The Value of Quantitative Collection and Analysis in Drama Education Research

• In Event: 16.022 - Critically Dramatic Conversations: Complications in Drama/Theater Research for Social Justice and Equity

Abstract

This critically reflective paper uses a National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) funded 2010 to 2014 study, that partnered the Jersey City Public Schools (JCPS) with the Educational Arts Team (EAT) on a Theater and Language Arts Integration project. The project was designed to increase academic performance for elementary school students by infusing theater arts strategies into the language arts curriculum. This paper hopes to interrogate the use quantitative data assessment and evaluation—standardized tests, as a means to examine Drama/Theatre education as a space for social justice and equity across public education communities.
The study had EAT implement a series of 30 forty-five minute theater arts lesson plans infused into the language arts curriculum with 24 randomly selected classrooms of 2nd and 3rd grade students. The IRB approved project was evaluated by an independent team of researchers from Seton Hall University utilizing a randomized design to study teachers’ attitude, knowledge and practice of arts integration; and student academic growth (as measured by standardized State of New Jersey tests).
The theory of change behind the study posited that an arts integration and immersion project that uses various drama strategies fused to language arts curriculum can lead to improvements in young learners’ reading comprehension, writing skills and social learning. Indeed, quantitative data analysis showed that in years 2, 3 and 4 students in the treatment group classes consistently outperformed those in the control groups in language arts. The year 4 results were very telling with the Treatment students (N= 215) earning a 66% proficient score versus the Control students (N=182) earning a 53% proficient score a difference of 13% between Treatment and Control groups (Walker et al, 2011).
These quantitative data do support for the infusion of drama into the curriculum as a means to improve standardized test scores. This quantitative data also supports the idea that the use of drama can help close the achievement gap for marginalized communities. However, a larger question looms in the wings. What may be said about the value of the data in so far as the assessment tool—standardized tests, may actually support social justice and equity? In order to explore this idea the author uses the work of Britzman, Postman and Shor and to critically reflect on the process of creating the larger study in relationship to progressive educational ends. Explored are notions of personal facilitator objectives in juxtaposition to the needs of the students within the study, school district and the funding agency. Attention is particularly drawn to the tension between the EAT facilitator’s understanding of how and why Drama/Theatre functions as a means for social change and academic learning and the need to show marked improvement on the standardized tests. Ultimately this paper hopes to offer a means to complicate the ways in which quantitative data analysis within Drama/Theatre research is understood, offering both potential strengths and weakness as a tool for equity and justice.

Author

• Carmine Tabone