The imperativeness of arts education is a long-time, questionable debate that is continuing to hover over the education world by proving its criticalness amongst other core curricular subjects. Recently, arts education has made powerful strides to improve its dominance in the education world through the proposal of the arts as a core curricular subject through the enactment of No Child Left Behind, the Partnership for 21^st century skills campaign and the teaching theory of arts integration. Though great effort has been made, the understanding of arts education and its imperativeness to academic success and intellectual growth can still be greatly improved and implemented throughout the United States. A large majority of schools in especially high-poverty areas in the United States do not have access to arts education, and these children are left handicapped due to the skills they miss due to their lack of exposure to the arts. Though the enactment of No Child Left Behind recognized the arts as a core curricular subject, its emphasis on test scores and core other subjects left arts education in the dark, causing the arts to only be available to few, exclusive groups of students. In order to solve this problem, the arts must be closely integrated into the larger subjects of school curriculums so that every child has access and exposure to the arts.

Arts education is a crucial contribution into fostering 21st century skills and advancing academic achievement. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) has provided a framework for 21st century learning to help educators and students “master the multi-dimensional abilities required of them in the 21st century and beyond.” The framework especially highlights skills such as critical thinking, communication skills, collaboration, innovation, creativity, flexibility and self-initiative. By building a framework for these 21^st century skills, the education system is being driven to foster these skills into students’ learning so that they may be well-equipped and contributing members of society in the future. In order to accomplish these 21^st century skills, it is imperative that arts education is present in the process. Teaching the arts is, at its core, teaching creativity and innovation. Americans for the Arts argues: “teaching creativity develops critical thinking, engages students and fosters innovation.” It is truly believed that teaching the arts is the only effective means of teaching these specific 21^st century skills to our students. This is proven by the extensive research and initiatives driven by arts education advocates to intensify a universal implementation of the arts so that 21^st century skills may be accurately fostered.

An example of such advocacy follows: the National Art Education Association in Partnership with P21 has established a 21^st century skills map specifically for the arts, in order to create a visual parallel of how arts education efficiently influences the acquirement of these skills. For example, the map initiates examples for fourth grade classrooms that present art activities that are directed towards exhibiting creativity and innovation. The outcome is that students are able to “investigate new processes, implement creative ideas,” as well as “draw on a variety of sources to generate, evaluate and select creative ideas.” The map continues through each grade level and addresses an artistic approach to instilling each skill. As the arts are an efficient factor in 21^st century learning, the skills that students acquire through the arts translates into their overall academic achievement.

In accordance with 21^st century learning, the arts establish strong correlation with academic achievement. Learning in the arts requires basic thinking skills that are needed in every academic subject. However, the arts intensify these basic skills such as critical thinking, making connections and academic inference. This is because the arts foster academic interest and require a depth of thinking. As a result of arts education, students’ critical thinking skills improve and reach a wider and more useful level. For example, The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies conducted observational research in how the arts affect student achievement in other subject areas. The assembly took a group of 162 children within the ages of 9 and 10 and asked them to closely look at and interpret works of art. The study showed that the result of the children’s ability to draw inferences transferred to successful reasoning in other subject areas, such as science. This is because the type of thinking that is required of scientific reasoning parallels greatly with the type of thinking artistic reasoning demands.

Similarly, students involved in orchestra or band during middle or high school are more likely to perform at the highest levels of math, in comparison to their peers who do not. This is due to the mathematical concepts that are involved in reading music and playing an instrument. This comparison of mathematical academic achievement in correlation with student involved in music is especially true in low-income areas. As the arts definitely create a positive impact on academic achievement, it is apparent that they should be universally implemented into every child’s education. Absence from the arts leaves students at a cultural and skill-level disadvantage.

Unfortunately, many schools and students do not have the financial ability to implement the arts into their school curriculums, or they chose to spend very little time on the arts. No Child Left Behind’s emphasis on test scores and other core subjects has caused a disparity in which schools in the United States have access to the arts, especially harming those schools of high poverty areas. This disparity leaves these children from high poverty areas at an academic disadvantage against those who do have access to the arts. Since the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002, the arts have been recognized as a core subject across the United States. As of 2014, 41 states have instructional requirements for arts education at all levels. 45 states have elementary and secondary arts standards with policies in statute or code. However, only 27 states have arts as a core academic subject, and only 17 states have an arts assessment requirement. This is due to No Child Left Behind’s primary objective to “close achievement gaps between students by bringing all students of race, ethnicity, gender or income to the ‘proficient’ level on state standardized tests by the 2013-2014 school year.” No Child Left Behind therefore stresses the imposition on measuring achievement in math, language arts and science and the pressure to raise test scores.

Despite No Child Left Behind’s theme of academic achievement through language arts, math and science and improving test scores, the arts still received recognition in the document. No Child Left Behind outlined the arts as one of the ten core subjects in public education. This recognition qualified the arts for an assortment of federal grants. Subpart 15 Section 5551 in Assistance for the Arts in the No Child Left Behind platform indicates several motives to support arts education;

The development of implementation of curriculum frameworks for arts education; supporting collaborative activities with federal agencies or institutions involved in arts education, arts educators and organizations representing the arts; support model projects and programs to integrate arts into regular elementary school and secondary school curriculum.

These initiatives may be deemed as promising, however because the law does not require the federal government to appropriate funds at the maximum authorization levels, Congress failed to appropriate the maximum authorized funding level for No Child Left Behind and has failed to do so since 2002. Due to the lack of support and funding from Congress, No Child Left Behind has pressured school districts to raise test scores and focus on math and language arts, creating tight budgets and state mandates that cram class curriculum and dismiss the essentiality of the arts in the United States.

It is especially obvious and evident of how lack of funding and support of the arts has impacted arts education in the United States, especially in low poverty areas. In 2008, 16 percent of school districts reduced elementary class time for music in art by 35 percent, or 57 minutes a week. Studies from 2009 show that of schools with a 0-25 percent poverty rate, 92 percent offered arts education. In comparison, of schools with a 76 percent or more poverty rate, only 80 percent carried the arts.

Some recent efforts to revamp the educational system and situation in the United States may positively impact the implantation of arts education. Obama’s recent Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Request for Education of $69 billion shows a 2 percent increase over the previous year. For example, his request issues 21 percent of the $69 billion to be given to Title I programs, which help at risk schools and students meet states’ challenging academic content and performance standards by providing essential funding. In comparison to the $14 billion given in 2014, Title I will receive $14.49 billion — a 3.5 percent increase. Though these efforts may give a positive aid to the problem, these efforts still may not be enough to implement arts education throughout the United States. Because it is not possible for a large amount of schools to offer separated arts classes, an effective solution is being developed and implemented: arts integration.

In order to solve the issue of the sparse dispersion of the arts in schools in the United States, educators must develop a new strategy called arts integration. Due to new research and findings in cognitive development, the arts are currently being recognized as critical learning tools. Since the arts are now being well-regarded and noticed as an essential aspect to any education, the ground-breaking initiative of arts integration has been introduced so that schools without the means to incorporate a separate arts curriculum may still be able to introduce and expose their students to art education. Arts integration is a teaching method where core subjects such as math, science, language arts and history are taught through lessons that also incorporate an art standard or discipline. Susan Riley, president and founder of the Education Closet, provides a clear and concise definition of what arts integration is: “[Arts integration is] taking a look at content standards that make a natural connection with an arts discipline standard and combining them into a lesson that teaches them at the same time. Not all lessons should be integrated, but when it is natural and possible, it is very effective to integrate the arts.” Arts integration is dominantly effective and useful when the lesson allows for the integrated subjects to especially and precisely compliment each other.

An array of possibilities for arts integration lessons exists amongst the creative education world for teachers to adopt and utilize. Examples of successful arts integration lessons include: students learning about different cultural dances and asking them to create gesture drawings based on the dancing that they have learned about; students creating a simple poem and are asking them to create a scene with a simple wire sculpture based on the meaning and illustration of their poem; using musical notes to teach fractions; writing and performing a play about slavery or any other historical event. These are very introductory arts integration examples, however the application of the arts into core curriculum classes is a mostly seamless and effective idea in the classroom. If teachers are prompted to adopt arts integration in their classrooms, arts education will have a greater opportunity to be universally implemented into classrooms across the United States, including those in high-poverty areas who do not have the financial means to be exposed to the arts.

The efficiency and effectiveness of arts education has been thoroughly proven throughout its expansive advocacy across the United States. It is no longer questionable whether arts the arts should be universally implemented and exposed in every elementary educational institution in the United States. That those school districts that exist in high-poverty areas may not receive arts education due to lack of financial funding to foster arts education should be dismissed as an issue, as it is absolutely possible to implement the arts into expansive, academic curriculums. The educational situation as a whole in the United States is in a progressive era, as thinkers and educators are seeking to reform the system. Arts education advocacy may exist as a small branch of this reform, however its impact and intense influence on an individual’s education is deserving of the correct academic attention. The proven efforts of arts advocacy and the methods of arts integration may positively impact the universal implementation of arts education in the United States.