The Importance of Music Education
How does this song make you feel?
What about this song?
Music can help us feel and express our emotions. It can also help us learn and remember. Do you remember listening to songs to help you learn an idea or concept?
Current Student Performance
Overview
Since 1971, there has been an increase in student achievement due to policies like the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the No Child Left Behind Act as well as more focus on STEM courses. However, if we look at the past few years, student achievement scores have dropped leading up to the pandemic, through the pandemic, and even 3 years after the pandemic.
Teachers all over the country say that students have a hard time focusing and many kids won't do their work in class or at home. Teachers also say that the students are always on their phones, so they are not paying attention during class.
As a result, students are not doing well in school and their grades show a lack of effort from the children, even when teachers try to help them understand.
The National Scores
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a national "report card" that tracks student abilities in math, reading, writing, creativity, science, and more. Tracking student achievement began in 1971, so we have over 50 years of data to look at.
From 1978 through 2012, students significantly increased in mathematics performance and gradually increased in reading ability. But there is a stark realization...the 2023 results show that students are back to the poorer performances shown in 1971. 50 years of student improvement has been lost. Children today are not reading any better than their grandparents even though we have government policies that are supposed to help them be better. This is not because of a lack of good teachers, but because students will not or cannot learn.
‘NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment Results: Reading and Mathematics’. Accessed 30 November 2023. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2023/.
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash
Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash
Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash
What does this mean?
These results are disappointing, to say the least. Teachers all across the country are quitting and finding new careers because of poor student behavior and poor student achievement. Many people don't know that teachers can be fired if their students don't have good grades for several years in a row.
This means that there has to be change. Teachers have tried to change by using technology in the classroom to engage the students. Teachers have tried learning how the kids speak to relate to them better. But the teachers can't change the students' behaviors. The change has to start somewhere else.
What Can Music Do?
Music can help students perform
better in and out of school!
Decades of research show that students who participate in music classes, such as choir, band, music appreciation, and others, out-perform their classmates who don't participate in music. And not just in the classroom, but in social situations, too! This is not just a coincidence. There are changes in the brain that happen when students engage with music regularly. The brain can create repetitive tracks called synapses that help the brain recall information faster and with more accuracy. Some of the most notable differences are in math and reading skills. "Listening to music stimulates cognition and music training bolsters this effect in both mathematics and reading."1
Not only does music have a direct impact on grades, but research also shows that students who are at risk of dropping out of school are more likely to finish school because of the arts and music. Students who participated in the study showed a higher engagement in arts and music classes than during their general education classes.
83% of drop-out risk students said they
stayed in school for their arts and music courses.2
The mental and physical health of kids and teens has also been a major concern recently. According to a Johns Hopkins article, research shows that "listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory."3 When your students sleep better and feel better physically and mentally, they will be able to perform better academically. More interesting than listening to music is creating music, which is one of the only ways to activate almost all parts of the brain simultaneously!4 It not only triggers the part of the brain associated with hearing (auditory cortex), but it also triggers the emotions in the frontal lobe, a variety of memory regions, and even activates the motor system, or the part of the brain that controls movement! Music strengthens the brain, but it becomes even stronger when you make music and listen to different kinds of music regularly.
Learning to be involved in music at a
young age can benefit you for the rest of your life.
1Darby E. Southgate and Vincent J. Roscigno. ‘The Impact of Music on Childhood and Adolescent Achievement’. Social Science Quarterly 90, no. 1
(15 January 2009): 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00598.x.
2Barry, N., J. Taylor, and K. Walls (2002), “The Role of the Fine and Performing Arts in High School Dropout Prevention.” In R. Deasy (Ed.),
Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Achievement and Social Development, Washington, DC: AEP.
3‘Keep Your Brain Young with Music’, 13 April 2022.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/keep-your-brain-young-with-music.
4Budson, Andrew E. ‘Why Is Music Good for the Brain?’ Harvard Health, 7 October 2020.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-is-music-good-for-the-brain-2020100721062.
Research Questions
Photo by Samuel Sianipar on Unsplash
Photo by Samuel Sianipar on Unsplash
Does music instruction increase spatial skills?
“Music instruction clearly enhances spatial skills.” (Hetland, p. 226)
“The effect [of music on spatial skills] cannot be explained away by a Hawthorne effect, nonequivalence of experimental groups, experimenter bias, or study quality. It is a solid finding.” (Hetland, p. 220)
Hetland, Lois. “Learning to Make Music Enhances Spatial Reasoning.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 34, no. 3/4 (2000): 179–238. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333643.
Photo by Anoushka Puri on Unsplash
Photo by Anoushka Puri on Unsplash
Is studying music associated with higher math scores?
“Yes. A small [statistically significant] association between the voluntary study of music and mathematics achievement was found when twenty studies with correlational designs were combined.” (Vaughn, p. 163)
Vaughn, Kathryn. “Music and Mathematics: Modest Support for the Oft-Claimed Relationship.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 34, no. 3/4 (2000): 149–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333641.
Does listening to music improve performance on spatial-temporal tasks?
“Is there a ‘Mozart Effect?’ Yes, there is. It is limited, however, to a specific type of spatial task that requires mental rotation in the absence of a physical model.” (Hetland, p. 136)
Hetland, Lois. “Learning to Make Music Enhances Spatial Reasoning.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 34, no. 3/4 (2000): 179–238. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333643.
How You Can Help Your K-12 Student
We Need Your Voice!
As parents and guardians, you have a lot of influence on your students. Make a difference by encouraging your students to give music a chance. Every student deserves a chance to express themselves. Every student deserves a safe space to be creative. Every student deserves the right to learn and love music. And EVERY student deserves the chance to succeed!
The research is here,
the time is now.
It's time to
be the change.
Enroll Your Student(s) in Music Today!
& advocate for your district to increase funding for the music program.
For more information and research, click the buttons below.
Additional Resources
Darby E. Southgate and Vincent J. Roscigno. ‘The Impact of Music on Childhood and Adolescent Achievement’. Social Science Quarterly 90, no. 1
(15 January 2009): 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00598.x.
‘NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment Results: Reading and Mathematics’. Accessed 30 November 2023.
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2023/.
Nick Rabkin, Dale Rose, and Michaela Parks. ‘Connection between Education in the Arts and Student Achievement’. GIA Reader 13, no. 3 (2002).
https://www.giarts.org/connections-between-education-arts-and-student-achievement.
Peterson, M. Danish Shakeel, Paul E. ‘A Half Century of Student Progress Nationwide’. Education Next (blog), 9 August 2022.
https://www.educationnext.org/half-century-of-student-progress-nationwide-first-comprehensive-analysis-finds-gains-test-scores/.
Sparks, Sarah D. ‘Two Decades of Progress, Nearly Gone: National Math, Reading Scores Hit Historic Lows’. Education Week, 24 October 2022,
sec. Leadership, Student Achievement.
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/two-decades-of-progress-nearly-gone-national-math-reading-scores-hit-historic-lows/2022/10.
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