No Child Left Behind and the Arts
April 1st, 2008 | Published in art, creative economy, economic development, education, museums, public policy
Not surprisingly, the emphasis on standardized tests through policies like No Child Left Behind have weakened education in areas like the arts inside the classroom. According to a recent Newsweek article, the emphasis on standardized test scores have also had a detrimental effect on arts education outside of the classroom. Major museums nationwide are suffering from reduced attendance as field-trips have become obsolete luxuries in the new tight curriculums.
I wonder about the implications of NCLB on museum attendance as indirect effects of education policy. Field-trips provide early exposure to museums , fostering an early appreciation and hopefully a later patronage of these cultural institutions. And further, as museum attendance declines, it may prove harder for museums to garner the grants they have enjoyed in the past, many of which are centered around providing education to an audience that has become increasingly scarce.
