This file contains data from three fast-response surveys, titled “Survey of Elementary School Music Specialists,” “Survey of Elementary School Visual Arts Specialists,” and “Arts Survey of Elementary School Classroom Teachers.” These surveys provide national estimates on arts education and arts instructors in public elementary schools during the 2009–10 school year. These three surveys are part of a set of seven surveys that collected data on arts education during the 2009–10 school year. In addition to these elementary teacher surveys, the set includes a survey of elementary school principals, a survey of secondary school principals, and two secondary teacher-level surveys. NCES released the results of this set of surveys in the First Look report “A Snapshot of Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 2009–10 (NCES 2011-078). A second report, released in April 2012, presents findings on a broader set of indicators.
Questionnaires and cover letters for the surveys were mailed to sampled elementary school teachers in batches from January through April 2010. The letter introduced the study and requested that the questionnaire be completed by the sampled teacher. Respondents were offered the option of responding to the survey via the web or by mail. Telephone follow-up for survey nonresponse and data clarification was conducted from February through August 2010. The weighted response rates were 86.5 percent for the music specialist survey, 87.6 percent for the visual arts specialist survey, and 81.5 percent for the classroom teacher survey.
Previous studies of arts education were conducted during the 1994–95 and the 1999–2000 school years, with surveys of elementary school teachers first included in the 1999–2000 study. In addition to including many of the research questions from the previous study, the current study addresses emerging issues, such as the availability of curriculum-based arts education activities outside of regular school hours. The elementary teacher surveys collected data on the teaching load of music and visual arts specialists in elementary schools; teacher participation in various professional development activities; the ways in which self-contained classroom teachers teach arts education as part of their instructional program; and teachers' use of formal methods of assessment of students' achievement in the arts.
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