In a 1995
study in Hamilton, Ohio, string students who participated in pullout lessons
averaged higher scores than the non-pullout students in all areas of the
Ohio Proficiency Test. Sixty-eight (68) percent of the string students achieved
satisfactory ratings on all sections of the test, compared to fifty-eight
(58) percent of the non-pullout students.
- Michael D. Wallick, A Comparison Study of the ohio
Proficiency Test Results Between Fourth String Pullout Students and Those
of matched Ability, Ohio State University, 1995.
According
to a 2000 survey, eighty t-one (81) percent of people responding believe
that participating school music corresponds with better grades and test
scores. This is an increase of fourteen (14) percent over the 1997 results
for the same question.
- Attitudes, NAMM (International Music Products Association), 2000.
More music
teachers are role models for minority students than teachers of any other
subject. Thirty-six (36) percent of surveyed minority students identified
music teachers as their role models, compared to twenty-eight (28) percent
for English teachers, eleven (11) percent for elementary teachers, and severn
(7) percent for physical education teachers.
- "Music
teachers as role models for African-American students," Journal
of Research in Music Education, 1993.
Only thirty
t-one (31) percent of teenagers and adults in a 2000 survey who do not play
an instrument feel they are too old to start learning.
- Americans Love Making Music - And Value Music Education
More Highly Than Ever, American Music Conference, 2000.
Researchers
at the University of California and the Niigata Brain Research Institute
in Japan have found an area of the brain that is activated only when reading
music scores.
- "Musical Brain - Special Brain Area Found for Reading
Music Scores," Nevermore, 1998.
In the 1998
federal study Gaining the Arts Advantage, music teachers in many
of the strongest arts programs nationwide are encouraged by their schools
to perform in their communities and to improve their own performing skills.
- Gaining the Arts Advantage, The President's Council on the Arts
and humanities, 1998.
Ninety-two
(92) percent of people who play and instrument say they were glad they learned
to do so, according to a 2000 Gallup Poll.
-
Gallup Poll Shows Strong Support for Putting Music in Every School's Curriculum,
Giles Communications, 2000.
In academic
situations, students in music programs are less likely to draw unfounded
conclusions.
- Champions of Change, Federal study, 1999.
The scores
of elementary instrumental music students on standardized math tests increased
with each year they participated in the instrumental program.
- "Music Training Helps Underachievers," Nature, May
26, 1996
A 2000 Georgia
Tech study indicates that a student who participates in a least one elective
music course is 4.5 times more likely to stay in college than the general
student population.
- Dr. Denise C. Gardner, Effects of Music Courses on
Retention, Georgia Tech, 2000. 2.
On the 1999
SAT, music students continued to outperform their non-arts peers, scoring
61 points higher on the verbal portion and 42 points higher on the math
portion of the exam.
- Steven M. Demorest and Steven J. Morrison, "Does Music Make you Smarter?,
Music Educators Journal, September, 2000.
Students who
participate in All-State ensembles consistently score over 200 points higher
on the SAT than non-music students. This figure indicates that students
can pursue excellence in music while also excelling academically.
- Texas Music Educators Association, 1988-1996.
Students with
good rhythmic performance ability can more easily detect and differentiate
between patterns in math, music, science, and the visual arts.
- "Rhythm seen as key to man's evolutionary development," TCAMS
Professional Resource Center, 2000.
Students in
arts programs are more likely to try new things, and they can better express
their own ideas to friends, teachers, and parents.
-
Champions of Change, the President's Council on the Arts and Humanities,
1999.
College students
majoring in music achieve scores higher than students of all other majors
on college reading exams.
- Carl Hartman, "Arts May Improve Students' Grades," The Associated
Press, October, 1999.
Music student
demonstrate less test anxiety and performance anxiety than students who
do not study music.
- "College-Age Musicians Emotionally healthier than non-Musician Counterparts,"
Houston Chronicle, 1998.
The average
scores achieved by music students on the 1999 SAT increased for every year
of musical study. This same trend was found in SAT scores of previous years.
- Steven M. Demorest and Steven J. Morrison, "Does Music make You Smarter?,"
Music Educators Journal, September, 2000.
A majority
of the engineers and technical designers in Silicon Valley are also practicing
musicians.
- The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core
Curriculum of the Public Schools, Center for the Arts in the Basic
Curriculum, 1997.
In a 2000
survey, 73 percent of respondents agree that teens who play an instrument
are less likely to have discipline problems.
-
Americans Love Making Music - And Value Music Education More Highly Than
Ever, American Music Conference, 2000.
Students who
can perform complex rhythms can also make faster and more precise corrections
in many academic and physical situations, according to the Center for Timing
Coordination, and Motor Skills.
-
Rhythm seen as key to music's evolutionary role in human intellectual development,
Center for Timing, Coordination, and Motor Skills, 2000.
A ten-year
study indicates that students who study music achieve higher test scores,
regardless of socioeconomic background.
- Dr.
James Catterall, UCLA.
A 1997 study
of elementary students in an arts-based program concluded that students'
math test scores rose as their time in arts education classes increased.
- "Arts
Exposure and Class Performance," Phi Delta kappan, October, 1998.
First-grade
students who had daily music instruction scored higher on creativity tests
than a control group without music instruction.
- K.L. Wolff, The Effects of General Music Education
on the Academeic Achievement, Perceptual-Motor Development, Creative Thinking,
and Schools Attendance of First-Grade Children, 1992.
In a Scottish
study, one group of elementary students received musical training, while
another other group received an equal amount of discussion skills training.
After six (6) months, the music group achieved a significant increase in
reading test scores, while the reading test scores of the discussion skills
group did not change.
- Sheila Douglas and Peter Willatts, Journal of Research
in Reading, 1994.
According
to a 1991 study, students in schools with arts-focused curriculums reported
significantly more positive perceptions about their academic abilities than
students in a comparison group.
- Pamela
Aschbacher and Joan Herman, The Humanists Program Evaluation, 1991.
Students who
are rhythmically skilled also tend to better plan, sequence, and coordinate
actions in their daily lives.
- Cassily Column," TCAMS Professional Resource Center,
2000.
In a 1999
Columbia university study, students in the arts are found to be more cooperative
with teachers and peers, more self-confident, and better able to express
their ideas. These benefits exist across socioeconomic levels.
- The Arts Education Partnership, 1999.
A group of
second grade students in inner-city Los Angeles received piano training
twice a week, and they used specialized computer software that related the
piano lessons to math concepts. On standardized math tests, fifty (50) percent
of the second graders scored as well as fifth grade students in affluent
Orange County, California. The scores of the entire second grade group were
equal to the scores of fourth grade students in Orange County.
- "Music On the Mind." Newsweek, July
24, 2000.
In a 2000
Gallup Poll, seventy-five (75) percent of respondents believe learning a
musical instrument helps students do better in other subjects, such as math
and science.
- Gallup Poll Shows Strong Support for Putting Music
in Every School's Curriculum, Giles Communication, 2000.
Second and
third grade students who were taught fractions through musical rhythms scored
one hundred (100) percent higher on fractions tests than those who learned
in the conventional manner.
- "Rhythm Students Learn Fractions More Easily,"
Neurological Research, March 15, 1999.
Students involved
in arts programs had significantly higher class attendance rates than a
comparison group.
- Pamela Aschbacher and Joan Herman, The Humanitas Program
Evaluation, 1991.
Classroom
teachers in Rhode Island noted improved behavior and attitudes among a test
group of students given intensive arts training.
- "Music Training Helps Underachievers," Nature, May
26, 1996.
More than
nine out of ten people believe that schools should offer musical instruction
as part of their regular curriculum.
- Americans Love Making Music - And Value Music Education
More Highly Than Ever, American Music Conference, 2000.
Teachers in
schools with strong arts programs report greater professional interest,
motivation, self-development, and increased innovation in the classroom.
- Champions of Change federal study, 1999.
States should
mandate music education for all students, according to seventy-eight (78)
percent of respondents in a 2000 survey.
- Attitudes, NAMM (International Music Products
Association), 2000.
Ninth grade
students in a Chicago arts program achieved reading scores that were a full
grade level higher than students not in the program. All other variables,
including race, gender, and socioeconomic status, were equal in this study.
- CAPE Study, President's Council on the Arts and Humanities,
2000.
Ninety-five
(95) percent of people responding to a 2000 Gallup Poll believe that music
is part of a well-rounded education.
- Gallup Poll Shows Strong Support for Putting Music
in Every School's Curriculum, Giles Communications, 2000.
Practicing
musicians demonstrate 25 percent more brain activity than non-musicians
when listening to musical sounds.
- Exposure to Music Is Instrumental to the Brain,
University of Muenster.
In a 1998
study, retirees who participated in group keyboard lessons reported decreased
anxiety, decreased depression, and decreased loneliness when compared to
a control group.
- Scientific Study Indicates That Making Music Makes
the Elderly Healthier, American Music Conference, 1998.
People who
participate in the arts live longer than others, according to a Swedish
study.
- British Medical Journal,
1996.
At-risk children
participating in an arts program that includes music show significant increases
in self-concept, as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept
Scale.
- Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students
through the arts, Auburn University, 1992.
Martin Gardiner
of Brown University tracked the criminal records of Rhode Island residents
from birth through age 30, and he concluded the more a resident was involved
in music, the lower the person's arrest record.
- "Music Linked to Reduced Criminality," MuSICA
Research Notes, Winter 2000.
The part of
the brain responsible for planning, foresight, and coordination is substantially
larger for instrumental musicians than for the general public.
- "Music
On the Mind," Newsweek, July 24, 2000.
Students who
participate in school band or orchestra have the lowest levels of current
and lifelong use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs among any group
in our society.
- H. Con. Res 266, United States Senate, June 13, 2000.
In a French
study, the use of melodies was shown to stimulate speech recovery in stroke
victims.
- Neurology, December, 1996.
"During
the Gulf War, the few opportunities I had for relaxation I always listened
to music, and it brought me great peace of mind. I have shared my love of
music with people throughout this world, while listening to the drums and
special instruments of the Far East, Middle East, Africa, the Caribbean,
and the Far North, and all of this started with the music appreciation course
that I was taught in a third-grade elementary class in Princeton, New Jersey.
What a tragedy it would be if we lived in a world where music was not taught
to children."
- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf - United States Army
"Music
is exciting. It is thrilling to be sitting in a group of musicians playing
(more or less) the same piece of music. You are part of a great, powerful,
vibrant entity. And nothing beats the feeling you get when you've practiced
a difficult section over and over and finally get it right, (yes even on
the wood block.) Music is important. It says things your heart can't say
any other way, and in a language everyone speaks. Music crosses borders,
turns smiles into frowns, and vice versa. These observations are shared
with a hope: that, when schools cut back on music classes, they really think
about what they're doing - and don't take music for granted."
- Dan Rather - CBS News
"In every
successful business...there is one budget line that never gets cut. It's
called 'Product Development' - and it's the key to any company's future
growth. Music education is critical to the product development of this nation's
most important resource - our children."
- John Sykes - President, VHI
"The
things I learned from my experience in music in school are discipline, perseverance,
dependability, composure, courage and pride in results...Not a bad preparation
for the workforce!"
- Gregory Anrig - President, Educational Testing Service
"Music
is an essential part of everything we do. Like puppetry, music has an abstract
quality which speaks to a worldwide audience in a wonderful way that nourishes
the soul.
- Jim Henson - television producer and puppeteer
"Should
we not be putting all our emphasis on reading, writing and math? The 'back-to-basics
curricula,' while it has merit, ignores the most urgent void in our present
system - absence of self-discipline. The arts, inspiring - indeed requiring
- self-discipline, may be more 'basic' to our nation survival than traditional
credit courses. Presently, we are spending 29 ties more on science than
on the arts, and the result so far is worldwide intellectual embarrassment."
- Paul Harvey - syndicated radio show host
"It's
[music education] terribly important, extremely important -- because when
you are a child, you are in a receptive age...In high schools, public schools--that's
where they must have the best influence, the first influence, which will
go through their whole life."
- Eugene Ormandy - conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra
"It
is our job, as parents, educators, and friends, to see that our young people
have the opportunity to attain the thorough education that will prepare
them for the future. Much of that education takes place in the classroom.
We must encourage our youngsters in such pursuits as music education. In
addition to learning the valuable lesson that it takes hard work to achieve
success, no matter what the arena, music education can provide students
with a strong sense of determination, improved communication skills, and
a host of other qualities essential for successful living."
- Edward H.
Rensi - President and Chief Operation Officer, U.S.A. McDonald's Corporation.
"A grounding
in the arts will help our children to see; to bring a uniquely human perspective
to science and technology. In short, it will help them as they grow smarter
to also grow wiser."
- Robert
E. Allen - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AT & T Corporation