Ingenuity State of the Arts Progress Report 2015-2016 | Page 28

the arts in CPS CREATIVE SCHOOLS CERTIFICATION A CLOSER LOOK AT CHANGE OVER TIME Collecting data in the same school district for four consecutive years offers the opportunity to explore how change happens, not only at the district level, but within individual schools. Looking at the data in this way makes clear that, notwithstanding the overall positive trends in the district, changes in Certification scores don’t come easily. A continued investment in and attention paid to the arts—especially in those schools that 53% 28 41% unchanged unchanged HIGH SCHOOLS 103 SCHOOLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 417 SCHOOLS have not shown growth—will be essential to achieving the goal of bringing the arts to all of CPS’ students. Of the 580 schools that completed the Survey in 2015-16, 520 (nearly 80 percent of the district) also completed surveys in each of the previous two years. In nearly 44 percent of these schools, the certification score has not changed at all over that three-year span. This “stickiness” is even more evident in high schools, which are less likely to receive a rating of Strong or Excelling, than it is in elementary schools. In 53 percent of the 103 high schools for which three years of data exist, the school’s category has not changed. The comparable number for elementary schools is 41 percent.