Sound of music boosts grades

Arts-focused students do well in math

Canadian research destroys popular myth

TESS KALINOWSKI

EDUCATION REPORTER

November 2002

Parents who want their children to be doctors or engineers might want to enrol them in music or painting.

A new study shows children who attend elementary schools with a strong commitment to arts programming scored higher on some math tests. "These findings confirm what some of us have felt for a long, long time," said former premier Bob Rae, the chair of the Royal Conservatory of Music. He said the study was the largest in Canada looking at the relationship between the arts and academic achievement. The research, by two Queen's University professors, looked at the effects of a program called Learning Through the Arts offered in 170 Canadian schools, including 40 in the Toronto District School Board. The program puts working artists in schools and offers professional development training to teachers, so they can use the arts to deliver the curriculum in a range of subjects.

Grade 6 students who had been involved in the program for three years scored up to 11 percentile points higher on arithmetic and percentage estimation tests than students in schools that didn't have the special arts program.

The study also busts the popular myth that arts programming detracts from other academics, said co-author Rena Upitis. She said the arts program had no negative effect on any of the math or language scores of students in schools with a strong arts culture. "That's one of the things you hear - you can't put money into arts because it would take away from math and language," said Upitis, after a news conference yesterday at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. "We really believe it's the culture in the school that affected these math scores," she said. The arts program did not, however, improve literacy test scores. The report also showed: Grade 6 girls in arts-program schools were happier to go to school. 90 per cent of parents - regardless of whether their schools had arts programs — reported that arts motivated their children to learn. Fewer than 1 per cent of parents questioned the importance of arts programs or expressed negative opinions regarding arts education. The Queen's research also confirmed other studies that show children who read for pleasure or play sports also perform better academically.