Chicago Public Schools Marks 15 Years of Arts Ed Growth
Today's lead story is presented in partnership with Ingenuity, Chicago's nonprofit arts education hub.
Board Rule is celebrating National Arts Education Week with a look at the state of arts education in Chicago Public Schools. For this sponsored story, we're partnering with Ingenuity. CPS and Ingenuity share a common goal: expand arts education to every student.
A growing body of research shows that arts education can benefit students' well-being, attendance, and engagement in school. Deeper engagement with the arts is associated with greater academic achievement, especially for lower-income students.
For the past 15 years, Ingenuity has tracked the state of arts education across CPS, offered resources to schools and arts educators, and successfully advocated to expand access to the arts. From Ingenuity's first State of the Arts report in 2013 to 2025, the most recent report available, 96,000 more students gained access to high-quality arts education.
In its latest report, The Arts Advantage in Chicago Public Schools, Ingenuity presents new evidence about the relationship between access to arts education and student outcomes. The report relies on data collected in the 2024-25 school year.
CPS elementary schools with higher access to the arts saw, on average:
- 70% higher rates of students scoring at or above proficiency on IAR Math exam
- 30% higher rates of students scoring at or above proficiency on IAR ELA exam
CPS high schools with higher access to the arts saw, on average:
- 11 percentage points lower chronic absenteeism rates
- 11 percentage points higher attendance rates
- 20 percentage points higher college enrollment rates
- 30% higher rates of students remaining in college after their first year of enrollment
Unfortunately, access to the arts in CPS remains unequal. Arts access also remains closely correlated with schools' and students' access to many other resources and opportunities. Nonetheless, after Ingenuity controlled for a variety of factors, including access to opportunity using the CPS Opportunity Index, arts access remained a statistically significant predictor of better student outcomes.
In other words, not only do the arts matter for student well-being, they matter for student success.
Great Arts Ed Starts with Great Arts Educators
The remarkable growth in access to arts education in CPS has been fueled by district leaders' commitment to hire more arts teachers. In the 2024-25 school year, the district stopped allocating money to schools based on their enrollments and shifted to providing a basic set of staff to every school, with additional staff and resources added based on need. "Holistic" teachers, including arts educators, were a part of the basic package.
The current contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, ratified in 2025, guarantees elementary schools receive at least three "holistic" teachers. "In the last several years, we saw real investments and growth in staffing," said Nicole Upton, Ingenuity's executive director. But there's more work to do, and the school district's finances have become more strained since federal pandemic relief funds ran out.
Today, 39% of CPS schools meet Ingenuity's Excelling rating for arts education. That's up from 14% when the organization began reporting on schools' Creative Arts Certification ratings. But, says Upton, "We still essentially have like 60% of schools who are not quite there yet, and so a lot of this has to come down to more arts teachers in schools."
Ingenuity works closely with CPS to track where schools have hired arts teachers and where openings are available. To support new teachers in hard-to-staff schools or schools where arts have been missing, Upton wants to "jumpstart them with some additional funding" for materials, professional development, and even a community arts partner to deepen the learning experience.
That will require cultivating more philanthropic partners like Lollapalooza. Over the last five years, the music festival's leadership invested $2.2 million in arts residencies, field trips, and teacher development in schools in the earlier stages of the Creative Arts Certification rubric. In May, Lollapalooza pledged another $1.1 million over the next five years. "They really want to make sure their dollars go to the schools with the least investments," said Upton.
For school board members, candidates, and anyone who wants a deeper dive into subsets of the citywide data, Ingenuity has created reports on the state of arts education by school board district.
“Having more access to the arts leads to better outcomes in all of these other areas that everybody is talking about,” said Upton, referring to academics, attendance, and student well-being. “Arts help students stay in school. We need to remember that, and really integrate it into how we think about school success.”
Schools interested in applying for Ingenuity's Creative Schools Fund grants can learn more here. Applications are due September 25.
For information on content partnerships with Board Rule, email maureen.boardrule@gmail.com.
The Race for School Board President: First Televised Forum Inspires Parents to Learn More
Last night, WTTW held the first televised forum with the candidates for school board president. If you missed it, you can watch it here.
Board Rule joined a watch party sponsored by Kids First Chicago and held at Malcolm X College. About 80 people attended. Conversations with attendees suggested this forum was the beginning of their decision making process, not the end. That aligns with the latest poll of likely voters, with 55% of respondents undecided.
"I'm glad I came and got the facts," said MarrLa Slaughter McBee, whose son graduated in June from Bulls College Prep and now attends Knox College. Her views of the candidates changed over the course of the forum. "I expected a little more from [Sendhil Revuluri] with his experience."
Leesa Brandon, another mom of a Noble Schools alum, appreciated the openness that candidates showed in addressing tough questions, especially Jessica Biggs response to a question about being fired as a principal and Victor Henderson's response to a question about 2011 allegations he had physically abused his sons. "I'm glad they were honest with their answers and open. They are human beings," she said.
Speaking through an interpreter, Rocio Cuesta said she wants to do more research on the candidates. "It's important for the community to unite and get the information." Cuesta has a grandchild in CPS.
"I left with more questions than answers," said Leticia Hargrove, a parent at Lyon Elementary and vice-president of its PTA. She has many questions about CPS finances. "Is there no money, or is there money and it's not being allocated properly?" she wondered. She's also deeply skeptical of budgets built on uncertain financial assumptions, especially since "regular people" can't budget on money they don't know for sure is coming. "I can't have a million-dollar budget and I'm working a minimum-wage job."
Events
Thursday, Sept. 17: Candidate Forum for District 2B and 4A, sponsored by the 46th and 48th Ward Dems, 6:30 p.m., Furama Restaurant, 4936 N. Broadway. RSVP here.
Thursday, Sept. 17: Candidate forum for District 5B, sponsored by Chicago Westside Branch NAACP, Collins High School, 1313 S. Sacramento, Doors 5:30; forum 6 p.m. RSVP here.
Saturday, Sept. 19: District Candidates Forum, sponsored by the Chicago Public Education Fund, Kids First Chicago, and the Chicago Education Alliance, 10:30 a.m., Intentional Sports, 1841 N. Laramie Ave. RSVP here.
Tuesday, Sept. 29: District 5a/5b Candidates Forum, sponsored by Noble Schools, Doors 5:30; forum 6 p.m., Chicago Bulls College Prep, 2040 W. Adams St. RSVP here.
Tuesday, Sept. 29: School Board President Candidate Forum, sponsored by the 30th, 35th, 38th and 45th Ward Dems, 6:30-8 p.m., Copernicus Center Annex, 5216 W. Lawrence Ave. No RSVP required.
Wednesday, Sept. 30, District 3a/b Candidates Forum, including all candidates running in Districts 3A and 3B, sponsored by Noble Schools, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Pritzker College Prep, 4131 W. Cortland St. RSVP via QR code here.
Wednesday, Sept. 30, CAN-TV livestream forums with candidates from Districts 10B and 6A, 5:30 p.m.
Thurs. October 1 District 5A Forum, Doors 5:30; forum 6 p.m., sponsored by the Westside Branch NAACP with Austin Voice, Board Rule, The Culture, North Lawndale Community News, and more; moderated by Remel Terry, President, Westside Branch NAACP, Michele Clark Magnet High School, 5101 W Harrison St.
Mon. October 5 School Board Presidential Candidates Forum, sponsored by the Westside Branch NAACP with Austin Voice, Board Rule, The Culture, North Lawndale Community News, and more; moderated by Remel Terry, President, Westside Branch NAACP, doors 5:30; forum 6 p.m., Malcolm X College Auditorium, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd.
Thurs. October 8 Focus on Chicago School Board Elections, panel discussion with Joe Ferguson (Civic Federation), Board Rule's Maureen Kelleher, and Jane Charney (Jewish United Fund and CPS parent). 6:30 p.m. in Lakeview. RSVP for details here.
Wed. October 14 School Board Presidential Candidates Forum, sponsored by Chalkbeat, Hyde Park Herald, and South Side Weekly, doors 5:30; forum 6 p.m., Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St.
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