Impact of Arts Education. A randomized controlled experiment involving over 10,000 students enrolled in 4th to 8th grade in Texas examined the impact of arts education on a wide variety of outcomes.¹ Arts education included visual arts, music, dance, and theater. Six different outcomes were measured over 12 different groups, for a total of 72 different hypothesis tests conducted to examine evidence for a positive impact from additional arts education.

¹Bowen D and Kisida B, "Investigating Causal Effects of Arts Education: Experimental Evidence from Houston's Arts Access Initiative," Research Report, Kinder Institute for Urban Research, February 12, 2019.

a) In fact, 16 of the tests were significant at the 5% level and 6 tests were significant at the 1% level, but these significant results were not evenly spread out over the different response variables. In each case below, compare the number of significant results to the number expected just by random chance at each level. (Don't round off your answers.) Does increased arts education appear to have a statistically significant impact in the areas specified?

(i) Forty-eight of the tests were in four areas (absences, math, reading, and science) and had only 1 result significant at the 5% level and no results significant at the 1% level.

At the 5% level:

Expected just by random chance:

Number of significant tests observed:

At the 1% level:

Expected just by random chance:

Number of significant tests observed:

Does increased arts education appear to have a statistically significant impact in these areas?

(b) The other 24 tests were in the areas of discipline and writing. For these 24 tests, 15 were significant at the 5% level and 6 were significant at the 1% level.

At the 5% level:

Expected just by random chance:

Number of significant tests observed:

At the 1% level:

Expected just by random chance:

Number of significant tests observed:

Does increased arts education appear to have a statistically significant impact in these areas?

Yes.No.