A recent government study of arts education in public schools reported that the majority of students see or participate in some kind of school-sponsored arts activity. Secondary and elementary schools take slightly different approaches to arts instruction.

In formal classroom instruction, music and visual arts are available in most of the nation's public elementary and secondary schools. Dance and drama/theatre instruction are less common, available in a minority of both elementary and secondary schools.

Apart from formal classroom instruction, schools seem more likely to transport students to outside arts opportunities than create in-school activities such as with visiting artists and artist-in-residence programs. School-sponsored field trips are most common, with 77 percent of elementary schools sending students to an arts performance and 65 percent providing trips to an art gallery or museum. Secondary schools offer slightly fewer outings to arts performances (69 percent) but slightly more to art galleries or museums (68 percent). Secondary schools also rely more heavily on after-school programming to engage students in the arts than do elementary schools.

Source: Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 1999-2000, National Center for Education Statistics, 2002.

January 2003