The Educational Benefits of Cultural Institutions

A significant portion of the education children receive occurs outside of the traditional classroom and produces outcomes not typically captured by standardized achievement tests. This dissertation is part of an effort to expand the educational venues and outcomes educational researchers rigorously examine. In particular, I present the key results from experimental studies of the effects of school tours to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR., and to the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock, AR. Chapter 1 focuses on arts exposure and critical thinking outcomes. A problem for the arts’ role in education has been a lack of rigorous scholarship that demonstrates educational benefits. A component of this problem has been a lack of available data. Analyzing original data collected through a randomized controlled trial of students visiting the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, I find positive effects of art museum visits on students’ ability to critically examine a work of art. Chapter 2 examines the theories of cultural reproduction and cultural mobility. Drawing upon the experimental data from the Crystal Bridges evaluation, I show that students’ exposure to a cultural institution has the effect of creating “cultural consumers” motivated towards acquiring new cultural capital. Importantly, we find that the experience has the strongest impact on students from more disadvantaged backgrounds. As such, the intervention supports the theory of cultural mobility. Finally, Chapter 3 experimentally examines the effects of students visiting a science museum. Many education policymakers are searching for ways to increase students’ competency and interest in science. Existing research, however, suggests that classroom instruction and content knowledge alone may not adequately cultivate an interest in science or increase aspirations for careers in science. In this paper I experimentally test how a school visit to a science museum alters students’ attitudes towards science and future career aspirations. I find that there are positive effects from exposure to a science museum for students, though the effects seem to be especially strong for boys. These findings have important policy implications for whether schools should devote their scarce resources to school tours of cultural institutions and for which types of students these experiences may be most important

The Arts Advantage: Impacts of Arts Education on Boston Students

Launched in 2009, BPS Arts Expansion, the public-private partnership led by the Boston Public Schools Visual and Performing Arts Department and EdVestors, brings together local foundations, the school district, arts organizations, higher education institutions, and the Mayor's Office to focus on a coherent, sustainable approach to quality arts education for all BPS students. This collaboration of local leaders along with students, families, and school staff, has enabled Boston to emerge as a national leader among urban districts working to expand arts education.The purpose of this study is to examine how access to arts education in BPS influences education outcomes pertaining to student social emotional and academic outcomes as well as parent and teacher perspectives regarding school climate. This research strengthens the case for quality arts education for every student, finding significant evidence increases in arts education lead to improvements on a range of indicators of student and parent school engagement

Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement

Previous research suggests that there are academic benefits when students and teachers share the same race/ethnicity because such teachers can serve as role models, mentors, advocates, or cultural translators. In this paper, we obtain estimates of achievement changes as students are assigned to teachers of different races/ethnicities from grades 3 through 10 utilizing a large administrative dataset provided by the Florida Department of Education that follows the universe of test-taking students in Florida public schools from 2001–2002 through 2008–2009. We find small but significant positive effects when black and white students are assigned to race-congruent teachers in reading (.004–.005 standard deviations) and for black, white and Asian/Pacific Island students in math (.007–.041 standard deviations). We also examine the effects of race matching by students' prior performance level, finding that lower-performing black and white students appear to particularly benefit from being assigned to a race-congruent teacher.http://sites.bu.edu/marcuswinters/files/2017/09/Egalite-et-al-2015-FLTM_EER.pdfAccepted manuscrip

The Arts Advantage: Impacts of Arts Education on Boston Students - Full Report

Launched in 2009, BPS Arts Expansion, the public-private partnership led by the Boston Public Schools Visual and Performing Arts Department and EdVestors, brings together local foundations, the school district, arts organizations, higher education institutions, and the Mayor's Office to focus on a coherent, sustainable approach to quality arts education for all BPS students. This collaboration of local leaders along with students, families, and school staff, has enabled Boston to emerge as a national leader among urban districts working to expand arts education.The purpose of this study is to examine how access to arts education in BPS influences education outcomes pertaining to student social-emotional and academic outcomes as well as parent and teacher perspectives regarding school climate. This research strengthens the case for quality arts education for every student, finding significant evidence increases in arts education lead to improvements on a range of indicators of student and parent school engagement.

Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools 2010–11

This report is the fifth in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP)

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools 2009 – 2010

This report is the fourth in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP)

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools

This report is the second in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the private schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), the oldest and largest urban school voucher program in the U. S. The MPCP was launched in the fall of 1990 with seven participating schools enrolling 341 students

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Descriptive Report on Participating Schools 2008 – 2009

This report is the third in a series of annual reports produced by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP) that will provide descriptive information about the schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This year’s report contains a new section that examines schools from both the public and private sectors that are no longer receiving public funds

The Muzzled Dog That Didn’t Bark: Charters and the Behavioral Response of D.C. Public Schools

As of the 2006-2007 school year, 19,733 students attended charter schools in the District of Columbia, representing over a quarter of the District’s total public school student population and one of the largest charter school markets in the country.1 It is under such circumstances, some suggest, that choice will spur competition, ultimately leading to the improvement of public education. Yet, surprisingly little research has evaluated the behavioral response of public schools in D.C. to this source of competition. Most research to date on school choice in D.C. and elsewhere focuses on the largely positive “participant effects” that school choice programs have on choosers. By looking at the issue from the ground level of one of the most choice-prevalent districts in the United States, we seek to closely examine the causal dynamics of “systemic effects” induced by competition from within the D.C. education establishment. Our study consists of a series of interviews, focus groups, and surveys along three levels: District elites, principals, and teachers

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program: Baseline Descriptive Report on Participating Schools

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) began as the nation’s first urban school voucher initiative in the fall of 1990. Initially, seven secular schools were authorized to enroll the 341 students who first participated in the program. By the 2006-07 academic year, a total of 17,749 voucher students were attending one of the 122 private secular and religious schools that participated in the MPCP or “Choice” program for the entire year