WASHINGTON (AP) -- Only one in four students gets the chance to sing, play an instrument or perform plays in class each week, even though most American schools offer some type of arts education program, an Education Department study found.

As many schools increase their spending on such areas as computers and special education, less money is available to pay for arts classes. But the failure to give students instruction or performance opportunities in music, arts and theater is serious, said Education Secretary Richard Riley.

"In nearly every field in which we need to foster new ideas in order to succeed -- from computers to communications -- people with an education in the arts are playing critical conceptual roles," he said Tuesday.

Renee Williams of the National School Boards Association said arts education programs vary among school districts but a trend against them has emerged.

"When school districts are strapped for funds, the programs that seem to get cut first before athletics or anything else are the arts programs," she said. "Some people just don't see the importance of it, that there has been recent research done on how these types of curriculums in music and art can help with brain development."

The first National Assessment of Educational Progress in the arts, which covered only classes during normal school hours, found music is the most commonly offered arts class. Some form of the subject was taught at least once a week in 81 percent of schools. Just 9 percent of schools offered no music courses at all.

Visual arts were taught at least once a week at 77 percent of schools, and 17 percent offered no such classes.

Weekly theater arts classes were offered at 17 percent of schools, but 74 percent of schools failed to offer that subject at all. Dance was the least available art, offered at least once a week at 7 percent of schools surveyed and unavailable at 80 percent.

Not surprisingly, students with frequent instruction did better than those with fewer classes when tested on knowledge and skills in the arts, the study found.

For example, when asked to sing, create music and perform dances, students who had instruction at least once a week scored an average of 53 out of 100 points, compared with 27 for students who didn't study music.

The NAEP study, often called the nation's report card, was conducted in 1997 on a representative sample of 6,660 students from 268 public and private schools. Previous report cards have assessed students' performance in math, history, reading and science.


AP-NY-11-10-98