In selected classes at Massillon’s Gorrell Elementary School, art projects, theater projects and dance classes supplement language and mathematics lessons. More than supplementing the academics, the arts are integrated into the academic classes so that there is always an academic purpose behind the arts activity. Among the group of students who worked regularly with artists in residence, standardized test scores rose dramatically. After the first year of a special three-year SmARTS grant to Gorrell School from ArtsInStark, Stark County’s Arts Council, the fourth-grade reading scores went up 11 percent. Writing scores rose 23 percent.

Why is it important to integrate the arts in our schools?

What does elementary school art have to do with raising the high school graduation rate in Stark County and encouraging more Stark Countians to go to college? After all, high school and college attainment are the goals of the Stark Education Partnership and the purpose behind Building Stark By Degrees project. It is only this: That the foundation for high school and college success is built early. The ACT organization, which produces the college entrance examination taken by so many Ohio high school students, has said: “…The level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school.”

Robb Hankins, executive director of ArtsInStark, is excited about the scores from Gorrell School, as are Massillon City Schools officials such as Assistant Superintendent Marva Jones and Gorrell’s principal, Kathleen Harper. But one year did not make a trend, and one year’s scores are not enough evidence to attribute the rise to the arts program. It is an encouraging sign, however. An independent evaluation was in order. So ArtsInStark asked for that from the Stark Education Partnership.

The Partnership examined results from Gorrell’s elementary school arts program, from a second program at Faircrest Memorial Middle School and a third at Jackson Middle School. All three schools are involved in similar three-year school arts integration programs, and all three showed increases in academic scores among students who had arts in their school curriculums.

Teachers say arts in academics make learning more effective

In addition to reviewing the test scores, the study, conducted by Dr. Joseph Rochford at the Stark Education Partnership, surveyed teacher attitudes. “Results indicate that teachers are almost unanimous in their beliefs that learning is more effective when supplemented by the arts and that they are committed to continuing to integrate the arts into their teaching in the future,” Rochford wrote.

You can download Rochford’s complete report online at ArtsinStark.com.

In addition to three multiyear projects at Gorrell School in Massillon, Faircrest Memorial Middle School in the Canton Local School District and Jackson Middle School in the Jackson Local School District, ArtsInStark gives numerous other short-term grants to bring arts into the classrooms of Stark County.

For more information on where Stark County is integrating arts into academic studies to generate higher academic performance, go the ArtsInStark.com.