Business Context
“A Booz Allen Hamilton study of the world’s biggest R&D spenders indicated that nonmonetary factors are the most important drivers
of a company’s “return on innovation” and that R&D spending actually has no correlation with profitability growth, enterprise profitability, market capitalization growth and total shareholder return. Thetwo most critical factors in the study were the quality of the organization’s innovation process and the organization’s ability to build effective collaborative teams.”
- “71% of the United States workforce is either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged. Actively disengaged employees – the least productive – cost the American economy up to $350 billion per year in lost productivity.” Recent Gallop Research
- “84% of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact the quality of their company’s products, compared with 31% of the disengaged. 72% of the highly engaged believe they can positively affect customer service, versus 27% of the disengaged. 68% of the highly engaged believe they can positively impact costs in their job or unit, versus 19% of the disengaged.”
Recent study by Towers Perrin
Rank Basic Knowledge & Applied Skills Percentage
- Critical thinking/problem-solving 77.8%
- Information technology application 77.4%
- Teamwork/collaboration 74.2%
- Creativity/Innovation 73.6%
- Diversity 67.1%
Casner-Lotto, J., & Barrington, L. (2006). Are they really ready to work? Unites States: The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21 st Century Skills and Society for Human Resource Management.
Arts at the Core of Learning
The arts convey knowledge and meaning not learned through the study of other subjects. The groundbreaking theory of multiple intelligences developed by Howard Gardner of Harvard University broadens our view of how humans learn and realize their potential. It shows the arts play a crucial role in improving a student’s ability to learn because they draw on a range of intelligences and learning styles, not just the linguistic and logical mathematical intelligences upon which most schools are based. Schools that incorporate music, art, drama, dance and creative writing into the basic curriculum have found teaching the arts has a significant effect on a student’s overall success in school.
- In 1995, SAT scores for students who studied the arts for more than four years were 59 points higher on the verbal and 44 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. The College Board, Profile of SAT Achievement Test Takers, 1995.
- Special music and poetry programs had significant impact on language mechanics, total language and writing on California Achievement tests. Cognitive and Behavioral Consequences study by Carolyn Carter Hudspeth, 1986
- Students improved an average 1 or 2 months in reading skills for each month participation in “Learning to Read Through the Arts” program. Office of Educational Research, New York City Board of Education 1992-3.
|
