Scholarship Prep believes the importance of diversifying one’s knowledge and experiences includes the incorporation of visual and performing arts.
Instruction is organized to target the strands of: artistic perception, creative expression, historical and cultural context, aesthetic valuing and connections, relationships, and applications. In addition, literacy skills is woven into these “elective” classes.
Each campus has unique course offerings, including Studio Art, Dance, Drama, and Music/Choir.
Research
The positive impact of the arts on learning has been widely documented in academic research examining a variety of arts education programs. In the late 1990s, James Catterall, now a UCLA professor, and colleagues analyzed data from the National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS:88), a study of some 25,000 secondary school students over four years, and found significant connections between high involvement in arts learning and general academic success. In 2009 Catterall analyzed ten additional years of data related to the same cohort of students, now age 26.
In the study, Catterall found that significant advantages exist for arts-engaged low-socioeconomic students in college going, college grades, and types of employment, e.g. jobs with a future—and strong advantages in volunteerism and political participation.
Additionally, low-income students and English Learners do better in arts-rich vs. arts-poor schools.
