Arts Education

Can Visual Arts Learning Improve Geometric Reasoning? A Transfer Study

EDC will investigate whether learning in the visual arts, a discipline in which students continually practice visualization, leads to improvements in geometric reasoning. This study will compare high school students with and without extensive exposure to the visual arts. Geometric reasoning will be assessed at baseline and after one and two years of study, as will visualization skills in art, general spatial visualization, and control tasks not related to visualization.

Making Connections: An Integrated Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Academic Curriculum

EDC is developing an interdisciplinary career technical education (CTE) curriculum, Making Connections, that prepares students to pursue their interests in the arts, media, and entertainment when they go off to college or join the workplace. The curriculum addresses national and California state standards for grades 9 and 10, and also includes integrated units for English language arts, math, science, and social studies to help teachers link these subjects with applications in arts, media, and entertainment.

M.C. Escher, Mathematician?

M.C. Escher’s work vividly illustrates the marriage of visual arts and geometry.

Can the skills students learn in their art classes complement what they learn in their math classes? New research led by EDC seeks to find out.

A World In Motion: Replacement Activity

In the 1990s, EDC’s Center for Educational Resources and Outreach (ERO) developed an interdisciplinary curriculum for elementary and middle school students, for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The curriculum activities are a key part of SAE’s A World In Motion® (AWIM) curriculum that joins together teachers, students, and industry volunteers in an exploration of physical science while addressing essential mathematic and scientific concepts and skills.

SmART Schools: Vermont

The twin goals of the SmART Schools program are to strengthen the place of the arts as a core academic subject and to strengthen the use of high-quality, standards-based arts in other academic subjects. This two- year grant allows FSC to fully implement the SmART program in three Vermont schools, located in three different Vermont regions.

Putting Youth in the Picture

Young people from 85 countries submitted more than 1,500 photos to “Shoot Nations 2007,” a global competition to encourage youth to express themselves through photography and drawing. The winning photos included one taken by a team of students gathered by EDC in the Philippines, a group dubbed “power users” for their intensive long-term use of information and communication technologies.

Youth Creativity Around the World

Building on young people’s natural creativity and interconnectedness, Adobe Systems Incorporated has launched a five-year, $10 million program to encourage young people to use multimedia tools, such as film, digital art, and animation, to comment on their world and take an active role in their communities.

Putting the ART in "Smart"

According to a growing body of research, art class may be a boon to top performance on standardized tests, rather than an expendable “extra.” With arts education, student performance in such core academic subjects as mathematics and science has risen, with students from lower socio-economic backgrounds often making the biggest gains.

SmART Schools

Music, art, and drama may not be “extras” after all. A growing body of research suggests that schools that have cut back on these classes in their quest for high performance on standardized tests may do better to reinstate them. Quality arts education bolsters rather than detracts from student performance in core academic subjects like mathematics and science, with students from lower socio-economic backgrounds making the biggest gains, according to numerous studies.

SmART Schools Gets $817,000 from Dept. of Education to Enhance Arts Instruction in New Hampshire, Rhode Island

Elementary schools in Conway and Manchester, New Hampshire and in Warwick, Rhode Island have been selected to implement SmART Schools, a program that supports making the arts a core academic subject in the school curriculum and strengthens the use of high-quality arts in other academic subjects. SmART Schools, based at Education Development Center, instruction in Newton, Mass., has garnered nationwide attention for its results in improving academic performance by expanding classroom focus on the arts.