"Does Experience in the Arts Boost Academic Achievement?" - 01/29/20

By: Elliot W. Eisner

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When reading this article, I was specifically intrigued by the honest inclusion of difficulties many art educators have run into while attempting to validate their programs to administration and other educators. Eisner specifically covers how attempting to validate art education through its impact on exams is an unsupported argument due to the number of changing variables within many of the studies. I found this to be very interesting because of the fact that there are so many instances in which art education is not always the priority or even accessible to students. There are outside factors consistently interfering with the testing results of students who both participate in the visual arts and who do not. In order to influence these unreliable sources used for arts advocacy Eisner cites three overarching goals that all educators have for their classrooms. Eisner stated that these three goals are related to the specific outcomes of art education; Arts-based, Arts-related, and Ancillary outcomes. I feel that this aligns with my professional stance on art education as I am working to make sure my future students understand objectives within the national art standards, have a comprehension of base aesthetics and how it applies to the real world, and take life skills learned within the art classroom and translate them into their lives through other classes. There are many portions of the art making process that may not be able to tested for understanding by an administration but I feel as the educator, I am responsible for advocating for the valuable skill sets that my future students will be gaining through the work they will be accomplishing within my classroom.