Arts in Turnaround Strategies

Every student deserves arts instruction for its own sake, as an essential ingredient to a well-rounded education. Yet arts education adds value for a whole host of other educational purposes: among them, enhanced writing and reading, ability to retain information, problem solving, and critical thinking. Interest in models of whole-school reform that focus on integration of the arts across content areas, now in place in a handful of schools, is being bolstered by evidence that students at lower achievement levels appear to benefit from it the most.