The Oregon Arts Commission (OAC) has released an upd ate on a groundbreaking publication shedding light on the status of arts education in Oregon. Access to Arts Education in Oregon Schools III, is a research-based report by Sarah K. Collins. Using existing school data collected by the Oregon Department of Education, the report provides state aggregate data about in-school access to stand-alone arts classes. With data starting from the 2009-10 school year and continuing through the 2011-12 school year, Oregon showed a 3% decrease in overall access to arts education through school-based classes. In all, 64,790 students attended a public school in Oregon during 2011-12 without access to any arts coursework taught by a licensed arts teacher. Nearly 10,000 students have lost access to instruction in the arts over the last three years. This trend indicates a lack of stability in arts-based programming in schools. Additionally, since the 2009-10 school year, arts access in charter schools increased by 6% while access in regular public schools decreased by 3%. The report contains additional information for each of the five arts disciplines included in this study: theatre, dance, music, visual and media as well as a map detailing arts access by county. 77% of Oregon public school offer access to arts education. But access varies widely: from 21 districts in which no arts are taught to 81 districts where every public school offers instruction in at least one discipline. Four counties–Hood River, Morrow, Sherman and Wheeler–have 100% access rates. Every school in each of these four counties provides some form of arts instruction. The publication is available on the Arts Commission’s website: http://www.oregonartscommission.org/impact/publications/arts-learning To see what disciplines were offered at any one local school, the Oregon Arts Commission offers a searchable database of schools and school districts:
http://www.oregonartscommission.org/resources/access-to-arts-education
