Illinois Could Downgrade Arts Education

[justaprogressive]

It’s been five years since Illinois became the first state in the country to put the arts on the same footing as math and science as vital features of a public school education. But the progress toward educational equity and access is at risk due to the uncertainty surrounding whether the arts will stay on the same plane as those subjects, as the state rethinks how to measure the factors that go into a top-tier education.

The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) plans to move to a new model that will completely eliminate a system that used numerical values to rate school performance. Known as “weighted indicators,” these values helped the state assess how well a school is meeting the needs of its students, whether through academic indicators like test scores and grade point averages (GPAs) or meta-indicators like college and career readiness.

Arts educators are concerned that if the arts—including dance, media arts, music, theater, and the visual arts—go unscored under the new system, they could be at risk of becoming invisible or optional, which might weaken school districts’ investments in those subjects. If local school administrators decide to hire fewer arts instructors, they would be forced to reduce program offerings and other resources for students, ultimately depriving them of a well-rounded education in the most vital years of their academic development.

“I’m really disappointed and sad for the children in the state of Illinois,” says Nicole Upton, the executive director of Ingenuity, a nonprofit arts organization based in Chicago. She’d like to see the ISBE reconsider the decision.

https://prospect.org/education/2025-08-11-illinois-could-downgrade-arts-education/]

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