Effects+of+Extra+Curricular+Activities+on+Creativity


 * **Research Question: The effects of creativity and extra curricular programs on student achievement**
 * Author: Ariana Grande**

Summary Article, CQ Researcher "Arts Education" || Baker, B. (2012, March 16). Arts Education. //CQ Researcher//, //22//, 253-276. Retrieved from [] ||

This article, published by the CQ Researcher, talks about the importance of the arts in school. The main purpose of the summary is to make the point that arts education is necessary in order to raise a student's academic acheivment. The article starts off my proposing the question, "does arts training improve social and academic skills?", and then goes on further to give actual accounts of children who participate in the arts education at school and how it benefits their education. In the article, the topic of funding is discussed. Funding is usually the main problem when it comes to schools not having art education or extra curricular activities. An interviewed teacher from the CQ Researcher article, Reed, goes on to say that "all the research shows the arts advance academic excellence." The article includes specific data and charts showing how levels of creativity, and arts education in school has gone down from 1992 to 2008, and also includes interviews with students and teachers who experience the presence of extra curricular activities and the lack of them.

My reaction to this article was one that was positive. I thoroughly believe that extra curricular activities are important to a child in school, especially elementary school children. I feel as though art education is a way to vent for kids who are doing poorly in school, it can serve as a distraction from out of school bad influences, and can also help to perfect a child's intellect when involving problem solving or "out-of-the-box" thinking. The article had the same point of view as my personal opinion, and helped me to back up my argument for how it is important to include arts education, extra curricular activities, and a means to be creative in school.

Scholarly Education Article "Art Integration and the Success of Disadvantaged Students"

Robinson, A. (2013). Arts Integration and the Success of Disadvantaged Students: A Research Evaluation. // Arts Education Policy Review //, // 114 //(4), 191-204.

This article, entitled, "Art Integration and the Success of Disadvantaged Students: A Research Evaluation, is one that works completely with my topic of creativity and academic achievement. In order for a student to display their creativity, they must have the freedom first to do so. A perfect place for this to occur, is in a simple art class in school. Integrating art education in school is extremely important. It increases attendance rates, and keeps students interested in their studies throughout the day. In this article specifically, the author, Helene Robinson, discusses the possible advantages to integrating art education in all schools. Art education, it is to be said in this article, helps disadvantaged students by helping them find other creative ways to solve problems. Because everyone is not a math, science, or number person, art education can be useful to help the students who are not. This article touches upon the achievement gap between students and schools, students with disabilities, students who live in poverty, and the overall academic achievement of all students.

After reading through parts of this article and study, I realized that it had to be included in my project. My research question is how creativity effects the academic achievement, or how it benefits the academic achievement of all students. This article is a study on how that is done. The author has a nice way of explaining why arts education is so important to include in schools, and how it is able to help disadvantaged students who need more resources then just textbooks. As a student who needed more then just a textbook to learn math, (I needed to draw things out and find different ways to learn things), I realized that this article is completely true, and art education is important to integrate into schools in order to tweak, and improve the creative mind of a student.

Editorial of Opinion Essay "Connecting Students and Academics Through the Arts"

Morris, L. (2012, November). Connecting Students and Academics Through the Arts. // Innovative Higher Education //. pp. 347-348.

Art connects students to academics. Like I have said before, arts education is a place where a student can express their individual creativity, but why is that so important? As the author of the article, "Connecting Students and Academics Through the Arts," author Libby V. Morris says that the arts and the humanities teach us to "analyze pictures and create new ones." The humanities and liberal arts help us to become better rounded people. They teach us how to have relationships with one another and how to work with other people. She states that liberal arts educate our minds to become people with meaningful lives, and this all starts as a young student. As a young student it is important to emphasize the role of the creative mind and how liberal arts and the humanities can help us along the way once we get to a higher education. This article mainly talks about college students and the important of liberal arts classes, but it also relates back to how important it is to stress these subjects at a young age.

After reading this article I once again knew that it was perfect for my research question. The majority of my research focused on younger students but this article gave good insight to how important it is for the creative mind to stick with a student all the way through college. In order to do that however one must appreciate the importance of liberal arts and the humanities, and that is what this author was trying to express.

Analysis Article, New York Times "Arts Education and Graduation Rates"

//Arts, Briefly - Arts Education and Graduation Rates - NYTimes.com.// (n.d.). Retrieved from []

In a article posted by the New York Times, author Rachel Lee Harris writes about a study about arts education and graduation rates. The study originally done by the Center for Arts Education in New York City, gives statistics about New York schools who offer arts education. The article collected data from the city's education department. From over two-hundred years of data it was reported that schools who ranked in the top three of graduation rates were schools that offered students the most access to arts education and resources. This article is completely based off of statistics, and gives an overall view consensus of how art education benefits students, their academic achievement, and higher graduation rates.

This article is completely relevant to my topic and I was excited when I found it. This is because it has the perfect statistics to back up my part of the powerpoint presentation. Not only does it side with my view of how arts education and creativity benefit a student's academic achievement, but it also gives information to back up why that is true.

Online Blog "Inspiring Creativity, Supporting Art Education"
 * |||||| //ARTSblog » Blog Archive » Inspiring Creativity, Supporting Art Education//. (n.d.). Retrieved from [] ||

In a blog written by Masha Raj, on Artsblog, she reports that Vans, the sneaker company, started a contest to promote high school students creativity. The vans company designed a contest for high school students to design their own shoes to express their creativity. Vans encourages students creativity and because of this contest it gave kids a reason to go to school and participate in something other than school work. Because of programs like this, attendance rates could rise, and also attentiveness in students.

The reason I added this blog entry to my research, was because it's projects like the Vans creativity project that encourages students to come to school. It is a fact that there are many students who only want to go to school because of extra curricular activities and art education. Vans had the right idea with creating the sneaker creativity project. If more project and contests came into schools like this one, attendance rates would definitely rise. This blog got me thinking of an equation. Creativity and personal style, plus a competitive nature, plus a requirement of students having to be present in school to participate, equals higher attendance and higher attentiveness.

Overall Reaction to Your Research
My research taught me that the things that I felt as a student going through elementary school are things that are true for other students. For example, I was a hands on student and needed that creative aspect in order to learn certain subjects. After researching creativity in students and their academic achievement I realized that the arts and the freedom to express yourself is really important to have in schools.

Relevance in Rhode Island Schools
In my personal opinion I believe that many Rhode Island schools are doing the best that they can to implement the arts and creative activities for students in school. After school programs are offered at many Rhode Island schools to keep students out of trouble after school, and extra curricular activities in school to keep students interested in attending. The only thing that Rhode Island could be doing wrong is when certain schools cut art and creative programs. The only reason for this however, is low funding, which sometimes cannot be helped.

Relevance to Charter Schools
In relation to charter schools, my research can also apply. Charter schools, like public schools, can offer after school activities, creative programs, and extra curricular activities. There are two differences between charter schools and public schools when it comes to extra curricular activities. In some charter schools, the presence of academics is so strong that they do not implement the arts or any type of break into a student's day. The other difference is that some charter schools are run off of independent funding, which means they could have more money to spend on extra curricular activities than public schools could.