Music and arts classes are often first on the chopping block when schools face tight budgets and pressure to achieve high scores on standardized tests. But it’s precisely those classes that can increase student interest in school and even benefit their math achievement, according to a new study.

Daniel Mackin Freeman, a doctoral candidate in sociology, and Dara Shifrer, an associate professor of sociology, studied which types of arts classes impact math achievement and how it varies based on the socio-economic composition of the school. Schools with lower socio-economic status (SES) have a higher percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

The researchers found that taking music courses at higher- or mid-SES schools relates to higher math scores. Mackin Freeman said that’s not a surprise, given the ways in which music and math overlap.

“If you think about it at an intuitive level, reading music is just doing math,” he said. “Of course, it’s a different type of math but it might be a more engaging form of math for students than learning calculus.”

However, the positive relationship between music course-taking and math achievement is primarily isolated to schools that serve more socially privileged students. The study suggests this could be because arts courses in low-SES schools are of lower quality and/or under-resourced. Students in low-SES schools also take fewer music and arts classes on average compared to their peers, also suggesting low-SES schools are under-resourced when it comes to offering those arts courses in the first place.

Mackin Freeman said, “Under-resourced schools are less likely to have even working instruments — let alone an instructor who can teach students well — to teach them to read music in a way where they can make connections to math.” This especially impacts resource-intensive programs like band and orchestra.

The findings suggest that learning shouldn’t happen in subject silos and that the ways some schools have attempted to increase math scores — by doubling down on math and cutting the arts — is shortsighted and counterproductive.

“Creating a school where students have access to well-rounded course work might indirectly affect math scores,” Freeman said. “For instance, they might be willing to go to school because they have band or painting class to look forward to.”