Using Music for Education Gap [Infographic]

Kent State University School of Music http://musicedmasters.kent.edu 3m 831 #music

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Using Music To Close The Education Gap

Around the country, more and more schools are closing their music departments due to budget issues, claiming that music is not as important of a subject as mathematics.

Yet this infographic, created by Kent State University’s online Music Education program, highlights how music is actually a very important academic subject and can help close our nation’s growing academic gap.

For example, musically trained individuals have proven time and time again to have superior problem solving skills, as well as improved behavior regulation and social skills. Furthermore, through clinical studies, music has proven to improve cognitive abilities, enhance verbal fluency, information processing speed, all of which carry over into adult hood. Despite how educational music is, only 34% of American public students enrolled in at least one music course during their high school years.

As mentioned above, this is predominately due to budget concerns as 86% of school administrators reported that their school or district were having an extremely difficult time managing upcoming budget cuts. Granted, wealthy schools are able to maintain their music programs, but low-funded schools are left having to cut one of the more neurologically enhancing subjects!

To find out more about this dilemma, check out the full infographic below.

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Using Music to Close the Education Gap

1. Education gap in the U.S.

U.S. 4th graders

35% can read proficiently at their grade level

33% scored at basic levels

32% scored below basic levels

42% scored proficiently at mathematics for their grade level

41% scored at basic levels

17% scored below basic levels

U.S. 8th graders

36% can read proficiently at their grade level

42% scored at basic levels

22% scored below basic levels

35% scored proficiently at mathematics for their grade level

39% scored at basic levels

26% scored below basic levels

High School

74% of high school graduates, 2013, did not meet college readiness benchmarks in the test subjects: English, Reading, Math, and Science

57% of high school students earned an SAT score that indicates they will not succeed in their first year of college (That percentage has remained virtually unchanged for at least five years)

Baseline of educational proficiency

In global education rankings, the U.S. performed below average

In Math, Science, and Reading despite spending more per student than most other countries

Bringing all U.S. students to the baseline of educational proficiency would result in gains of USD $72 trillion

2. Lack of music in schools

34% of American public students enroll in at least one music course during their high school years

1.3 million students in elementary school

800,000 students in secondary school

do not receive any music instruction at school

Public schools are having a funding crisis

34 U.S. states are providing less per-student funding for K-12 education now than before the recession, starting in 2007

86% of school administrators reported their districts were unable to absorb upcoming budget cuts

While wealthier districts might be able to support and prevent these cuts, schools in lower incoming districts cannot

Art and music programs are often among the first programs to go

Of those elementary schools with music education programs:

24% do not have adequate space for music instruction

29% do not have adequate instructional resources

27% do not have adequate musical instruments

3. Benefits of music

Recent Studies Suggest:

Musically trained children (and adults) show enhanced problem solving, behavior regulation and social skills

Music improves cognitive abilities in students more than twice as much as sports, theater, or dance

Musically trained children show enhanced verbal fluency and information processing speed

Adults who received music instruction as children have more robust brain-stem responses to sound than those who did not, suggesting that music education benefits carry over to adulthood

Musicians’ brains tend to have a larger corpus callosum, which plays an important role in the communication between the left and right sides of the brain

90% of pre-school kids showed increased verbal intelligence after just 20 days of musical training

Musical training can increase the blood flow in the left hemisphere of the brain, which suggests that the areas responsible for music and language share common brain pathways

• Just one half hour of musical training achieve this effect

4. How music can close the education gap

Examples of Public Schools show how their school systems have benefitted from music education

Nashville

Music education initiative “Music Makes Us”:

• Improved attendance rates 5%
• Lowered discipline reports 1.11 points annually
• Raised graduation rates 31%
• Raised grade point averages 0.38 points
• Raised ACT English scores 2.63 points and math scores 1.47 points

Chicago

Music education students had faster and more precise neural response than students who hadn’t participated in a music education program

Los Angeles

1st and 2nd graders without music education had diminished reading scores, while those who had music education did not see any decline during the school year

Other Studies

Music education enhances general satisfaction about school and a sense of achievement and opportunity for students

Young musicians were about 15% more likely to report they were planning to attend college than non-musicians

Source: http://musicedmasters.kent.edu/using-music-to-close-the-education-gap/

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