The National Assessment Governing Board released the 2008 NAEP Arts, which presents the educational progress of eighth-grade students nationally in visual arts and music.

Theatre and dance were not surveyed because of budget restrictions and difficulty in previous years finding enough theater and dance classes to yield reliable results. In addition, the questions that assessed student creation of music were eliminated for budget reasons.

In both music and visual arts,

• Average responding scores were higher for White and Asian/Pacific Islander students than Black and Hispanic students. The pattern was the same for the visual arts creating task scores.
• Female students had a higher average responding score than male students. Female students had a higher average creating task score in visual arts.
• Students who were eligible for free/reduced price school lunch had a lower average responding score and a lower average creating task score in visual arts than those who were not eligible.
• City students scored lower than suburban, town and rural students.

Additional findings included the following:

• Eight percent of surveyed schools do not offer music instruction. Fourteen percent of schools do not offer visual arts classes.
• Eight percent of surveyed schools offer music instruction less than once a week. Ten percent of schools offer visual arts instruction less than once a week.
• Fifty-seven percent of eighth-graders in 2008 attended schools where students received music instruction at least three or four times a week.
• Forty-seven percent of eighth-graders in 2008 attended schools where students received visual arts instruction at least three or four times a week.

Although this survey is not designed to assess the frequency of instruction (unlike the 2012 F.R.S.S. in the arts will do), today’s press release began with the headline, “Frequency of Arts Instruction Remains Steady Since 1997 on the Nation’s Report Card in Music and Visual Arts.”

Read more:

1. Executive Summary
2. Today’s Press Release
3. Report Homepage
4. Download Page

If you have questions, please contact Narric Rome, [email protected] or 202.371.2830.