Adding music, dance, theater and visual arts experiences improved writing scores at Houston elementary and middle schools, writes Matt Barnum on Chalkbeat. In addition, students with more access to the arts showed more compassion for classmates and got in trouble less, a new study concluded.

Schools, which primarily enrolled students from lower-income, minority families, worked with cultural groups to provide “on-campus performances, field trips, artists in residence, and other programs outside of school hours,” writes Barnum. A control group of schools offered less arts education.

“A substantial increase in arts educational experiences has remarkable impacts on students’ academic, social, and emotional outcomes,” conclude researchers Brian Kisida and Daniel H. Bowen.

Compared to students in the control group, Arts Access students “experienced a 3.6 percentage point reduction in disciplinary infractions, an improvement of 13 percent of a standard deviation in standardized writing scores, and an increase of 8 percent of a standard deviation in their compassion for others,” they write.

In addition, elementary students “were more likely to agree that school work is enjoyable, makes them think about things in new ways, and that their school offers programs, classes, and activities that keep them interested in school.”

The cost to schools was $15 a student.

Kisida worked on an earlier study that found field trips to an art museum have significant benefits, especially for disadvantaged students.

Arts museum visits “contribute to the development of students into civilized young men and women who possess more knowledge about art, have stronger critical-thinking skills, exhibit increased historical empathy, display higher levels of tolerance, and have a greater taste for consuming art and culture,” write Jay P. Greene, Kisida and Daniel H. Bowen in Education Next.