{"id":89394,"date":"2026-01-17T13:01:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89394\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T13:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:01:07","slug":"70-of-pa-students-taking-at-least-1-arts-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/89394\/","title":{"rendered":"70% of Pa. students taking at least 1 arts course"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

More than seven in 10 public school students in Pennsylvania are enrolled in at least one arts course, according to state data compiled by the Arts Education Data Project that offers one of the clearest pictures yet of how dance, music, theater and visual art are taught across the commonwealth.\n<\/p>\n

The commonwealth\u2019s K-12 education system serves more than 1.7 million students. According to the data project, more than 1 million participate in visual arts with nearly 1 million more taking music classes. Fewer take theater and dance classes, which are also coded as arts education.\n<\/p>\n

In Philadelphia, more than 80% of public school students are enrolled in at least one creative arts class, which Bob Morrison, founder of the Arts Education Data Project, said puts the district in a respectable position.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at a state\u2019s overall participation rate K-12, if that state\u2019s participation rate is in the mid-70s, you\u2019re on solid ground,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re 80 and above, you\u2019re doing really well.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Any given district is unlikely to boast a 100% participation rate because students in higher levels have some choice in their course selections.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the elementary level, it\u2019s not unusual to see close to 100% participation because those courses are compulsory,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cOnce students reach high school, participation becomes a function of choice, access and opportunity.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Disparities in smaller and lower-wealth districts<\/p>\n

While large urban districts such as Philadelphia show relatively high overall arts participation, the dashboard reveals lower participation rates in many smaller and lower-wealth districts \u2014 even when arts courses are technically offered. For example, less than 7.5% of the roughly 2,000 students at Somerset Area School District<\/a> in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are enrolled in arts courses. Only around 11% of the roughly 1,200 students in the Shamokin Area School District<\/a>, a small, rural public school district located in Coal Township, participate.\n<\/p>\n

State law mandates<\/a> \u201cactive learning experiences in art, music, dance and theatre\u201d for \u201cevery student every year in the primary program,\u201d which includes elementary and middle schools, but school budgets vary wildly across the commonwealth, the result of a property tax-based funding system the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found unconstitutional<\/a> in a 2023 ruling.\n<\/p>\n

As a result, some rural schools have faced disadvantages. WHYY News asked the superintendents of the Somerset and Shamokin school districts if their low participation rates are the result of funding issues, but neither has yet responded.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6889,1482,28,30,29,6378],"class_list":["post-89394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-art","tag-creativity-sparks-success","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}