The California Arts Education Data Project is powerful tool for anyone hoping to learn more about the access to and quality of arts education in their community. It was designed to help increase participation in arts education across the state. It was first piloted in New Jersey, where access to arts education has risen from 94% to 99.8%.

What information is included in the Data Project?

• Participation rates for secondary school students in California
• School-level, district, county and statewide data is displayed in an interactive, color-coded dashboard 

New this year:

• Year-over-year comparison tools display changes in access over time
• Arts participation of students enrolled in free and reduced lunch program shows how the socio-economic status of a school district impacts access to the arts 

On April 7, 2018, as part of the Arts Now Bay Area Summit, four students from schools across California, posed questions about arts education policy, equity and access at a Candidate Forum. The SPI of California is the nonpartisan elected executive officer of the California Department of Education. The SPI directs all functions of the Department, executes policies set by the California State Board of Education, and also heads and chairs the Board. View a recording of the full Candidate Forum below to learn about how each candidate plans to support arts education!

The Challenge: Middle and high school students simply don’t have time in their schedules for arts education courses

The Strategy: Adopt a master schedule that ensures that every student can take arts classes

The Story: Middle and high school students have many competing priorities that quickly fill their course schedules: in addition to core academic courses, Advanced Placement courses, instruction for English language learners, academic intervention, and special education instruction all can take up precious time in a student’s schedule. All too often, when school counselors create schedules that accommodate required courses and the unique academic circumstances of each student, arts courses—visual art, music, dance, theatre—get cut from student schedules because there simply is not enough time in the day. How can schools create more time in the schedule so that students have access to valuable arts education opportunities and are able to fulfill the "F" Requirement? The answer is not actually more time, but instead a shift in the master schedule!

Hi. My name is Xochitl Morales, and I am a 17-year-old high school student from a small town in the Central Valley. I go to a school in Delano that you may know as either Paramount Bard, Paramount Academy, or Wonderful College Preparatory Academy (what we are called now). When I first started going to my school in sixth grade, it was called Paramount Bard.

At that time, it had only existed for three years, but it proved to be a leader in the arts education scene. We had mariachi, choir, animation, visual design, and theater classes, as well as an entire block in our schedule dedicated to creating in any club we chose. We also had a collaboration with the prestigious Longy Conservatory of Music that allowed many of us to travel across the country to share what we were learning.

Our school was blossoming with passion and creativity.

However, four years later, after two name changes and several administration re-assignments, this was all gone. We were left with only one Art Appreciation class - just enough to fulfill our A-G high school requirements. Being an artist, I was saddened to the core as I witnessed the change in atmosphere on my campus. School became less focused on the students’ development as expressive humans, and more focused on the test scores used to academically rank local high school campuses.