Dance in High Schools

Dance is a way that humans can move their body in a rhythmic way. It involves expressing emotions and is about feeling "free." People can take dance classes at a local dance studio for a relatively high cost. However, some communities don't have access to dance studios and/or the classes are just too expensive for many people. This is why dance programs in schools is especially important. While dance in schools is only open to students, it gives students a fresh start to their future, as they learn how to be responsible in learning choregraphy, build relationships with peers, and most of all, it provides a safe space for students to be creative. Despite the fact that some schools offer free dance classes, there needs to be many more schools that offer dance as well because dance is just as important as required subjects like math, English, and science.

This topic is important to me because dance is my passion and I want everyone to have the opportunity that I have of dancing for free in school. The notion of schools having or not having dance is compelling and interesting for other young people because dance is something that many people enjoy, but may not have the chance to do. Also, my topic is important for other young people because many of them have never danced before and don’t know what they are missing out on, so dance in school will allow them to explore that. With my experience of dancing since I was 18 months old (I am now 14) at both a studio setting and at my high school (Bonita Vista High School), I know how valuable dance in school is, as well as how much dance can change someone's life for the better.

There is an excessive amount of benefits that come with dance, which many students need. For example, dance provides a creative way to exercise and get students moving. Instead of doing contact sports that can be injury-prone in P.E. class, students can feel safe while still getting efficient cardiovascular activity. Unlike many sports, dance can be done by anyone at any skill level, even beginners. Also, dance requires stretching of the body, which helps to keep the muscles flexible, strong and healthy, and prevents tight muscles. In addition, dance keeps students on their toes,  which makes them less likely to get in trouble or surround themselves with people who make poor/unhealthy choices like drugs and/or addiction to social media.  Also, dance is important just like other school subjects because it inspires students to be creative, (choreographing their own dances with their own "flavor"), lets dancers express their emotions, improves balance/coordination that is necessary for other activities, and welcomes everyone no matter their physical ability. Finally,  dance in high schools is significantly rewarding for the dance teachers  that teach students because of the positive impacts they make on students' lives and the community.

What is the relationship between a community's average income level and the likelihood of their local high school to have a dance program in the Sweetwater Union High School District and the San Diego Unified School District, and what are the implications for residents?

To start off, I have created the map above to display many high schools in San Diego. The larger orange circles represent the high schools that have two or more dance programs and the smallest circles represent the high schools that unfortunately don't offer any dance programs. This map is important because it is a way to show factual evidence that only some high schools have dance programs and that many more schools need to include dance in their course offerings.

By clicking on the white circle at the bottom left corner of the map, you will be able to see the legend for what size circle represents what amount of dance programs. To interact with the map, click on any of the orange circles to see the name of the high school and how many dance programs they have.

I started off by going to the San Diego Unified School District website and the Sweetwater Union High School District and I clicked on "high schools." Then, it brought up a list of their high schools, in which I wrote down in chronological order on a Google Sheet. I searched Google Maps for all of those high schools and copied their address into the Google Sheet. I also went to each individual high school website to see if they had a dance program and then I wrote down how many dance programs each school has in the sheet. Finally, I downloaded the Google Sheet as a csv and opened up my map that I created so that I could drag the file straight onto my map, creating the orange circles.

Overall, this map shows spatial variation because the mixture of large and small circles show the variety of the amount of dance programs in high schools and that it varies across San Diego. The clusters of large circles show that there are multiple schools within a close proximity to each other (a few miles) that all have two or more dance programs. Towards northern San Diego County, there is a row of small circles near each other that have zero dance programs. With this information, we can see that when one school has a dance program, the surrounding others will typically have one as well, vice versa.

The map I created on the right specifically shows the areas where there are many high schools that don't have any dance programs. As we can clearly see, a large portion of San Diego high schools do not provide dance in school, which needs to be changed. There are a few schools in the South Bay of San Diego that don't have dance programs as well, but the areas where the majority of schools don't offer dance is shown in this map.

To be interactive with this map, click on any of the blue-shaded areas to see the average household income of that area. The legend at the bottom left of the map is also available.

In my arcGIS map, I clicked on "Analysis" and "Find Locations." Then, I clicked on "Find Existing Locations," chose the layer "Schools with no dance," clicked "Add Expression," and made the expression say "Schools with no dance not within a distance of 3 miles from Schools in the Sweetwater Union High School District and San Diego Unified School District." Then, once I clicked "Add," I had the large blue-shaded area on my map, showing many of the high schools in San Diego County that don't offer dance programs.

What viewers can take away from this map is that there are, indeed, many schools in San Diego that don't have dance programs. That is not beneficial and needs to be addressed because there are many benefits to dance that many students need, as explained in detail in the beginning of my story map. This map shows the spatial association between high schools having zero dance programs and their proximity to each other. We can tell that most schools in northern San Diego County have no dance programs. We can infer that maybe the reason why most schools in northern San Diego County have no dance programs is because that area (La Jolla, Del Mar, etc) is more sophisticated and probably only focuses on higher levels of education in schools. They choose not to provide activities like dance, even though their budget might be higher than schools in southern San Diego that have dance programs. Also, people in those types of high-class neighborhoods most likely have money to pay tuition at a dance studio. Additionally, by analyzing this map, we can associate average household income with the high schools that have zero dance classes. All of the blue shaded area is of high income, so it is surprising to me that there are no dance programs with the amount of money in the area. Like I mentioned, maybe those higher-class areas with no dance programs focus on/spend their money on higher levels of education (accelerated classes and such). Also, people in the higher income areas might want to take dance in a professional studio setting that requires a high amount of tuition.

The map at left that I created displays the average household income in the same parts of San Diego that the high schools on the first map were located.

First, I clicked the "add" button on my map at the top left and clicked "search for layers." Then, I searched arcGIS Online for "average income San Diego." I found the layer I wanted, "San Diego County Average Household Income OL." After the layer was in my map, I filtered the data to show only the areas where the schools on my map are. To do that, I clicked on the "content" button on the upper-left side of my map. I clicked the filter button under the "San Diego County Average Household Income OL" layer and then I clicked "edit". I clicked on “add a set” and I said “community is” and then I typed in the city I wanted. I did this for the city of San Diego, Chula Vista, National City, and Imperial Beach because those were the cities where the schools on my map are located.

To interact with this map, click on any of the colored areas to see which area in San Diego it is and the average income of those residents.

A visual representation of the data helps us do better analysis because it gives us a sense of how many schools per area have dance programs. My map helps us see the correlation between average income and dance offerings in school. We can see that the majority of high schools with dance programs are in the Sweetwater Union High School District. The vast majority of high schools in northern San Diego County in the San Diego Unified School District don't have any dance programs in their schools, except for a few. On another note, while creating my map in arcGIS, I did some analysis and used some of the tools. For example, I filtered my San Diego County average household income data layer to just the cities where the schools I mapped. Also, I changed the style of the dots on my map by clicking "change style" under my data layer "Schools in the Sweetwater Union High School District and San Diego Unified School District." Then, I clicked the attribute to show called "Amount of Dance Programs" and I selected the style "Counts and Amounts (Size)," creating the orange dots of various sizes on my map.

My map and research has helped me answer my question because it has allowed me to see facts/data to find the correlation between average income and dance programs in schools. I figured out that whether or not high schools in San Diego County have dance programs is not affected by income. While it is possible that income affects the likelihood of having a dance program in high schools in other states or areas in California, San Diego typically either has a cluster/hot spot of high schools that have dance programs, or they do not. However, after conducting extensive research, I have found that when schools do have dance programs, the implications for students are that they get a chance to express themselves, get active, learn new styles/history of dance, as well as the fact that communities can receive dance training for free.

Knowing that many schools, not just San Diego, but across the United States, don't have any form of free dance program, we should strongly advocate for dance programs in schools (not just high schools), as they have an infinite amount of benefits that numerous students desperately need. If we provide more dance programs in schools, we will be building a future of adults who are creative and have high self-esteem. So, when brand-new schools are being built, we as a community in San Diegeo, and even across the United States, must do everything in our power to have many more schools with dance programs, even for the schools that are already built. Overall, I want dance classes to be available to everyone, especially in schools, because as I explained, dance is even more important than other academic subjects in school. As said in the article "Everybody dance now: Socioeconomic status and dance" by Kathryn Boland of  Dance Informa , ". . .dance shouldn’t be something only for the “well-off”, in large part because potential greatness might never be allowed to flourish. " By advocating for dance programs to be put in schools across the United , we can improve socioeconomic diversity and allow everyone to have the opportunity to explore and be represented in the arts. I know that at my high school, I will encourage students to take the dance programs that are offered at our school.