The Surprising Power of the Arts to Boost Literacy

By ArtsNOW

Literacy is a challenge across metro Atlanta, but progress is possible. Newly released Georgia Milestones data from the 2024-2025 school year shows that only 38 percent of third-grade students in the region are reading proficiently, a 3-point decrease from last year. While this reality underscores the urgency of the work ahead, it also spotlights the opportunity for proven strategies to make a difference. Across schools and districts, leaders are seeking approaches that not only meet literacy mandates but also inspire students to engage deeply with reading and learning. ArtsNOW is helping to lead that change.

While a coalition of strategies can close literacy gaps (e.g., stacking student vision care with teacher professional learning), forward-thinking educators are expanding their toolboxes. One approach that shows a measurable impact is arts integration. This research-based instructional strategy integrates the visual arts, music, theatre, and dance with academic standards to deepen student understanding. For example, when learning about magnetism, students may use dance standards such as level changes and locomotor movement to physically model the push and pull of magnetic attraction and repulsion. This kind of embodied learning helps concepts stick.

*At Vickery Mill Elementary School, students strengthen their writing skills while learning about geography and the Blue Ridge Mountains through visual arts.*

For nearly 25 years, ArtsNOW, a nationally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has led this work across the Southeast, equipping teachers to use the arts as a tool for engagement, access, and achievement. As districts work to implement state mandates in the Science of Reading, ArtsNOW offers arts-integrated strategies that strengthen and extend those efforts.

Alignment with District Priorities

ArtsNOW’s managers and curriculum specialists have completed training in the Science of Reading and continue their learning through an accredited partnership with the Rollins Center for Language and Literacy, as part of a Learn4Life cohort. This foundation allows ArtsNOW to align with any district’s literacy approach while addressing the real-world needs of classrooms and students.

Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all model, ArtsNOW customizes professional learning to meet the needs of each school. This flexibility ensures that the work supports existing structures, enhancing instructional practices already in place.

Arts integration aligns naturally with many of the strategies emphasized across literacy platforms. For example:

Through the Science of Reading, vocabulary acquisition is often taught using props, visuals, and gestures. Arts integration adds depth by inviting students to create artwork that reflects meaning or to embody vocabulary through original choreography and theatre strategies that use voice and body to personify the word.
Teachers may use the “point to the picture, act it out, tell the definition” method to teach vocabulary. ArtsNOW guides students to express vocabulary through student-created tableau, pantomime, and collaborative choreography, promoting a deeper understanding of semantics through the arts.
The Science of Reading encourages meaningful read-alouds with regular comprehension checks. Through arts integration, students might pause to create a living statue of a character’s emotion, draw symbolic visuals using color and scale, or add sound effects that reflect mood or setting. These creative responses reinforce understanding and provide valuable assessment opportunities for teachers.

Linking sound to science, students at M. Agnes Jones Elementary School use rhythm and tempo in music to understand the patterns and intensity of different types of weather.

These strategies shift the learning process. Instead of being told what a gesture means or which image to draw, students become active meaning-makers. They create. They explore. They retain.

Real Gains from Arts-Integrated Instruction

In the push to improve literacy outcomes, it is not enough to implement strategies that sound promising. District leaders and educators need to know what is working and for whom. Measuring the impact of instructional strategies helps schools refine their approach, allocate resources effectively, and ensure that every student has a clear path to success.

ArtsNOW’s impact has been tracked across schools with diverse populations, and the data shows clear and consistent gains. At Powder Springs Elementary, third-grade English Language Arts scores rose by 15 percentage points after implementing ArtsNOW strategies, compared to just an 8 percent increase in a matched comparison school. This kind of growth signals more than engagement. It points to sustained academic progress.

As part of Cobb’s KickstART literacy initiative, 97 percent of English Learners in schools supported by ArtsNOW improved their language proficiency in just one year. By contrast, only 74 percent of English Learners in similar schools made the same level of progress. These results highlight how arts integration can help close opportunity gaps, particularly for multilingual learners who benefit from multisensory, meaning-making strategies.

At another elementary school that partnered with ArtsNOW through the SmART Literacy grant, the percentage of students reading at grade level rose from 60 percent to 74 percent over a five-year period. During that same period, English Language Arts proficiency rates at the school increased by more than 17 percent. These long-term improvements suggest that arts integration is not just a short-term engagement tool. It is a sustainable pathway to stronger learning.

Using collaboration and physical space, students at Hope Hill Elementary School demonstrated how simple machines work through dance.

A Bright Spot for Literacy

ArtsNOW’s work has been recognized as a Learn4Life Bright Spot for Early Literacy because of its alignment with district goals and its measurable results. In classrooms where arts integration is used, students are more engaged, teachers report stronger instructional confidence, and academic gains are evident.

As schools strive to meet ambitious literacy benchmarks, arts integration offers a flexible and proven approach that enhances, rather than replaces, existing mandates. Whether a district is implementing the Science of Reading, adopting a scripted curriculum, or refining local strategies, arts integration provides the creative thread that ties instruction to meaning and joy.

ArtsNOW stands ready to partner with schools, districts, and educators across Georgia to bring literacy to life through the power of the arts.