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Major: Business Economics

Advisor: Anna Shostya

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Thesis

Abstract

Arts education has been in debate since the United States introduced formal education system. While some argue its lack of significance, others argue its crucial underpinnings to our society. This paper explores the significance of arts education using the Higher Order Thinking (HOT) program in Connecticut schools to measure students’ payoff on statewide standardized testing, namely Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT). The sample includes 20 schools that have either been HOT or have become HOT within a five year period from the 2008-2009 to 2012- 2013 school year. We us a fixed effects Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression to estimate five equations with the overall score as the dependent variable as well as the scores in individual subjects. The paper has found that the HOT program, a program instilling arts education into every classroom, has placed slight downward pressure on students’ performance. It is theorized that this may be due to the add stress on teachers and students by means of school reform as well as a poor school’s inability to adapt to a school reform affectively.

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