This invaluable document examines the impact of arts experiences on young people. It is a compilation of studies by seven teams of leading researchers who describe powerful arts programs both in and outside of the schools and what might be done to replicate them. These studies also help to explain the impact of the arts on learning. James Caterall of the Imagination Project at UCLA, analyzed data on more than 25,000 students to determine the relationship of engagement in the arts, especially instrumental music and drama/theatre, to student performance and attitudes. Shirley Brice Heath, of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching at Stanford, examined after-school programs in the arts for youth in poor communities, and the report identifies features that make involvement with the arts the most powerful factor to success in and out of school. The Center for Arts Education Research at Teachers College, Columbia, studied arts education programs within elementary and junior high schools. Researchers Judy Burton, Rob Horowitz, and Hal Abeles created a taxonomy of learning in the arts and investigated the effects on learning. James Caterall and the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory evaluated the impact of the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education and how the arts have been integrated with learning across the curriculum. Researchers at the National Center for Gifted and Talented at the University of Connecticut examined the Young Talent Program and other offerings of Arts Connection that provides arts education for New York public schools. Steve Seidel and researchers from Harvard?s Project Zero examined two education programs of Shakespeare & Company, a professional theatre company in Lenox, Massachusetts. Denny Palmer Wolf and researchers from the Performance Assessment Collaboratives for Education at Harvard?s Graduate School of Education examined the Creating Original Opera program of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. The book notes that "as a result of their varied inquiries, the Champions of Change researchers found that learners can attain higher levels of achievement through their engagement with the arts. Moreover, one of the critical research findings is that the learning in and through the arts can help "level the playing field" for youngsters from disadvantaged circumstances."

This invaluable document examines the impact of arts experiences on young people. It is a compilation of studies by seven teams of leading researchers who describe powerful arts programs both in and outside of the schools and what might be done to replicate them. These studies also help to explain the impact of the arts on learning.