KVIG Informative

Adding the arts to science, technology, engineering, and math is more than a branding change. Researchers are studying why arts-integrated learning seems to help students, and early evidence points toward the brain’s self-management skills.

Arts integration means using visual art, music, drama, or dance alongside subjects such as language arts, math, science, and social studies. STEAM extends the same idea to the STEM fields by adding the arts and design. The approach has a long history in American schools, and researchers have been testing whether it improves outcomes and, if so, why.

A 2018 review in the journal SAGE Open by Taylor Moss, Matthew Benus, and Elizabeth Tucker examined nine studies of school-based arts integration in urban schools and found positive effects on academic achievement. The authors also cautioned that the research does not definitively explain why. Their analysis suggested that gains in executive function, meaning the brain’s skills for holding information in mind, shifting attention, and regulating behavior, may be larger than gains in core content knowledge.

The Evidence Base The American Institutes for Research reviewed 135 studies of arts-integration programs in schools. In 44 of them, participating students improved in an academic area or in a learning outcome such as attitudes toward math, critical thinking, or tolerance, and those 44 studies met the evidence standards the federal Every Student Succeeds Act uses. Summaries of the review also associate arts integration with better attendance, behavior, and social skills. Most studies cover specific programs rather than arts integration in general, so the findings apply program by program.

What Executive Function Is The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University describes executive function and self-regulation as the brain’s air traffic control system, made up of working memory, mental flexibility, and self-control. The center says people are not born with these skills but with the potential to develop them through interaction and practice, and that they support school achievement, positive behavior, and good health. It also says stress and adversity can make the skills harder to build and use, a point the fourth article in this series returns to.

A Cross-Country Test The Cultural Learning Alliance summarized research on The Art of Learning, a program in nine primary schools in Norway and Hungary that paired professional artists with classroom teachers. The researchers reported that executive functioning showed particularly notable gains, alongside creativity and social inclusion, and that students from diverse and often marginalized backgrounds showed significant gains. A single project in two countries is early evidence, but it matches the pattern the SAGE Open review described.

Arts and Science Researchers Scientists writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences note that there is a small but growing body of evidence that arts integration can improve STEM research and learning. They also point out that a disproportionate share of National Academies members in the United States take part in the creative and performing arts, and that several National Academies initiatives have examined the links between the arts and the STEM fields.

A Las Vegas Example The Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, a Clark County School District magnet in downtown Las Vegas, serves roughly 1,750 students in grades 9 through 12 who major in dance, music, theatre, or visual arts. It is tuition-free, and students are admitted by audition or portfolio. The school reports a five-star rating under the Nevada School Performance Framework, a 100 percent graduation rate, and twelve Grammy Signature School awards. It is an arts-focused school rather than a STEAM program, but it shows one way Southern Nevada students can make the arts central to their education.

The evidence on arts integration is encouraging but still developing. The open question researchers keep returning to is mechanism: whether the benefits come from the arts content itself or from the practice in attention, persistence, and self-regulation that arts work demands. Answering it will help schools design STEAM programs that build the skills, not just the label.