Ingenuity State of the Arts Report 2016-17 Ingenuity_SOTA_2016-17 | Page 31

STAFFING
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The data also show how CPS efforts can lead to improvements in staffing
scores. For example, CPS previously increased arts instructors through a TIF
program 14 through the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel that provided funding
for 84 arts instructors, with the goal of transitioning these positions to be
fully funded through schools’ budgets over the course of two years. The
program ended in 2015–16 and 62, or 74 percent, of the teachers originally
hired under the TIF program returned to teach in 2016–17, which speaks to
the program’s success in kickstarting arts staffing improvements.
The impact of additional staff in ensuring access to arts education depends
on the total enrollment in a school: a single arts instructor can have a more
significant impact in a low-enrollment school than in a high-enrollment
school. The CPS Arts Education Plan therefore identified improving the
ratio of arts instructors to students—known as the staffing ratio—as a key to
improving arts education in the district. The CSC established a goal of one
FTE arts instructor per 350 students, and set this as the requirement for a
school to be considered Excelling in staffing. This was an ambitious goal,
especially given that CPS had previously only established a requirement of
one FTE to 750 students.
At the district level, CPS easily met this goal in 2016–17. With 356,675
students enrolled in CPS schools, the district had, on average, one FTE
for every 239 students, far better than the 1:350 ratio outlined in the
Arts Education Plan. However, this does not mean every school met that
ambitious goal. In 2016–17, 71 percent of reporting schools met or
exceeded the staffing ratio. Notwithstanding the overall improvement in
staffing, students in 29 percent of CPS schools do not yet have the intensity
of exposure to arts education opportunities envisioned under the Plan.
Barrel of Monkeys
PROGRESS REPORT | 2016–17