Ingenuity State of the Arts Progress Report 2015-2016 | Page 4
executive summary
The 2015-16 State of the Arts in Chicago
Public Schools (CPS) Report shows that the
nation’s third-largest school district continues
to improve in delivering instruction in the
arts to all students. Since the approval of the
2012 CPS Arts Education Plan, which elevated
the arts to a core subject and specified many
elements of what a quality arts education
should look like, CPS students have benefited
from four consecutive years of improvements
in arts education. This report provides the
most current, comprehensive view of arts
education in Chicago.
These results are based on data collected
from 88 percent of the 660 schools in CPS,
representing 92 percent of the district’s
students, as well as 579 community arts
providers that partnered with CPS during
the 2015-16 school year, and 20 major
institutional arts education funders.
The findings documented in this report are
especially notable in light of the significant
difficulties CPS has faced in recent years.
Deep, ongoing fiscal challenges continue to
plague the district, while staffing cuts and
labor uncertainty in the 2015-16 school year
compounded the district-wide instability.
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Indeed, while improvements continued in
2015-16, they slowed in some areas, such as
in the minutes of arts instruction offered to
elementary school students, after the large
gains made over the past two years. And, as
illustrated throughout this report, a more
equitable distribution of arts education
remains an important goal for the district.
Still, the data also show that, notwithstanding
these challenges, the collective efforts
of school leaders, arts instructors, school
communities, local funders, and community
arts partners have, overall, helped to sustain or
improve the level and reach of arts education
provided to Chicago’s public school students.
Among the key findings in this report:
1
Based on the Creative Schools Survey, 60% of CPS schools were
certified as Strong or Excelling* in the arts, more than in any
of the three previous years; an increase from 29% in 2012-13.
Nearly 250,000 CPS students (representing 68% of
all students) attended a school that was Strong or
Excelling in the arts.
Elementary schools were more likely than high schools
to attain a category of Strong or Excelling—69% of
elementary schools and 35% of high schools were in
one of these two categories.