Courtesy of Senator Tina Smith and her staff (particularly Andrew Bremer), here are some links to the resources on state-level K-12 arts education.
-Education Commission of the States’ “ArtScan”. https://www.ecs.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-ArtScan-at-a-Glance.pdf. ECS is a nation-wide consortium of state policymakers that tracks and shares state-level education policy. In their analysis, Minnesota is one of very few states that has arts education policies from early childhood through high school, including the Arts as a core academic subject and an Arts Ed assessment.
-Also from ECS: https://www.ecs.org/wp-content/uploads/Engaging-the-Arts-in-the-Broader-Education-Policy-Landscape.pdf. This is a more in-depth look at state-level policies. Minnesota is briefly included in their Accountability section, and the report highlights quite a few other arts-focused policies from around the country.
-The nonprofit Americans for the Arts’ State Status Report. https://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/State_Status_Report_Final.pdf. This is from 2015, but it highlights Minnesota’s strength compared to other states in its reporting on K-12 arts education to inform policy.
-Minnesota’s Perpich Center for Arts Education http://perpich.mn.gov/about-the-center/. Not a study, but the Perpich Center is a rather unique state-level agency that focuses specifically on Arts Education, including having a dedicated arts high school and offering professional development and training for districts and teachers in the state. I haven’t come across similar entities elsewhere in the country.
-Kennedy Center’s Turnaround Arts program. http://turnaroundarts.kennedy-center.org/. Minnesota is one of 17 states that participates in this program, which implements an arts-focused model to support and improve certain low-performing schools. This intersects with federal arts policy, as the Kennedy Center receives federal funds every year to support its programming and operations.