While evidence mounts that the VTS experience assists with test preparation and helps raise test scores, certainly in reading, the most direct documentation of this comes from a longitudinal research project in rural Minnesota.

New forms of standardized exams were introduced in 1996, required of 8th graders. The first two years that the tests were administered, students had had no VTS, and only half of them passed the reading exam, despite heavy drilling.

The third year, the first class with VTS since 4th grade, the number passing increased to 77%, surpassing by ten points the state average.

The graph represents this history, including the two ensuing years in which the passing percentage continued to increase, remaining above the average of the state as well as the research experiment's control school.

This bar graph shows a comparison of certain thinking skills between students in a VTS experimental research site and those in a control school.

The difference in the thinking skills is the outcome of their different instructional programs.

The number counts refer to evidence of two critical thinking categories apparent in a non-directive interview while looking at a work of art: "supported observations" (providing evidence to back up an interpretation) and speculative comments (such as it could be this or it could be that).

The first set of bars show students in Grade 3 after the experimentals had had two years of VTS, the second set in Grade 6 after four; again, the controls had no VTS.

The line graph shows the normative developmental progress of experimental and control students over a five year period as they went from Grade 2 through Grade 6.

One way to understand the growth of the experimentals is to compare them to adult museum visitors. In our studies, we have found that the norm among eleven year olds with VTS experience is identical to that of adults randomly sampled in various museums.

There are differences, however, between interviews conducted with adults in museums and those conducted with students using VTS. The students’ non- directive interviews provide evidence of greater openness, more probing observations, more evidence for interpretations, and more speculative thinking.

To read more about the research behind VTS - VTS Research and Theory - click here.