Joyful learning at scale: Immersing students in the arts  

In 2010, the researchers Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine set out to locate public high schools (especially schools that serve low-income communities) that have succeeded not just in boosting test scores but in helping students flourish in a whole range of ways. Young people, they argue, need opportunities to master challenging skills and content; define and strengthen their identity, both as individuals and members of a community; and express their own creativity, rather than just trying to complete requirements or satisfy teachers.  

Over the course of their research — which included hundreds of observations and interviews at 30 schools across the country — Mehta and Fine came to realize that such “deeper learning” is hard to find. Even in schools that were explicitly committed to providing a powerful education along these lines, most of the instruction they saw was uninspiring and unremarkable.