Music Education May Be "Left Behind" Under New Federal Requirements
By Rob Walker

No matter when they were born, most adults view contemporary childhood through their own memories of youth. For example, there was a time when music was a natural part of the school day—and many people would be surprised to learn that's no longer the case. A recent
federal study showed only 25 percent of eighth graders nationwide had the opportunity to take a music class.

As the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) legislation takes effect at the local level, music in schools faces additional challenges.

It's not the federal package itself that threatens to erode school music; indeed, Title IX of the law identifies the arts as a "core academic subject." It is the potential interpretation of the law at the local level that threatens students' access to music. The law requires stringent adherence to tested standards in literacy and math—with science soon to follow. You've likely heard the debate over these testing programs and whether they'll have the desired effect. An undesired effect, however, is that local educators are taking this as a cue to shift resources away from music and other subject areas to ensure focus on those that will be tested.

In some cases, it's class time that's thrown out of balance. In others, it's funding or teacher assignments. In all cases, it's a potential problem for music.

According to San Diego-area music educator Anne Fennell, "People think of literacy as reading and writing the printed word, but literacy is how we make meaning in our world, and how we encode and decode information. Music is a part of that. But I've heard of kids who were pulled out of arts classes to get help in one of the tested subjects.

"NCLB says to focus on what works—to use effective practices," Fennell adds. "Well, we know arts programs work. But because they're not included in the formulas for funding and testing benchmarks, they're the first to be zapped."

The irony is that music instruction can actually help kids do better in the very math and literacy pursuits that "No Child Left Behind" is designed to promote:

A study led by Dr. Agnes S. Chan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, published in July 2003 in the journal Neuropsychology, 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.

Benjamin Franklin said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Strapping kids into rote math and English classes, at the expense of other pursuits, isn't an innovation; it's more of the same. If local school officials want to realize the aims of the lawmakers who crafted "No Child Left Behind"—and give their kids the best possible future—they need to concentrate on educating the whole child, and that includes music making.

Or, as Paul Young, principal of West Elementary School in Lancaster, OH and a former president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, notes, "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."#

Rob Walker is Executive Director of the American Music Conference, a non-profit music advocacy group based in Carlsbad, CA.