State of the Arts 2024-25

Ingenuity is thrilled to release its thirteenth State of the Arts, a landscape report of the progress and opportunities within Chicago Public Schools (CPS) arts education.  The arts education landscape remains dynamic, shaped by persistent challenges and uncertainty. School discretionary budgets have been stripped back, and arts organizations continue to navigate funding loss and capacity challenges. Despite this, there are some encouraging indicators. For one, every single school in Chicago Public Schools — 645 out of 645 — submitted arts education data. This incredible achievement is a testament to the CPS Department of Art Education’s and district’s commitment to arts education.

The Creative Schools Certification (CSC) remains a critical tool for shared measurement, tracking access to and quality of arts education. Overall CSC ratings for 2024-25 remain nearly unchanged from the prior year: 39% of all CPS schools were rated as Excelling in both 2023–24 and 2024–25. Access metrics remained stable overall alongside modest shifts across most metrics though significant gains in staffing. At the same time, Quality metrics — those that measure conditions that go beyond staffing and coursework — showed greater variation. Arts partnerships, a cornerstone of arts education across CPS, were among the most impacted areas in 2024–25, with declines across many indicators.

At the core of Ingenuity’s data philosophy is the belief that data must be both transparent and accessible. The report, alongside the State of the Arts Dashboard and Toolkit, supports alignment and shared understanding across the sector. Yet data alone does not create change. In a district as large and complex as CPS, no single initiative can close equity gaps. Intentional and equitable strategies remain essential, as access to arts education continues to vary across student populations and communities throughout the city. In 2024–25, White and Asian students were around 75% more likely than Black students to be enrolled in an Excelling school. Schools that had more access to opportunity were also more likely to provide higher levels of access to arts education.

Despite continued progress in some areas, the latest data shows that 65,000 CPS students still lack access to high-quality arts education. These findings underscore an ongoing call to action — one that remains until all CPS schools are rated as Excelling.