Professor Pat Thomson, CLA Senior Evidence Associate, surveys the latest international research on arts and cultural learning. Each month Professor Thomson puts a spotlight on a report that is particularly relevant for CLA, and which adds to the growing body of evidence on the value of arts teaching and experiences, in and out of school.
Dalane, Kari (2024) Trends in arts education in United States public schools from 1988–2018, Arts Education Policy Review, 125:4, 328-340, DOI:
10.1080/10632913.2023.2240929
Dalane examined long-term trends in arts education availability in U.S. public schools from 1988 through 2018. She wanted to understand how arts education was prioritised in American schools over three decades and to identify gaps in access among different student populations.
Dalane’s research covered two policy periods: (1) the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 1988-2015), which categorised arts as one of many “core academic subjects,” and (2) the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) which specifically named art and music as essential components of a “well-rounded education.” ESSA clarified that Title I funds—a major source of federal support for schools serving disadvantaged students—could be used for arts education, and introduced additional funding streams through Title IV, Part A to support arts programs. In other words, ESSA both had the expressive arts as part of a broad and balanced curriculum and provided funds to help achieve this goal.
Dalane was able to take both a broad national perspective and a detailed state-level analysis by analysing nationally representative data from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and the National Teachers and Principals Survey (NTPS), alongside administrative data from North Carolina.
Her analysis shows that for decades, arts education in American schools reflected broader patterns of educational inequality. Primary and secondary schools serving predominantly Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) students and those with higher concentrations of low-income students consistently employed fewer full-time arts teachers. This disparity was particularly pronounced during the NCLB era when accountability pressures focused intensely on tested subjects like maths and reading.
But there was a significant shift that coincided with ESSA’s implementation. While the national data shows a gradual narrowing of staffing disparities, the student-level arts enrolment patterns (primary and secondary) in North Carolina reveal a remarkable reversal of fortune for economically disadvantaged students. Prior to ESSA (2007-2015), these students were consistently less likely to enrol in arts courses than their more affluent peers. However, in the years immediately following ESSA’s passage (2016-2018), this pattern flipped, with economically disadvantaged students becoming more likely to participate in arts education. Similarly, the gap in arts enrolment between white students and Black and Hispanic students in North Carolina narrowed substantially during this period, shrinking from 6 percent in 2007 to less than 2 percent by 2018.
This reversal suggests that ESSA’s explicit inclusion of arts in its definition of well-rounded education, combined with expanded funding options, may have driven real changes in educational priorities, particularly in schools serving vulnerable populations. North Carolina’s experience is particularly instructive because the state complemented federal policy changes with its own initiatives. Following ESSA’s passage, North Carolina secured funding for arts integration programs and eventually established an arts graduation requirement. This combination of federal policy frameworks and state-level implementation appears to have accelerated improvements in arts access equity. While Dalane stops short of claiming direct causation, it seems likely that ESSA’s emphasis on arts education, its expanded funding mechanisms, and its reduced emphasis on test-based accountability created the conditions for schools to reinvest in arts education, particularly for historically underserved students.
We note that the federal policy and funding referred to in Dalane’s research are no longer secure under the new US federal government. However, the research may be important for arts education here in England – Dalane evidences a promising trend: policy that explicitly values arts education can help produce meaningful improvements in equitable access to expressive arts education. In the light of the current review of curriculum, this is good to know.
