Over the next several months, P.S. ARTS’ Chief Executive Officer John Lawler will share a series of long-form pieces that take stock of the current state of the field of arts education and bring attention to critical ongoing conversations. In this month’s piece, John shares his expertise as an educator and administrator to argue for the necessity of arts education for all students. Follow along with us on our blog or on the P.S. ARTS LinkedIn account.
For the last 25 years, American education has been built on a simple premise: if students are struggling in math, give them more math. If they’re behind in reading, give them more reading. If test scores are low, increase instructional minutes, add interventions, and double down on the subjects being tested.
It sounds logical.
But what if academic achievement is not simply the result of more exposure to academic content? What if the students who struggle most don’t need more of what has convinced them they are failures? What if they need something that helps them believe they can succeed?
This is why every school should be an arts school.
I don’t mean every school should become Fame. I mean that every school should make a deep investment in arts learning because the arts are not a distraction from academic achievement. They are one of the most powerful drivers of it.
For decades, districts serving under-resourced communities have narrowed their curricula in pursuit of higher test scores. Art rooms became intervention rooms. Music teachers became literacy coaches. Students who were behind got more worksheets, more remediation, and more evidence that they were behind.
The message, however unintentionally, was clear: You are a problem to be fixed.
But the real problem is the belief that academic achievement can be engineered through more content alone. I know because I’ve seen another way.
Before becoming CEO of P.S. ARTS, I co-founded and served as principal of a Title I arts high school in one of Los Angeles’ chronically underperforming neighborhoods. After that, I became principal of the nation’s top-rated audition-based arts high school. The schools were dramatically different. Yet the outcomes looked remarkably similar.
Students at both schools outperformed district averages in math and literacy. Graduation rates hovered between 99 and 100 percent. Students gained admission to highly selective colleges, including Ivy League universities, usually in non-arts majors. School climate data showed students who felt connected—to their teachers, their peers, and their own sense of purpose. The defining feature wasn’t a miracle curriculum or endless intervention periods.
It was that every student pursued a sustained sequence of study in an art form. So why did math scores rise? Why did literacy improve? Not because learning the violin somehow unlocks geometry or performing in a play magically increases reading comprehension.
The arts improve learning by transforming learners.
The evidence is impossible to ignore. As CEO of P.S. ARTS, I see it across nearly 100 partner schools; as a board member of Arts Schools Network, I see it reflected in more than 200 arts-focused schools nationwide: students flourish when they are given opportunities to create, connect, and express themselves. The arts are not an enrichment activity on the margins of education—they are often the catalyst that helps young people discover their voice, their purpose, and their potential.
Arts education asks students to take risks, solve problems, collaborate, persist, and create something that did not exist before. Most importantly, it helps students develop an identity beyond their struggles. A student who sees herself as an artist, musician, filmmaker, or actor begins to see herself differently in every classroom. Confidence spills over. Curiosity spills over. Success spills over.
Study after study has found that students with sustained access to arts education have stronger academic outcomes, higher attendance rates, greater social-emotional growth, and are more likely to graduate. A recent study of Boston Public Schools found that sustained arts participation improved attendance, engagement, and school climate, with the greatest benefits for students who had previously struggled most. The evidence is compelling.
What’s missing isn’t proof. It’s the courage to act on what we already know, which means rejecting a narrative that has dominated school reform for decades: more remediation. The truth is children need more than remediation. They need the confidence, connection, and joy that make learning possible.
Every school should be an arts school.
Not because every child will become an artist, but because the arts help children become the kind of people who know they can learn anything.
I’ve seen it happen.
In hundreds of schools. Across all demographics.
