Last year the LA County Arts Ed Collective released a study that identified critical inequities in arts education. If you want to dig deeper on equity data in education, we suggest you check out ProPublica's recently released Miseducation, an interactive database that highlights racial disparities in opportunity and discipline at districts and schools across the U.S.
Their analysis of the data, which is primarily from the Civil Rights Data Collection, shows that nationally, “Black and Hispanic students are, on average, less likely to be selected for gifted programs and take AP courses than their White peers. They are also more likely, on average, to be suspended and expelled.”
Interactive data tools such as Miseducation and our Arts Ed Profile online tool can be important in uncovering inequities based on demographics within a district or school. Our countywide analysis of arts education data from LA County schools found that schools with more White students receive more and better quality arts education than schools that are more Black, Asian or Hispanic/Latinx.
Does your district or school face inequities? What kind of arts education is happening at your district or school? The LA County Arts Ed Profile seeks to answer these questions. Last year, 41% of Los Angeles County public schools submitted data, and helped arts advocates gain a partial view of existing inequities. A first step in addressing inequity is to identify it. With your help in gathering data, the Arts Ed Profile can provide a complete picture of access and inequity across LA County schools.
To answer questions of this nature, take a look at the existing information available in both tools: