The Arts and Student Engagement: Correlational Insights for School Accountability of Low Income, English Learners, and Foster Youth

<p>This quantitative study examined the relationship between students’ engagement in the arts and their engagement in both academic classes and the broader school community within a diverse, urban, public charter high school. Using survey data from 251 students in grades 9–12, analyses explored whether arts engagement was associated with academic and school-community engagement and whether these relationships differed across English Learner (EL), low-income (F/R), and foster-youth subgroups. Results revealed that arts engagement was moderately and positively correlated with both academic engagement and school-community engagement confirming consistent cross-domain associations. ANOVA analyses detected no statistically significant differences in engagement levels by EL, F/R, or foster-youth status. This outcome, while failing to reject the third null hypothesis, suggests that arts engagement may function as an equalizing force that benefits students across demographic boundaries rather than serving as a narrowly targeted intervention. Interpreted through the lenses of critical pedagogy and social capital theory, the findings indicate that arts classrooms foster agency, belonging, and networks of reciprocity that support engagement across academic and social domains. In a post-pandemic policy context increasingly focused on short-term academic recovery, these results underscore the systemic contributions of arts engagement to students’ social, emotional, and cognitive development. The study also refines and validates the Arts, Academics, and School Engagement Survey (AASES) as an evolving instrument with acceptable to strong reliability across indices. The analysis identified contextual anomalies in the attendance item, likely reflecting transitional interpretations of “attendance” following pandemic-era disruptions, offering insight for future calibration. Taken together, the results position sustained access to arts education as both an equity and accountability strategy. Rather than functioning as a short-term remediation tool, arts engagement should be viewed as a cultural catalyst that strengthens school climate, re-engages marginalized learners, and enriches the conditions for learning in California’s post-pandemic era.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Education, PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Educational Studies

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Treesuwan, Paul

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kyo Yamashiro
• Tessa Hicks Peterson

• Arts Engagement
• English Learners
• Foster Youth
• School Accountability
• Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Students
• Student Engagement
• Art Education
• Educational Leadership
• Education Policy

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/1128

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarship.claremont.edu:cgu_etd-2150