Impact of Arts Education A randomized controlled experiment

Last updated: 6/25/2023

Impact of Arts Education A randomized controlled experiment involving over 10 000 students enrolled in 4th to 8th grade in Texas examined the impact of arts education on a wide variety of outcomes Arts education included visual arts music dance and theater Six different outcomes were measured over 12 different groups for a total of 72 different hypothesis tests conducted to examine evidence for a positive impact from additional arts education Bowen D and Kisida B Investigating Causal Effects of Arts Education Experimental Evidence from Houston s Arts Access Initiative Research Report Kinder Institute for Urban Research February 12 2019 ii The other 24 tests were in the areas of discipline and writing For these 24 tests 15 were significant at the 5 level and 6 were significant at the 1 level At the 5 level Expected just by random chance i 2 7 Number of significant tests observed 15 At the 1 level Expected just by random chance i 0 54 Number of significant tests observed 6 Does increased arts education appear to have a statistically significant impact in these areas