The California Arts Education Data Project provides tools to view California Department of Education data on enrollment by grade level for arts courses delivered at California traditional public and charter schools from schools with grades 6 through 12.
In 2018, the Hewlett Foundation Performing Arts Program commissioned Quadrant Research to provide regional and county-level reports based on the data for the San Francisco Bay Area overall and the 11 counties across the region where the Performing Arts Program makes grants.
Among the key findings for the San Francisco Bay Area region overall:
- Although most students (96.1%) have access to arts instruction, only 21% of students have access to the four arts disciplines as required by state education code. These are slightly below the same state metrics of 97.2% and 25% respectively.
- Forty-two percent of all students participated in at least one arts education course. This represents more than 240,000 students and is above the state metric of 39%.
- Participation in Art (19%) and Music (15%) were highest among the five artistic disciplines. Music and Art are also the most widely available of the arts disciplines.
- There were 22,236 students, or 3.9%, who did not have access to any arts instruction. Between 2014 and 2017 there has been a 9.3% improvement in the number students without access to arts instruction.
Further findings from the regional report and for each of the 11 counties are included in the reports below.