Who is taking dance electives, when, and for how long? Adolescents’ dance participation and persistence in middle and high school

Abstract

ABSTRACT Inclusive and equitable dance education practices remain an important issue in United States public school settings. We explore adolescents’ participation in public school dance electives through the examination of an ethnically diverse, longitudinal sample of students living in Miami, Florida (N = 24,368), as they progress through secondary school between the 2009–2010 and 2015–2016 academic years. We describe participation rates in dance electives and give results from linear probability regression models showing the characteristics (demographics, school readiness skills, prior school suspension, attendance, and academic achievement) of adolescents who enroll and persist in dance electives between middle and high school. We found that 14% of students enrolled in a dance elective during middle school and only 2% of students did so in high school. The highest levels of uptake in dance electives occurred in 7th and 9th grade. Most adolescents enrolled in a dance elective for only one academic year. Ethnicity, gender, disability status, and prior academic performance were significant predictors of initially selecting into a dance elective in middle school, and for persisting in a dance elective in high school. These results prompt further discussion of the integration of inclusive dance pedagogy in public school contexts.