Ingenuity State of the Arts Progress Report 2015-2016 | Page 21

the arts in CPS / creative schools certification

HIGH SCHOOLS
Arts instruction in high school can offer
students both opportunities to explore new
art forms and to delve deeply into those that
they find inspiring. Through required courses
and electives, arts learning opportunities in
high school can connect to other content
areas and create pathways for post-secondary
study and career paths.

However, the overall share of high schools
categorized as Strong or Excelling is
considerably lower than among elementary
schools. Indeed, the share of high schools
categorized as Developing or Emerging has
been higher for all four years of the Survey

The arts education environment in CPS high
schools has also improved, though the pattern
of this improvement is different than what
is evident in elementary schools. As shown
in the bar chart on the following pages, in
2015-16, 35 percent of high schools were
categorized as either Strong or Excelling,
an improvement of seven percentage points
from the previous year. This was the largest
single-year improvement for high schools
to date.

Percentage of high
schools that qualified
as Strong or Excelling

35%

than the share categorized as Strong or
Excelling, whereas this has not been true
among elementary schools for any of the
years. The percentage of CPS high schools
categorized as Excelling has remained
relatively static over the past three years, and
across all four survey years, high schools were
most likely to be categorized as Developing.

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