-graders, and 

73 percent of third-graders were taught art compared with 

87 percent of first-graders. Among third-graders, 11 and 4 

percent, respectively, were taught dance and theater at least 

Arts Instruction of Public School Students in the 

First and Third Grades

U.S. Department of Education

NCES 2006–099

IssueBrief

weekly, compared with 23 and 11 percent of first-graders.

The analysis also reveals differences by community type and 

by school poverty status. Among third-graders, a greater 

percentage of students in suburban public schools received 

at least weekly music and art instruction compared with 

their counterparts in urban public schools. The percentages 

of suburban versus urban students who received weekly 

instruction in art were 77 percent and 69 percent, respectively. 

Compared with students in high poverty schools in both 

grades, students in low poverty schools were more likely to 

receive weekly instruction in music and art. In contrast, no 

measurable differences were found in either grade between 

students in high and low poverty schools in weekly instruction 

of dance or theater.

Comparisons of Arts Instruction Receipt of Public 

School Students between First and Third Grade 

The longitudinal nature of the ECLS-K data allows for an 

investigation of students’ receipt of arts instruction over 

time. In addition to changes in weekly arts instruction that 

public school students received between first and third grade, 

the ensuing analysis considers the percentage of students who 

received instruction in the arts in at least one grade as well as 

those who did not receive arts instruction in either grade. 

Nearly all public school students received instruction in music 

(99 percent) and art (about 100 percent) at least weekly in 

first or third grade. In contrast, 73 percent of public school 

students received weekly instruction in dance, theater, or both 

in first or third grade. These findings highlight a consistent 

pattern in arts instruction in the early grades: similarities 

existed between the incidences of weekly music and art 

instruction and between the incidences of weekly dance and 

theater instruction. 

As noted above, public school students in the early grades 

were more likely to receive weekly instruction in music or 

art than in dance or theater. Further, the nature of the change 

over time in the incidence of weekly arts instruction differed 

by arts area. For instance, 61 and 67 percent of public school 

students who received weekly instruction in music or art, 

respectively, in either grade received instruction as often in 

third grade as in first; in contrast, only 23 and 31 percent 

of students experienced no change in dance or theater 

instruction, respectively, over the same period. On the other 

hand, of public school students who received arts instruction 


Table 1. Percent of first and third grade students receiving arts instruction at least weekly and changes in instruction from first to third 

grade, by selected characteristics: 1999-2000 and 2001-02

! Interpret data with caution. Standard error is more than one-third as large as the estimate.

1

 Schools where 50 percent or more of the students were eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch are referred to as high poverty schools. The remaining 

schools are considered low poverty schools.

NOTE: First and third grade estimates were calculated using four categories: Never, Less than 1 time per week, 1-2 times per week, and More than 2 times per 

week. Less than weekly category (not shown) includes the Never and Less than 1 time per week categories. At least weekly category includes the 1-2 times 

per week and More than 2 times per week categories. Students were not included in the analysis if they attended a private or public charter school or if they 

changed schools between first and third grade. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. Standard errors are available at http://nces.ed.gov/

pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006099. 

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), 

School Administrator and Teacher Questionnaires, spring 2000 and spring 2002.

Arts instruction by selected school characteristics

Received at least

weekly arts instruction Received

arts instruction 

in first or third 

grade

Change from first to third grade among those 

who received arts instruction in either grade

First grade,

1999-2000

Third grade,

2001-02

Received

less often

Received

as often

Received

more often

Total

Music 86.0 78.8 99.3 23.3 66.5 10.2

Art 87.1 73.1 99.9 30.0 61.2 8.8

Dance and creative movement 22.6 10.7 73.5 54.4 23.0 22.6

Theater and creative dramatics 11.4 3.7 72.6 49.0 30.7 20.3

Community type

Urban

Music 84.7 74.2 99.0 29.1 58.6 12.3

Art 85.3 69.2 100.0 32.5 56.0 11.5

Dance and creative movement 22.6 9.8 74.9 53.0 23.4 23.6

Theater and creative dramatics 11.3 4.7 72.9 48.3 28.8 22.9

Suburban

Music 87.1 81.6 99.7 20.2 69.7 10.2

Art 88.9 76.8 100.0 27.8 62.8 9.5

Dance and creative movement 24.7 11.3 73.4 57.5 21.4 21.1

Theater and creative dramatics 12.0 2.4 72.7 52.2 27.9 19.9

Rural

Music 86.4 80.5 98.8 21.7 69.9 8.4

Art 87.3 73.4 99.6 30.6 64.2 5.2

Dance and creative movement 19.6 10.3 72.3 51.5 24.7 23.7

Theater and creative dramatics 10.0 3.8 ! 72.2 44.9 37.0 18.1

Percent eligible for free and reduced-price 

 lunch1

Low poverty schools

Music 89.8 83.9 99.8 20.6 69.5 9.9

Art 89.7 77.4 99.9 27.4 64.5 8.1

Dance and creative movement 24.4 10.7 75.4 57.8 22.0 20.2

Theater and creative dramatics 11.4 3.1 76.2 50.5 30.6 18.9

High poverty schools

Music 81.5 72.7 98.5 26.0 63.1 10.9

Art 83.2 67.5 99.8 33.5 56.5 10.1

Dance and creative movement 20.2 11.2 71.2 48.8 24.1 27.2

Theater and creative dramatics 10.9 4.8 67.6 45.6 31.5 22.9

Issue Brief June 2006 NCES 2006-099 
The Issue Brief series presents information on education topics of current interest. All estimates shown are based on samples and are subject to sampling variability. 

All differences discussed are statistically significant at the .05 level as measured by two-tailed Student’s t tests (independent t tests for cross-sectional analyses 

and dependent t tests for longitudinal analyses); this means a difference is discussed only if the probability that it is due to chance (i.e., sampling variability) 

is less than 1 in 20. In the design, conduct, and data processing of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveys, efforts are made to minimize the 

effects of nonsampling error, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing error, or other systematic error. For more information on the Early 

Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), visit http://nces.ed.gov/ecls. 

This Issue Brief was authored by Gregory Kienzl, Grace Boachie-Ansah, Lawrence Lanahan, and Emily W. Holt of the Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI). 

This Issue Brief was desktopped by Kalle Medhurst of MacroSys Research and Technology. For further information, contact Edith McArthur, NCES, at 202-502-

7393 or Edith.McArthur@ed.gov. To order additional copies of this Issue Brief or other NCES publications, call 1-877-4ED-PUBS or visit http://www.edpubs.org. 

NCES publications are also available on the Internet at http://nces.ed.gov. 

at least weekly, 23 and 30 percent experienced a decrease 

in music or art instruction, respectively, from first to third 

grade, whereas between 49 and 55 percent received dance or 

theater instruction, respectively, less often in third grade than 

in first. 

Whether or not public school students received arts instruction 

in first or third grade, as well as changes in the receipt of arts 

instruction between these two grades, were related to school 

characteristics. Roughly one-third (32 percent) of students in 

high poverty public schools never received theater instruction 

in either grade compared with 24 percent of students in low 

poverty public schools. Furthermore, of the students who 

received music instruction in either first or third grade, 29 

percent of students in urban public schools received weekly 

music instruction less often in third grade than in first 

compared with 20 percent of students in suburban public 

schools and 22 percent in rural public schools. 

Conclusion

In both first and third grade, most public school students 

received weekly instruction in music and art at least weekly, 

while weekly instruction in dance and theater occurred less 

often within each year. With regard to changes across grades, 

a majority of students who received weekly instruction in 

the arts experienced no change in music and art instruction 

from first to third grade, whereas roughly half experienced a 

decrease in dance and theater instruction. In each arts area, 

the incidence of instruction also varied somewhat by school 

characteristics. Suburban public school students, for example, 

received more weekly music and art instruction in the third 

grade than their urban counterparts.

While this Issue Brief contributes to the body of knowledge 

on arts instruction, the report does have limitations. For 

instance, the use of the Less than weekly and At least weekly 

categories allows for only a limited measure of receipt of 

arts instruction in the early grades. Also, the analysis does 

not capture either the quality or the intensity of instruction, 

in terms of hours spent or number of sessions per day, of 

students’ lessons in the arts. 

Endnotes

1

 An exception is Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary 

Schools, a school-level study of arts education at both the elementary 

and secondary levels (Carey et al. 2002). 

2

 Although most items used in this analysis reflect questions posed 

to teachers, the student is the unit of analysis.

3

 Data are representative of the 2 million first-grade students attending 

a U.S. public school in 1999–2000 who were in the same school in 

third grade in 2001–02 out of the total estimated population of 3.9 

million students. Students were not included in the sample if they 

attended a private or public charter school, or if they changed schools 

between first and third grade. With these exclusions, the size of the 

sample used in the analysis decreased from approximately 9,100 

students to 8,296 students. The longitudinal weight, C45CW0, was 

used for all analyses. 

4

 Data are based solely on teacher reports on work in each of the four 

arts areas and thus, do not provide a complete description of public 

school students’ experience with the arts in their schools.

5

 For both the prevalence and change analyses, first and third grade 

estimates were calculated using four categories of occurrence: Never, 

Less than 1 time per week, 1-2 times per week, and More than 2 times 

per week. From these initial categories, two reporting categories were 

derived: Less than weekly (includes Never and Less than 1 time per 

week) and At least weekly (includes 1-2 times per week and More 

than 2 times per week). For the sake of brevity, only the At least 

weekly category is featured in the adjoining table.

6

 Discussions of changes in arts instruction are based on the Less than 

weekly and At least weekly categories. Thus, the analysis does not 

capture all changes that occurred between grades. For example, if a 

student had art instruction four times per week in first grade but only 

three times per week in third grade, no change is reported.

7

 The term “community type” describes three categories that are 

defined in the ECLS-K: urban, suburban, and rural. 

8

 To determine the percentage of students receiving free or reducedpriced lunch in a school, the number of students eligible for free 

and reduced-priced lunch was divided by school enrollment. For 

schools with missing data for either of these variables, participation 

in a “school-wide” Title I program was used as a proxy for whether 

or not free or reduced-priced lunch eligibility was at or above 50 

percent. In 1999–2000, schools qualified for school-wide Title I 

funding when at least 50 percent of students were eligible for free 

or reduced-priced lunch. Schools where 50 percent or more of the 

students were eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch are referred 

to as high poverty schools. The remaining schools are considered 

low poverty schools. 

References

Carey, N., Kleiner, B., Porch, R., and Farris, E. (2002). 

Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 

1999–2000 (NCES 2002-131). U.S. Department of Education. 

Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.

NCES 2006-099 Issue Brief June 2006
Arts Instruction of Public School Students in the 

NCES 2006–099 First and Third Grades

The Issue Brief series presents information on education topics of current interest.

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