Data Drives Decisions: Explore New Arts Education Data Toolkit

August 26, 2020

For far too long, inadequate data about the state of arts education in schools has allowed structural inequities to persist, which has prevented many students from experiencing, learning about, and becoming practitioners of the arts in their schools. Earlier this month, the National Endowment for the Arts and Education Commission of the States released a new suite of resources that has been two years in the making–the Arts Education Data Toolkit. This toolkit, which offers detailed guidance on how to manage an arts education data initiative from start to finish, can help users take advantage of new state data systems, which can in turn have an enormous effect on planning an arts education data initiative. The toolkit will help users find, analyze, and report on such data, which most states already collect, and it is part of the State Data Infrastructure Project for Arts Education.
 
As students return to school, remember that school-based music education needs advocacy more than ever, and National Arts in Education Week is quickly approaching: September 13 through 19. Join others throughout the country in shining a bright light on the importance of school-based music education, using the hashtags #AIEWeek and #artsed. See the League’s Music Education Advocacy Tools for additional resources.