In 1997, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) assessed arts education in the United States for the first time in almost 20 years.^* Originally, NCES planned to assess student achievement in dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts in grade 8, using a nationally representative sample for each. However, the actual assessment used nationally representative samples for music and the visual arts only. Due to the limited number of schools offering a significant program in theatre, NCES used a targeted sample for theatre. Schools offering at least 44 classroom hours of a theatre course per semester, and offering courses including more than the history or literature of theatre, were identified for the sample. In these schools, students who had accumulated 30 hours of theatre classes by the end of the 1996-97 school year were selected to take the theatre assessment. NCES conducted no assessment for dance at all, because the number of schools offering a significant program in dance was so small that obtaining even a targeted sample was not feasible. Data reported in this NAEPfact for dance, theatre, and visual arts are taken from the visual arts sample. Music data are taken from the music sample.

As table 1 indicates, only 3 percent of the nation's eighth-graders attend schools that reported the typical eighth-grader receives instruction in dance at least three or four times a week. In contrast, 52 percent of eighth-graders attend schools where the typical eighth-grader receives instruction in visual arts at least three or four times a week, and 43 percent of eighth-graders attend schools offering this level of instruction in music. For theatre, the comparable figure is 10 percent, well below the figures for music and visual arts and similar to the figure for dance. Eighty percent of eighth-graders attend schools that offer no instruction in dance for eighth-graders, and 74 percent attend schools that offer no instruction in theatre, compared to 17 percent who attend schools that offer them no instruction in visual arts and 9 percent who attend schools that offer them no instruction in music.

Table 1.-Schools' reports on the frequency with which their eighth-grade students receive instruction in the arts

NOTE: Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1997 Arts Assessment.

^* NCES assessed music in 1972 and 1978 and visual arts in 1975 and 1978.