Arts program raises test scores

Okay, in a time when soooo many districts have seen cuts in their art programs, check out this article http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/feb/10/student-scores-improve-with-unique-arts-program/  that talks about The Developing Reading Education with Arts Method or DREAM, where educators are trained to integrate arts into lessons and professional artists provide weekly coaching in the classroom.  According to the researchers North County (California) "third graders who had the arts integrated into their regular curriculum showed remarkable improvement on standardized test scores."  What was interesting is that even those teachers who were randomly divided with their students into the control group that got no training or in classroom help saw their student scores rise by 25 points by incorporating the DREAM program, the next group that had training in the program, had an increase in scores of 42 points and the last group that got training and in classroom support through  the program saw an 87-point average increase on the test!  For those who like the arts, check out the article!