| Music
Education Being “Left Behind”
Local
interpretation of the federal “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB)
education law is seriously affecting access to music education
for America’s public school students. “The law clearly identifies
the arts as a core academic subject,” explains American Music
Conference Executive Director Rob Walker. “However, the requirements
for standardized testing in literacy, math and science are
leading local districts to divert resources away from other
subjects. As a result, the arts are truly being left behind.”
Walker
advised concerned parents and educators to visit a Web site,
www.support-music.com, which provides resources for grassroots
music advocates. The site is maintained by the Music Education
Coalition. Paul Young, principal of West Elementary School
in Lancaster, OH and a former president of the National Association
of Elementary School Principals, has seen this phenomenon from
both the national and local perspectives. “I see the decisions
my fellow principals are making, and I understand the pressure,
but they need to remember the big picture,” he said. “I certainly
believe everybody needs to be able to read and do math, but
they also need to know how to think. What we’re doing now is
creating kids who are able to pass tests.”
Under “No
Child Left Behind,” each state must measure every public school
student’s progress in reading and math in each of grades three
through eight, and at least once during grades ten through
twelve. By the academic year 2007-2008, assessments in science
will be underway as well. These assessments must be aligned
with state academic content and achievement standards.
In
California, music educator Anne Fennell says people should
look beyond those requirements to the spirit of the legislation. “If
you look at NCLB Title Nine, it includes the arts as a core
subject, but I think people get stuck on what’s getting tested
only,” she says. Fennell is the Orff-Schulwerk Specialist at
the Vista Academy of Visual and Performing Arts near San Diego,
CA, and is also the founder and project director of MusicVentures,
which helps train classroom professionals to make the most
of music instruction.
“People
think of literacy as reading and writing the printed word,
but literacy is how we make meaning in our world,” Fennell
says. “We know arts programs work. But because they’re not
included in state formulas for funding and testing benchmarks,
they’re the first to be zapped.”
The
effects of these interpretations of NCLB and its effect on
school music education come at a time when local budget pressures
have already placed music classes in danger in many parts of
the country. In New York City, pressure to find time for the
extra English and math classes required by the Education Department’s
new standardized curriculum has led junior high schools to
cut art, music and other electives. Across the country, as
reported in major media, state-level fiscal woes have led to
repeated cuts in school arts programs. Even before NCLB, the
most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
showed only 25 percent of eighth graders nationwide had the
opportunity to take a music class.
Ironically,
the benefits of music instruction for young people are better
understood than ever before: A new study led by Dr. Agnes S.
Chan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, published in July
in the journal Neuropsychol-ogy, found that school-age students
who had participated in music scored significantly higher on
verbal memory tests than their classmates who had not.
A
1999 UCLA study showed that students who participated in music
programs three times a week scored an average of 40 percent
higher in math, reading, history and geography than those who
did not.
Other
research over the last decade has linked music participation
with enhanced brain development, higher performance in other
academic courses, better socialization and improved wellness.
Concern
about the unintended but serious consequences of NCLB has even
reached the districts identified as the “Best 100 Communities
in America for Music Education” in AMC’s annual nationwide
survey. In Syosset, NY, district Art & Music Chair Steven
Schopp says, “I see the threat of scheduling problems due to
NCLB as far more serious than budget problems. Budgets are
obvious, but when students are quietly scheduled out of music
in the name of increasing standards, nobody notices. It happens
in small increments so there is no outcry.”
In
another of the “Best 100” communities, Nevada, IA, high school
band director Wade Presley observes, “More emphasis is being
placed on academics, and students are being told to drop band
or choir in order to beef up their classes in English, math
and science.”
Despite
these pressures, Walker notes that the final decisions about
educational priorities remain in local hands across the country. “I
call on all teachers, parents and school administrators to
keep music and arts instruction alive and well, so that local
schools can produce the truly educated graduates that the authors
of ‘No Child Left Behind’ envisioned,” he says.
SupportMusic.com
was created by the Music Education Coalition, a cooperative
undertaking by MENC, the National Association for Music Education,
and NAMM, the International Music Products Association. It
is the largest initiative of its kind dedicated to positively
impacting community resolve and inspiring action to support
music education in the United States. The site offers resources
to help people work on behalf of music education in their own
communities, including a “Build Your Case” section and a bulletin
board that lets people share their problems and successes.
The American Music Conference (www.amc-music.org) has
extensive resources available on its website, including the “Einstein
Advocacy Toolkit” for grassroots music education advocacy.#
Education
Update, Inc., P.O. Box 1588, New York, NY 10159.
Tel: (212) 477-5600. Fax: (212) 477-5893. Email: ednews1@aol.com.
All material is copyrighted and may not be printed without express consent of
the publisher. © 2003.
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