LA School by School Arts Instruction Breakdown
Southern California Public Radio station KPCC has performed an analysis of arts instruction at Los Angeles Unified elementary schools. It found 87 percent of these schools won’t offer comprehensive access in the coming school year, in violation of California law. Only about 70 of the district’s more than 500 elementary schools will provide all four art forms: dance, visual arts, music and theater. But most of those only provide arts access to a portion of each school’s students.
The data also shows that some geographic areas of the district receive less arts access than others. More than a dozen schools in and near San Pedro, for example, do not offer all four art forms.
This is the first comprehensive look at arts access at L.A. Unified elementary schools in recent years. KPCC conducted a survey of Southern California school districts regarding arts access earlier this year. Two dozen school districts in Southern California acknowledged in that survey they provide comprehensive arts access to less than half of their students. L.A. Unified administrators did not fill out the survey, despite repeated requests.