The United States has never had a governmental commitment to the arts as is so common in virtually every country in Europe. Operas, concerts, art and sculpture shows all heavily subsidized by the government have been widely available, many times free, to the general public for centuries.

Even small towns proudly hosted theatres for dramatic readings, musicales and concerts. On the personal end of the spectrum, one was not really considered part of the upper class unless one was, at the very least, conversant in the arts. 

That commitment was never part and parcel of the American experience.  Oh, attempts were made to emulate Europe in our largest cities.  But even there, a formal commitment to incorporate the arts in our public lives was never a high priority and poorly funded. 

Support for arts education has been meager and frequently the first to be cut in times of budgetary reductions. That has been true in the grades, as well as in higher education.  If that is the case for the elite population, what about Hispanics?

Arts Education and Hispanics

Many Hispanic students especially those from lower income households have less access to arts instruction than others. That is particularly disappointing since research exists now that students are affected in school and in their careers predicated on whether they participated in vigorous arts programs or not.  

To the point, students in arts-rich schools achieve at higher levels. More graduate high school, attend college and graduate than students from arts-poor schools. 

An arts education is more than a cultural, liberating experience.  It has a pragmatic element, which hones skills such as creativity, inquisitiveness and innovation—qualities, which are critical for college success and career readiness. Seventy-two percent of businesses report they look for creativity skills when hiring. Yet, 85 percent of employers cannot find the creative applicants they seek.

An Opportunity Gap

A National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) study, “Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools” reports Hispanic students are disproportionally found lodged among the arts opportunity gap. That is because there is a definite arts opportunity gap between the highest-poverty and lowest-poverty schools. 

For instance, while nearly all, 97 percent, of the lowest-poverty elementary schools offered music instruction in 2010, that percentage of schools fell to just 89 percent of the highest-poverty schools surveyed. 

The gap increased to 12 percent for visual arts instruction in the highest and lowest-poverty elementary schools.

Hispanic students are currently the largest minority group in the public school system, and NCES notes, 33 percent of those students are living in poverty. Thus, as a cohort young Hispanics are less likely to receive an enriched arts-rich education. 

According to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), only 26 percent of Hispanics ages 18-24 surveyed in 2008 reported receiving any arts education. Contrast that to 28 percent for African-Americans and 59 percent for Caucasians.

Further, 3.9 million public elementary school students do not have access to visual arts classes, and 1.3 million public elementary school students have no access to music classes. Hispanic students’ arts achievement fall in the lower category. 

The 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Arts Report Card shows that in “both music and visual arts, average responding scores—analyzing and describing music and visual art works—were higher for Caucasian and Asian/Pacific Islander students than for Black and Hispanic students.”

When tasked to create works of visual art, Hispanic and Black students’ scores were significantly lower than those of Caucasian and Asian students. 

Arts-rich Schools: Hispanic Academic Achievements   

A relevant 2012 NEA study, “The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth,” reported the findings of a long-term study of students who experienced intensive arts involvement in school—arts-rich—and those with less or no arts involvement. 

The study examined the outcomes, both in and out-of-school, for low-income students who attended arts-rich and arts-poor schools.

There was an 18 percent difference in the dropout rates for low-income students with high participation in the arts (four percent) and those with less arts involvement (22 percent). 

Besides attending school more than their low-arts-involvement peers, low-income students with high levels of arts involvement had higher GPAs, were more likely to go to college and were more than three times as likely to earn a bachelor’s degree as low-income students without the benefit of those arts-rich school experiences. 

Finally, “Preparing Students for the Next America: The Benefits of Arts Education” provides a wealth of research findings on the arts’ role in preparing students for success in school, in the workplace and life in general, including studies specific to English language learners.

Existing Multiple Programs

A study “Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools” led to a partnership, Turnaround Arts, with the Department of Education and private sector entities. 

In 2014, Turnaround Arts expanded from eight pilot schools to 35 high-poverty, low-performing K-8 schools in 11 states to seek greater insights about the power of arts-rich schools to help students succeed. 

The Department supports projects to improve student achievement in the arts, especially in high-need schools, through grants.  

Also the Arts Education Partnership, a national consortium of organizations, is dedicated to advancing the arts in education through research, policy and practice.

Bottom Line

Studying the arts is no longer just a pleasant pastime for the moneyed elite. It is also more than a component of a Liberal Arts education, more than a cultural achievement. 

Recent research reveals its pragmatic short-term and long-term benefits. It is an avenue to provide students with the tools and insights for a more successful and productive life.  

And as noted above many programs already exist to foster the study of the arts early on. 

What can be done? Given this new data, public and private widespread support is needed so that Hispanic children are afforded the opportunities arts education provides.  

A worthy goal for those who care about Hispanics to support. •

Dr. Mellander was a university dean for 15 years and a college president for 20.