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Music as a Core Subject

History

According to the US Department of Education, the core academic subjects studied in schools are currently English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography. In order to teach a core subject in the United States, one must be a Highly Qualified Teacher (HQT), meaning they must have a bachelor's degree from a four year institution, be licensed in the state in which they wish to teach, and be fully competent in their subject area. However, individual competencies vary from state-to-state. Historically, music and fine arts had not been a part of core curriculum in schools in the United States, however, in July 2015, the United States Senate, passed a bipartisan revision naming music and art core subjects in curriculum under the Every Child Achieves Act. The core subjects that were added are "technology, engineering, computer science, music, and physical education." This was an action against the No Child Left Behind Act, which many United States Education Advocates felt had narrowed down the subjects incorporated into the core curriculum. The No Child Left Behind Act was initially entitled the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, but then was later renamed No Child Left Behind in 2002. The National Association for Music Education, or NAfME, is an "organization of American music educators dedicated to advancing and preserving music education and as part of the core curriculum of schools in the United States". The NAfME is an organization founded in 1907 of more than 60,000 people who advocate for the benefits of music and arts education for students at the local, state, and national levels. NAfME excitedly published a press release with the bipartisan senate revision and the impact they believe it will have on the United States Core Curriculum.

Implementation

Music is implemented as an academic subject in schools around the world, in places such as Greece, Germany, Slovenia, Spain India, and Africa. This is not a comprehensive, as music is considered a cultural necessity in many countries worldwide. Although the NAfME addresses the plan for implementation for music and arts as core subjects at the national level, the fulfillment of this revision of the Every Child Achieves Act varies from state to state. As of 2014, forty-one states currently have an arts education requirement at all levels, but only seventeen of these states have programs with deliberate assessment policies. Twenty-seven of the fifty United States consider the arts a core subject. Georgia and Arkansas have very specific outlines of music, while Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, and D.C. have no arts instruction requirements for any level of schooling. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS), has a series of performance assessments entitled Model Cornerstone Assessments, or MCAs, which have been expended in high schools as a pilot program in recent months. In addition to this, NAfME also has nine National Music Education standards, which include: "singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music; performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music; improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments; composing and arranging music within specified guidelines; reading and notating music; listening to, analyzing, and describing music; evaluating music and music performances; understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts; and understanding music in relation to history and culture."

Impacts on childhood development and academic success

Many policymakers and initiators for music and the arts as a part of the core curriculum believe that students participating in music and arts programs which hold them to high standards will bring a creative outlook now seemingly required in the workforce. Since music has traditionally been viewed as a subject outside of academia, and music has been incorporated into schools as a secondary subject, or often as an elective, there is limited research on classroom benefits of music as a core subject. Many researchers have explored both the benefits to listening to music passively as well as pursuing music actively, as with learning an instrument. The benefits music in the classroom and its effects on brain development, academic performance, and practical life skills have been observed through research by Jenny Nam Yoon. She concluded that the two hemispheres of the brain are stimulated when music is played and how the corpus callosum, the bridge that connects the two hemispheres is larger in musician's brains. The effects of strictly listening to music have long been explored and has been given the name the "Mozart Effect," which is known to cause a "small increase in spatial-temporal reasoning". As seen with the Mozart Effect, listening to music has been proven to affect the brain and mood, as well as spatial temporal reasoning, but does not have any long-term benefits. A 1981 study at Mission Vejo High School proved that music students had a higher GPA than students who did not participate in music (3.59 vs. 2.91). There have been studies done verifying music as an enrichment activity that causes an increase in self-confidence, discipline, and social cohesion, as well as academic benefits.

Critiques

Although the US Senate has endorsed music as a core subject, many, including Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander, argue music and the arts to be extra-curricular. Many also believe that among Federal budget cuts, music and the arts would be the first to go because they are not part of our foundation of core curriculum in America. The benefits of music as a core subject and its impact on the education system through the arithmetic, language, concentration, and other skills involved still have to be assessed before conclusions can be drawn about the concrete, measurable impacts music and the arts have on children in the United States public school system.