Ingenuity State of the Arts Report 2016-17 Ingenuity_SOTA_2016-17 | Page 7

INTRODUCTION
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The Chicago Board of Education approved Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) first
Arts Education Plan in November 2012. The Plan aimed to bring the arts
to every student, elevating the arts to a core subject and specifying many
elements of what a quality arts education should look like. In the following
year, the Creative Schools Initiative was launched to make the Plan a reality.
As part of the Initiative, Ingenuity published the State of the Arts in
Chicago Public Schools: Baseline Report 2012–13 to set the benchmark
against which district-wide efforts to expand arts instruction would be
measured. This current report provides a snapshot of the CPS arts education
landscape for the 2016–17 school year and analyzes the district’s progress
toward implementing the Plan over the past five years.
HOW TO USE THIS REPORT
The State of the Arts report draws many district-level conclusions; the data behind these
conclusions are equally powerful when examined at the school level. When stakeholders,
including principals, instructors, arts partners, and parents, can track their school’s strengths
and opportunities, they can make more strategic choices when planning for the arts, helping
move the district closer to its goal of a quality arts education for every CPS student.
SCHOOL LEADERS
 Note trends and changes over time in
the district
C
 ompare your school’s Creative Schools
Certification (CSC) category to the
district’s overall results
C
 reate/update arts education goals for
your school year using the CSC as a road
map to define progress and make decisions
that will grow the arts in your school
FUNDERS
N
ote areas of greatest improvement where
there is evidence that investing in CPS arts
education is paying off
Note opportunities for additional
investment and growth in arts education
C
 onsider proposed topics for
additional study
COMMUNITY ARTS PARTNERS
 Note the trends in how schools engage
community arts partners
C
 onsider the arts education needs of CPS
 Determine how your organization can
best support schools in meeting their arts
education goals
PARENTS/ADVOCATES
N
 ote which arts education policies
are currently in place to support
student learning
R
 eview your school’s CSC category in
the appendix
A
 sk your school leaders questions about
arts education goals for this school year
PROGRESS REPORT | 2016–17