1. Heidi H. Erickson Jay P. Greene, Angela R. Watson, and Molly I. Beck
Does Art Make You Smart: The Effect of Multiple Art Experiences on Academic and Social Emotional Outcomes Year 2 Results
Heidi H. Erickson
Jay P. Greene, Angela R. Watson, and Molly I. Beck

2. Overview
Randomly assign classes of 4th and 5th graders to receive 3 culturally enriching field trips throughout the school year and measure the impact on student social-emotional and academic outcomes.
Results:
Increase in math and ELA test scores
Decrease in behavioral infractions
Increase in school engagement
Increase in social perspective taking and tolerance
Increase survey effort for girls
Null effect for art consumption & participation

3. Motivation: Field trips are a long standing tradition for schools
Increase in schools canceling field trips (Ellerson & McCord, 2009)
Teachers report decline in arts education and field trip, particularly among disadvantaged students (Government Accountability Office, 2009)
Principal reported pressure from accountability standards and tight budgets
Cultural institutions report fewer student groups attending and that adult attendance at art institutions is also declining (Rabkin & Hedberg, 2010)

4. Previous literature Observational studies Gold standard studies
Students involvement in the arts is associated with higher academic performance (Ruppert, 2006; Jægar and Møllegarrd, 2017)
Meta-analysis on arts integration programs find 4 percentage point increase in achievement (Ludwig, Boyle, & Lindsay, 2017)
Student who attend multiple cultural institutions experienced academic benefits in the short term (Lacoe, Painter, & Williams, 2016)
Student experience increased critical thinking, creative thinking and human connection from a single art museum visit (RK&A, 2018)
Gold standard studies
Students randomly assigned to receive a field trip to an art museum experienced an increase in tolerance, critical thinking, and desire to consume art (Greene et al., 2014; Bowen, Greene, & Kisida, 2014; Kisida, Greene, & Bowen, 2014)
Student randomly assigned to attend live theater demonstrated higher levels of content knowledge, tolerance, and social perspective taking (Greene et al, 2018)

5. Research Question
Do students experience social emotional and academic benefits from multiple field trips to cultural institutions?
What we add to the literature
Experimental design
Multiple trips to 3 different art institutions
Large, urban school district serving primarily minority and low income students
Survey and administrative data for multiple years
Hypotheses- Year 1
Expect positive gains in social emotional constructs such as tolerance and social perspective taking
Expect positive gains in student desire to consume arts
Expect no significant effect in academic achievement
Hypotheses- Year 2
Expect increase in school engagement

6. Research Design: Randomized Control Trial
Treatment Assignment- Year 2
School 1
School 5
4th
Treatment
5th
Control
6th
Treatment- Prior
School 6
School 2
School 7
School 3
School 8
Treatment- Double
School 4
School 9
School 10
Cohort 1
Cohort 2
Randomly assign 4th or 5th grade students to serve as treatment or control
Cohort 1
4 schools- 4th & 5th grade
Cohort 2
4 original schools- 4th grade
6 new schools- 4th & 5th grade

7. Research Design: Randomized Control Trial
Treatment: Field trips to Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Alliance Theater, and High Museum of Art
Control: Business as usual
4th & 5th Grade Randomized
Survey in Fall
3 Field Trips
Follow-up Survey in Spring

8. Data
10 elementary schools and 1 middle school in a large urban school district
~1,400 Students
Student Surveys
Interest in art consumption and participation
Social emotional measures
School Engagement
Survey Effort
Non-response and careless answers
Administrative records
Demographics, end of year test scores, courses & grades, attendance, discipline records

9. Pre-Treatment Comparisons of Treatment and Control Groups
Variables
Control
(mean)
Treatment
Difference
(T-C)
Observations
Demographics:
Age in years
10.48
10.59
0.11
1135
Female
51.21%
51.14%
-0.07%
1363
Black or African American
98.82%
99.32%
0.50%
1018
Students with Disabilities
15.50%
15.27%
-0.23%
1228
Baseline Standardized Test Scores
ELA
-0.35
-0.31
0.04
1202
Math
-0.32
-0.28
1201
All Tests
-0.37
-0.34
0.03
1205
Baseline Discipline Measures
Infractions
0.12
0.00
Suspensions
0.06
0.02
Precent Absent
4.47%
4.58%
0.11%
Careless Answers
0.15
0.07
-0.08
1222
"School is Boring"
-0.04
1193
Social Perspective Taking
0.09
0.05
1212
Tolerance "Different Opinions"
0.08
1206
Composite Cultural Consumption
-0.05
0.14
0.19***
Composite Cultural Participation
Previously attended WAC
75.10%
80.61%
5.51%*
1181
Previously attended Alliance Theater
32.10%
30.84%
-1.26%
1211
Previously attended Atlanta Symphony
39.74%
47.95%
8.21%**
1216
Previously attended High Museum of Art
49.03%
52.38%
3.35%
1133
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

10. Research Methodology
Randomized Control Trial: Compare students who were randomly assigned to receive 3 art related field trip to control students who received business as usual
Average Treatment Effect
𝑌 𝑖𝑠 = 𝛽 0 + 𝛽 1 1𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑡 𝑖𝑠 + 𝛽 2 2𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑡 𝑖𝑠 + 𝛽 3 𝑃𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑡 𝑖𝑠 + 𝛽 4 𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛 𝑒 𝑖𝑠 + 𝑋 𝑖 𝛽 5 + 𝜃 𝑠 + 𝜀 𝑖𝑠
𝑋 𝑖 is a vector of student characteristics
Baseline test scores
Gender
Student grade
𝜃 𝑠 is a fixed effect for each school
Standard errors are clustered at the teacher level
Student random effects are included to adjust for cohort 1 students in both years
Attendance= days attend/days enrolled

11. Math and ELA Test Scores
Treatment effect on test scores, infractions, and school engagement
Math and ELA Test Scores
Infractions
"School is Boring"
Combined
Cohort 1
Cohort 2
1st Treatment
0.060
0.154**
0.027
0.049
0.037
0.072
0.000
-0.060
0.070
(0.042)
(0.068)
(0.057)
(0.050)
(0.076)
(0.078)
(0.079)
(0.102)
(0.109)
2nd Treatment
0.166*
-0.011
0.024
0.084
0.088
(0.092)
(0.090)
(0.103)
(0.115)
(0.137)
Previous Treatment
0.119*
0.128**
-0.570**
-0.622***
-0.327*
-0.425**
(0.066)
(0.064)
(0.240)
(0.222)
(0.177)
(0.179)
Pre Composite Test Score
0.857***
0.858***
0.850***
-0.159***
-0.171***
-0.111***
0.001
-0.035
-0.000
(0.018)
(0.024)
(0.021)
(0.036)
(0.060)
(0.035)
(0.032)
(0.040)
Pre Infraction Count
0.644***
0.780***
0.606***
(0.156)
(0.230)
(0.152)
Pre "School is boring"
0.287***
0.234***
0.329***
(0.048)
Female
0.008
0.050
-0.007
-0.117**
-0.059
-0.161***
-0.110*
-0.070
-0.176**
(0.051)
(0.031)
(0.053)
(0.056)
(0.065)
(0.075)
Grade 6
-0.022
0.038
0.952***
0.985***
0.080
0.101
(0.044)
(0.206)
(0.189)
(0.136)
(0.153)
Observations (N)
1,493
817
889
1,687
964
950
1,176
657
690
Number of Students
1,130
454
1,205
482
919
400
690 
Fixed effects for the ten elementary schools are included in each model. Standard errors clustered at the teacher level are in parentheses. Student random effects are included when students are observed in their first and second treatments or their first and previous treatment.
*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

12. Social Perspective Taking
Treatment effect on Tolerance, SPT, Survey Effort
“Different Opinions”
Social Perspective Taking
Carelessness
Combined
Cohort 1
Cohort 2
1st Treatment
0.112*
0.116
0.087
0.172
0.276*
0.063
0.039
0.021
0.136
(0.058)
(0.089)
(0.075)
(0.107)
(0.155)
(0.130)
(0.090)
(0.095)
(0.109)
2nd Treatment
0.165
0.163
-0.076
-0.045
0.138
0.186
(0.102)
(0.125)
(0.239)
(0.265)
(0.211)
(0.180)
Previous Treatment
-0.149
-0.168
0.279
0.388
0.065
0.096
(0.200)
(0.341)
(0.357)
(0.164)
(0.169)
1st Treat*Female
-0.243**
-0.367**
-0.187
(0.149)
(0.138)
2nd Treat*Female
-0.374*
-0.495**
(0.223)
(0.232)
Prev Treat*Female
0.067
-0.033
(0.150)
(0.173)
Pre "Different Opinions"
0.174***
0.188***
0.153***
(0.045)
(0.063)
(0.051)
Pre SPT
0.433***
0.274***
0.581***
(0.092)
(0.055)
Pre Carelessness
0.343***
0.296***
0.406***
(0.030)
(0.037)
(0.041)
Pre Composite Test Score
0.161***
0.181***
0.122*
0.183
0.106
-0.144***
-0.083*
-0.172***
(0.033)
(0.047)
(0.043)
(0.064)
(0.111)
(0.077)
(0.044)
(0.039)
Female
0.282***
0.335***
0.276***
0.204*
0.141
0.166
0.024
0.009
(0.068)
(0.082)
(0.123)
(0.195)
(0.146)
(0.074)
(0.108)
Grade 6
-0.307*
-0.317*
0.018
-0.385***
-0.371***
(0.175)
(0.191)
(0.289)
(0.305)
(0.103)
(0.091)
Observations (N)
1,187
665
695
290
149
186
1,211
675
713
Number of Students
927
405
238 97
946
410
Fixed effects for the ten elementary schools are included in each model. Standard errors clustered at the teacher level are in parentheses. Student random effects are included when students are observed in their first and second treatments or their first and previous treatment. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1

13. Summary Effects appear to be driven by cohort 1
Evidence of academic and social emotional benefits from art exposure
First study to show increased effects from multiple treatments and sustained effects past treatment
Effects appear to be driven by cohort 1
No effect on desire to consume art
Next Steps: Year 3
Larger sample with more dosage variation
6 new elementary schools for a total of 16
New cohort at 6 schools from year 2
Another cohort of students will have double treatment
More students in 6th grade

14. Thank You
Questions or Comments
Heidi H. Erickson

15. Supplementary
Information

16. Sample Items: Social Perspective Taking
How often do you attempt to understand your friends better by trying to figure out what they are thinking?
How often do you try to think of more than one explanation for why someone else acted as they did?
Overall, how often do you try to understand the point of view of other people?
How often do you try to figure out what emotions people are feeling when you meet them for the first time?
In general, how often do you try to understand how other people view the situation?

17. Sample Items: Art Consumption
If your friends or family wanted to go to an art museum, how interested would you be in going?
How interested are you in visiting an art museum?
Visiting art museums is fun.
I plan to visit art museums when I am an adult.
Art is interesting to me.
I feel like I don’t belong when I’m at an art museum.
I feel comfortable talking about art.
I would tell my friends that they should visit an art museum.
Would you like more art museums in your town?
Do you think your friend would enjoy a field trip to an art museum (such as the High Museum of Art)?

18. Benefits from Field Trips
Based off past literature
Cultural consumption and participation (Greene et al, 2014; Greene et al, forthcoming)
Social Perspective Taking (Gehlbach et al., 2008; Greene et al., forthcoming)
New to our project
Administrative Records
Test scores, attendance, course selection, grades, discipline records
Survey effort as a proxy for student engagement
Careless answers and item non-response (Zamarro et al., 2016; Hitt, Trivitt, Cheng, 2016)
Hypotheses
Expect positive gains in social emotional constructs such as social perspective taking
Expect positive gains in student desire to consume arts
Expect no significant effect in academic achievement