Impacting Urban Students’ Academic Achievement and Executive Function Through School-Based Arts Integration Programs

Abstract

Arts integration in school-based curriculum has been an area of interest in the United States since formal schooling began in the 1800s. Arts integration uses art forms such as, visual arts, music, drama, or dance with a language arts, math, science, and/or social studies curriculum. This article examines nine studies that assessed the effects of school-based arts integration on urban students’ academic achievement. Findings suggest that an arts-integrated curriculum has positive effects on urban student academic achievement. Despite the positive impact of arts integration, the cumulative understanding of current research does not definitively offer an explanation for why arts integration successfully impacts student achievement. The analysis of findings suggests that improvements in core content knowledge may be a minor outcome when compared with possible developmental gains in executive function (representational knowledge, operational processes, and self-regulation) from an arts integration program. Opportunities to focus future research in arts integration programs around the construct of executive function are suggested and justified based on analysis of findings.