The Nation's Report Card: 2016 Arts Assessment
Overall Scores Remain Steady in the Arts
Hispanic Students Improve in Music, Lower-Income Students Improve in Visual Arts
The Nation's Report Card: 2016 Arts shows no overall score changes in music and the visual arts since the last arts assessment of eighth-graders in 2008, but it does reveal changes in access to and participation in music and visual arts activities, varying by gender, income and region.
Regional Access to the Arts on NAEP
See how opportunities in and access to the arts - both in and outside of the classroom - affect student's scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Art Exhibits, Museums and NAEP
See how opportunities in and access to the arts - both in and outside of the classroom - affect student's scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Theater Musical Performance and NAEP
See how opportunities in and access to the arts - both in and outside of the classroom - affect student's scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Release Event Recording
Archived webcast of the Nation's Report Card: 2016 Arts release event at the Kennedy Center.
Art is Everywhere
Data from The Nation’s Report Card: 2016 Arts on eighth graders’ achievement in art illustrate how exposure to the arts strengthens students’ education.
Hilltop Artists
We visited Hilltop Artists in Tacoma, Washington to learn about how glass blowing is helping to shape students' appreciation of the arts and making a difference in their lives.NAEP, education, arts, arts education, visual arts, Hilltop Artists, Tacoma, middle school, glass-blowing.
Orchard Gardens
Boston's own Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School is inspiring a new generation of artists through an amazing dance program and a commitment to engaging with the arts.
Red Lake Middle School
At Minnesota's Red Lake Middle School, students and faculty use music, theater, dance, and the visual arts to connect and engage with their culture and community.
Arts Based School
The Arts Based School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, gives students the chance to flex their creative muscles through their immersive art programs, which include music, dance, and theater.
NAEP Arts 2016: Arts Compilation
As part of the release of The Nation's Report Card: Arts 2016, the Governing Board visited four diverse school-based arts programs around the country to discover how what they learn in class has made an impact on their academics and lives outside of school. Go behind the scenes and see arts education in action.
On the NAEP music assessment, students were asked to analyze, describe or critique pieces of music. In the visual arts, students analyzed and described works of art and design, demonstrating their knowledge of media and techniques as well as visual organization. Additional questions assessed students’ ability in creating works of art. The Nation's Report Card includes not only performance data but also findings on students' experiences with music and the visual arts both inside and ouside of school.
Report Card Highlights
- Hispanic eighth-graders scored higher in music in 2016 than in 2008.
- Score gaps narrowed between Hispanic and white eighth-graders in both music and the visual arts.
- Students eligible for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) scored higher in the visual arts in 2016 compared with 2008, narrowing the difference in scores between those students and their higher-income peers.
- Access to the arts varies by the region of the country. In the Northeast, 93 percent of students attend schools that have full-time music specialists on staff, compared with 74 percent of students in the West.
