Gifford, Sally.

“New NEA Research Report Shows Potential Benefits of Arts Education for At-

Risk Youth.” NEA, 26 July 2013, www.arts.gov/news/2012/new-nea-research-report-

shows-potential-benefits-arts-education-risk-youth.

“At-risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school... tend to have better

academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement,” claims Sally

Gifford, a writer for www.arts.gov The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth study tracked

children, teens, and young adults, who had various levels of engagement in the arts in and out of

school. This study focuses its attention on the effects of arts education on our youth from the

lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder. Several

results regarding better academic outcomes were

found. It was discovered that students with high

levels of arts engagement were 10% more likely to

engage in a high school calculus course than those

who were not artistically inclined. Furthermore, high arts students were also 15% more likely to

enroll in a selective four-year college than low art students. Lastly, low socioeconomic students

with access to the arts in high school were over three times more likely to acquire a bachelor’s

degree.

However, the effects of arts education extended past simple academic outcome. There is

a noticeable difference in the civic engagement between those with art backgrounds and those

without said backgrounds. Students of low socioeconomic status with art experience had a higher

volunteer rate than those that had no such art experience. Additionally, high-arts young adults

were 145 more likely to go out and vote of a national election.

  High-arts, low-SES college students had the highest rates of choosing a major that

aligns with a professional career, such as accounting, education, nursing, or social

sciences (30 percent), compared to low-arts, low-SES students (14 percent) and

the overall SES sample (22 percent).

 Half of all low-SES adults with arts-rich backgrounds expected to work in a

professional career (such as law, medicine, education, or management), compared

to only 21 percent of low-arts, low-SES young adults.

 High-arts, low-SES eighth graders were more likely to read a newspaper at least

once a week (73 percent) compared to low-arts, low-SES students (44 percent)

and the overall SES sample (66 percent).

 When it comes to participating in extracurricular activities in high school, high-

arts, low-SES students are much more likely also to take part in intramural and

interscholastic sports, as well as academic honor societies, and school yearbook or

newspaper -- often at nearly twice or three times the rate of low-arts, low-SES

students.

This source is extremely useful to me because it provided me with a lot of cold hard

statistics that align with my stance on this issue. It was a very easy read because it laid out the

important findings of the study in concise bullet points. I can uses the data acquired from the

aforementioned study to back up some of the claims and conclusions I have drawn from other

articles I have used. One question I have for this source is why it focuses on only students with

low socioeconomic statuses.