ASTEP’s programs are based on rigorous research that has demonstrated how arts education and empowerment programming can improve the lives of underserved children and youth. Beyond simply bolstering children’s capacity for self-expression, research shows that arts programming has significant positive impact on children’s educational attainment and social skills.
- Dramatic enactments of stories or text promote reading comprehension and literacy.
- Music education develops spatial reasoning skills needed for understanding and analyzing logical and mathematical concepts.
- Both individual and multi-arts learning experiences strengthen fundamental cognitive capacities such as conditional reasoning, problem-solving, and creative thinking.
- Studies of student learning experiences in drama, music, dance and multi-arts activities show student growth in self-confidence, self-control, self-identity, conflict resolution, and collaboration.
A sense of motivation and the attitude and disposition to pursue and sustain learning are essential to academic and social achievement.
A report published last year from the Committee on the Arts and Humanities appointed by President Obama focused on the impact of arts education on low-income students:
Results showed that students with high involvement in the arts, including minority and low-income students, performed better in school and stayed in school longer than students with low involvement, the relative advantage increasing over the school years. Low-income students involved in music outscored others on math assessments; low-income students involved in drama showed greater reading proficiency and more positive self-concept compared to those with little or no involvement.
A few other notable points:
- Arts-engaged low-income students are more likely than their non-arts-engaged peers to have attended and done well in college, obtained employment with a future, volunteered in their communities and participated in the political process by voting.
- The role of arts in developing competency may be especially important for students who otherwise feel isolated or excluded, e.g., English learners.
Through the dedication of the students, volunteer artists, families, and communities we serve, ASTEP provides strong evidence of the transformative power of the arts to empower underserved youth.
