Music's Impact:  Elementary to High School   -  Part 3


    taken from "Music Advocacy Action Kit," provided
    by The Selmer Company for School Reform sessions
    presented by Tim Lautzenheiser and Michael Kumer at
    the 1999 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago


*  Upon integration of the arts into major subjects in fourteen New York elementary and secondary public schools, student behavior improved strikingly in such areas as taking risks, cooperating, solving problems, taking initiative for learning, and being prepared. Content-related achievement also rose. - Dee Dickinson, "Learning Through the Arts."  (Seattle: New Horizons for Learning, 1997).

* The U.S. Department of Education lists the arts as subjects that college-bound middle and junior high school students should take, stating, "Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students' understanding and appreciation of the world around them.  It is also well known and widely recognized the arts contribute significantly to children's intellectual development." - "Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years," U.S. Department of Education, 1997.

*  Music can make a difference for young people from low socioeconomic status (SES).  A 1998 research study found that low SES students who took music lessons from 8th
through 12th grade increased their test scores in math and scored significantly higher than those of low SES students who were not involved in music.  Math scores more than doubled, and history and geography scores climbed by 40 percent. - James Catterall, Richard Chapleau, and John Iwanga. Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: Extending an Analysis of General Associations and Introducing the Special Cases of Intensive Involvement
in Music and in Theater Arts.  Monograph Series No. 11, (Washington, D.C.: Americans for the Arts, Fall 1999).

* An analysis of the U.S. Department of Education NELS:88 database of over 25,000 students followed over a ten-year period found that a higher percentage of students who were involved in music scored higher on standardized tests, reading and reading proficiency exams that those students who were not involved in music programs, regardless of their socioeconomic background. - Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997.


Next week:
Music's Impact: Elementary to High School  -  Part 4

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