The LA County Arts Education Profile survey was administered to all 2,277 public schools in LA County to learn about the quantity, quality and equity of arts education. We found that nearly every school offers at least some arts instruction, and most schools offer at least two disciplines. At the same time, we found troubling inequities that reflect disparities in the wider society.
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This report tells a story about the current state of arts education in LA County. Based on data collected from the Arts Ed Profile survey, this report discusses the quantity, quality and equity of arts education in LA County public schools, identifying strengths and areas of concern.
The Arts Ed Profile online tool presents data about arts education provided in LA County public schools and districts. You can look up any school or district in LA County. Data is from responses to the Arts Ed Profile survey and from the California Department of Education. If no data is listed for your school, please see the "How to Update My School's Data" section below.
A summary of key findings from the Arts Ed Profile report
Here are a few success stories from both school districts and funding organizations.
How was the data collected?
Information was collected through online questionnaires administered to all 2,200+ schools in LA County. Over 900 schools completed at least part of the questionnaire. Principals were asked to provide information about their school’s arts instruction, arts teachers, community arts partners and other school-level details, while superintendents were asked to report on whether there is a dedicated staff person who coordinates arts programming, strategies for building sequential arts instruction and other district-level factors.
What kinds of questions were asked?
Please see our school and district questionnaires for download below:
- lacountyartsedcollective.org/profile/school-survey
- lacountyartsedcollective.org/profile/district-survey
What are the sources of data for the County Report?
Data in the County Report are primarily from the 2016-17 school year (a small number of districts reported on 2015-16 or 2014-15), collected through an online survey conducted by the Arts Ed Collective and Harder+Company Community Research. The report also utilized 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 data from the California Department of Education.
How often is the data in the Online Tool updated?
Data that is downloaded from CDE, which includes counts of secondary courses and instructors, as well as the "About this school" section are updated each year, usually in the fall. CDE course data featured in the online tool is from 2018-19 and will be updated once CDE publishes more recent data on their website. All other data is updated as it is submitted to us by the school or district. Look for "Survey data from..." under the "About this school" section to see what years are included for that school.
How is this different from the CA Arts Education Data Project?
The Arts Education Data Project was initiated by Create CA, the California Department of Education and the National Arts Education Data Project to analyze and report school-level data on arts education courses at middle and high schools across the state. Building upon this foundational work, the Arts Ed Profile fills in the gaps by combining K-12 California Department of Education data with information about dance, music, theatre, visual and media arts taught across all grades. It also collects information about arts integration as well as contributions from teaching artists and other community arts partners.
If your school’s data is not complete or if the data is not correct, new data can be submitted by the school principal, via our online survey.
Who Should complete the Arts Ed Profile School Survey?
The school principal should complete the survey or designate another person. If you represent an arts organization or are a parent wanting to update the data for a school you are affiliated with, please contact your principal first.
When we receive new data about a school, we will always verify that the new data was submitted by the principal or on behalf of the principal.
How often will data in the online tool be updated?
The Arts Ed Collective plans to update the online tool in January, May and September.
Please contact Matt Agustin (magustin@arts.lacounty.gov), Research Associate, if you have any questions.
The Arts Ed Profile is a research project designed to measure the quality, quantity and equity of arts education in public schools across LA County. The goals of this project are to
- Provide meaningful data to school districts that they can use to support their arts education strategic planning process
- Make data about the quantity, quality and equity of arts education at individual schools and districts easily accessible to parents, teachers, administrators and arts education advocates
- Identify issues or factors on the County level that are associated with the quantity, quality and equity of arts education provided in schools
Between 2015 and 2017, the Arts Ed Collective surveyed every public school and district in LA County. The Arts Ed Collective used this data to create the following:
- Individualized District Profiles for school district teams to review as part of the arts education strategic planning resources provided by the Arts Ed Collective
- An online tool where anyone can explore arts education facts about a school, a district or LA County as a whole
- A countywide report that provides a snapshot of the status of arts education across all 81 districts and four charter school networks in LA County and identifies issues related to quantity, quality and equity
A raw dataset of arts education in LA County that includes our survey data and data from the CA Department of Education is also available
For more information, please contact:
Matt Agustin
Research Associate
research@arts.lacounty.gov