The Status of Arts Education in Ohio's Public ... - Ohio Arts Council

SUPPORTING EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE
Appropriate staffing, leadership and coordination, collegial relationships, planning time
and professional learning create the conditions for excellence in teacher practice.
Staffing: Ninety-three percent of traditional public schools that responded to the Status Survey reported
employing at least one full-time equivalent (FTE) teacher of the arts in 2009-2010. As shown in Figure
13, most of those teachers were employed in the areas of music and visual arts, but 29 percent of high
schools reported an FTE teacher in drama/theatre.
Figure 13: Percentage of Buildings with at Least One FTE Arts Educator
Dance Music Drama/Theatre Visual Arts
Percentage of Buildings
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
88%
78%
93% 92%
88%
3% 2%
5%
1% 2%
Elementary (at least one
grade K-5)
Middle School (at least one
grade 6-8)
29%
95%
High School (at least one
grade 9-12)
Figure 13 also shows that elementary schools were more likely to employ an FTE music teacher
(88 percent) than an FTE visual arts
teacher (78 percent).
Number of Schools Served:
According to ODE data, a majority of
arts educators work in only one school.
As Table 8 shows, music and visual arts
teachers more often teach in more than
one school than dance or drama/theatre
teachers. Nine percent of the 46 dance
teachers (four teachers) taught in
multiple schools, and four percent of
drama/theatre teachers (about 13
teachers) taught in multiple schools.
Table 8: Percentages of Teachers in Each Discipline
Serving One, Two, Three and Four or More Schools
# Schools
Served
Music
Teachers
Visual Arts
Teachers
Dance
Teachers
One 59% 84% 91% 96%
Two 31% 13% 3% 3%
Three 7% 2% 3% 1%
Four or
More
3% 1% 3% 0%
ODE data also showed that 37 percent of middle school arts educators taught in multiple schools,
compared to those who work in elementary schools (31 percent) and high schools (32 percent).
Drama/Theatre
Teachers
Status of Arts Education in Ohio’s Public Schools 35