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For convenience, this page is split into the following sections:
• Arts Education
• Theater
• Music
• Dance
• Visual Arts
In the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, the federal government placed the arts (including music, dance, theater, and visual arts) on par with mathematics, language arts, science, and history as a “Core Subject of Academic Learning.”
In their Core Curriculum Content Standards (NJCCSs), the New Jersey Department of Education identifies dance, music, theater, & visual arts as essential core subjects and expects students to achieve basic literacy in all four disciplines by grade 6. Students are then expected to continue on to become proficient in at least one discipline (of their own choosing) by high school graduation. Additionally, the NJCCCSs state that equitable access to arts instruction can only be achieved if the four arts disciplines are offered throughout the K-12 spectrum.
The New Jersey Arts Education Census Project rated arts education in Matawan at “Below Average” based on Matawan’s survey response regarding the arts in & after school.
Students who take arts classes:
- Are 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
- Are 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools
- Are 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair
- Are 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance
- Are 4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem
- Score an average of 100 points more on the SATs (60 on verbal & 40 on math)
The average graduation rate for a school with arts programs: 90.2%. Schools without arts programs – 72.9%.
74% of employers agree that creativity is increasingly important in the US workplace and look for experience with arts in prospective employees.
America’s nonprofit arts industry generates $134 billion in economic activity every year, including $24.4 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenues.
Arts involvement teaches children many skills necessary to succeed in life, including problem solving and decision making, building self-confidence and self-discipline, the ability to imagine what might be and to accept responsibility for it, teamwork, the development of informed perception, and articulating a vision.
Arts Education makes a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has been proven to help level the “learning ?eld” across socio-economic boundaries.
Arts Education has a measurable impact on at-risk youth in deterring delinquent behavior and truancy problems while also increasing overall academic performance among those youth engaged in afterschool and summer arts programs targeted toward delinquency prevention.
Students at risk of not successfully completing their high school educations cite their participation in the arts as reasons for staying in school. Factors related to the arts that positively affected the motivation of these students included a supportive environment that promotes constructive acceptance of criticism and one where it is safe to take risks.
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Research has shown that students who participate in classroom drama activities develop verbal skills that transfer to new materials not enacted in class.
Sustained involvement in theatre arts encourages improvement in the reading proficiency of high school students with low socio-economic status. According to the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS:88), nearly 20 percent more theatre students were reading at high proficiency by the twelfth grade than were their non-theatre peers.
One of the most common approaches to teaching reading is to have a teacher read a story to students. The use of drama in the classroom can provide a beneficial supplemental approach. A recent study found that the development of literacy skills among pre-kindergarteners was fostered when the children were allowed to act out their favorite stories. Dramatic play also helped motivate them to learn.
When students had an opportunity to engage in a dramatic enactment of a story, their overall understanding of the story improved. Researchers in this study found that story comprehension effects were greatest for first graders who were reading below grade level.
Drama can also be an effective method to develop and improve the quality of children’s narrative writing. As a “warm-up” writing exercise, second and third grade students used poetry, games, movement and improvisation to act out their story ideas, which contributed to their improved performance.
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Students consistently involved in orchestra or band during their middle and high school years performed better in math at grade 12. The statistics become even more pronounced when comparing students from low-income families. Those involved in an orchestra or band were more than twice as likely to perform at the highest level in math as their peers not involved in music.
College admissions officers continue to cite participation in music as an important factor in making admissions decisions. They claim that music participation demonstrates time management, creativity, expression, and open-mindedness.
According to a 2003 Gallup survey:
- 95 percent of Americans believe that music is a key component in a child’s well-rounded education.
- 80 percent agree that making music makes you smarter.
- 79 percent believe that schools should mandate music education
Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs).
A research team reports that early music training dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills. These findings indicate that music uniquely enhances higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science and engineering.
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In an experimental research study of high school age students, those who studied dance scored higher than nondancers on measures of creative thinking, especially in the categories of fluency, originality and abstract thought. Whether dancers can use their original abstract thinking skills in other disciplines is an important area of exploration.
Dance also can affect the way juvenile offenders and other disenfranchised youth feel about themselves. One study demonstrated that when a group of 60 such adolescents, ages 13 to 17, participated in jazz and hip hop dance classes twice weekly for 10 weeks, they reported significant gains in confidence, tolerance and persistence related to the dance experience.
Dance has been shown to develop reading readiness in very young children.
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Visual Arts:
Coming Soon!
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