Arts and Smarts

Top-performing schools have higher participation in the arts.

More than 2,000 years ago, the Greeks listed music as one of the three essential subjects of their curriculum, notes UT music professor Eugenia Costa-Giomi. “Yet today,” she says, “we are still debating the educational value of music.”

Costa-Giomi researches the association between music instruction and children’s intellectual development—and she has found positive links.

In 2001, schools started disclosing students’ academic performance on state exams. An analysis of the data shows that student enrollment in arts courses is related to drop-out rate, academic performance, and attendance.

In Texas, academically high-rated schools have more than 50 percent of students enrolled in art classes, as opposed to 44 percent in schools classified as academically low-performing. Attendance is higher at schools with a larger proportion of students registered in arts electives, and lower at schools with a smaller student participation in the arts. High school drop-out rates are lowest in schools with the highest arts enrollment.

The results of similar studies showing a correlation between music instruction and academic performance have led many researchers to wonder whether one causes the other. Does taking arts classes improve student performance? Maybe.

“It is possible that personal or environmental factors mediate the relationships between music participation and intellectual abilities,” says Giomi. “In general, students who elect to participate in music activities are more academically capable than those who don’t. They are also different in other characteristics known to be related to superior academic performance, such as socio-economic status, parental education, and participation in extracurricular activities.”

Music professor Hunter March, who leads the College of Fine Arts’ arts-education research and teacher training, says that in the last few years the state has faced a shortage of qualified arts teachers.

“Teacher shortages are more prevalent in districts with high at-risk populations and in rural school districts, where historically it has been difficult to attract highly qualified educators to teach the arts,” March says.

Two years ago, the College initiated a pilot program that allows a select group of seniors to complete their student teaching experience in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The program aims to encourage graduates to accept teaching positions in areas other than major metropolitan suburbs and to recruit talented high school students to the arts.

Read about UT's Center for Music Learning here.