Ingenuity State of the Arts Progress Report 2015-2016 | Page 46

the arts in CPS
DISCIPLINES AND DEPTH
The rubric for high schools does not address
instructional minutes because high schools
track arts courses through credits, not minutes.
Instead, the rubric measures the extent of arts
instruction offered to students by counting the
number of arts disciplines in which instruction
is offered (e.g., visual arts, music, dance, etc.)
and the depth of coursework offered in those
disciplines (e.g., introductory, intermediate,

In 2015-16, for the first time,
the share of schools that offer
three or more arts disciplines was
approximately as large as the share
that offer two or fewer.

AP course options). This “Disciplines and
Depth” indicator supports the CPS Arts
Education Plan goal for CPS high schools
to expand both the breadth and depth of
arts programming available to students
(Goals 1C and 2C).

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High schools are categorized as Excelling
when they offer courses in at least three
arts disciplines at multiple levels of study.
Schools that offer three or more disciplines
but do not offer multiple levels of study in
those disciplines are considered to be Strong
on this measure. Schools are considered to
be Developing or Emerging if, regardless
of the levels of study available, they offer
coursework in fewer than three disciplines
(two for Developing schools, zero to one for
Emerging schools).
In 2015-16, for the first time, the share
of schools that offer three or more arts
disciplines was approximately as large as the
share that offer two or fewer. Specifically, 26
percent of high schools excelled, offering at
least three multi-level arts disciplines, while
23 percent offered three disciplines (not
multi-level), 41 percent offered two arts
disciplines, and nine percent offered one
or none. Over four years of data collection,
the largest share of high schools have
consistently been categorized as Developing
on this indicator in that they offer two
disciplines. However, 2015-16 saw a 10