Impact of music in schools

In a recent series of articles in Music Education UK magazine, primary and secondary heads told how music had helped with:

• Attainment – raising aspirations, confidence, self-esteem and motivations and leading to increases in SAT and GCSE results among music-involved pupils
• Personal/social development – helping with listening skills, team work, leadership skills and peer-based learning
• Creative thinking – analysis, speculation, evaluation; providing skills and qualities needed for 21st century jobs
• Inclusion – engaging vulnerable students, providing role models and a sense of direction and purpose for those not engaged in other forms of learning
• Embedding learning and cross-curricular approaches – eg using rhythm to reinforce maths
• School culture and marketing of the school – injecting new energy into a school, providing a sense of community and raising or even changing the school’s profile in the community

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There’s plenty of research to prove this too:

• The power of music – Susan Hallam, Institute of Education (2009). An academically rigorous assessment of evidence from a variety of published research reports
• Wow! It’s music next – Bamford & Glinkowski , FMS/DfES (2009). Snapshot study, eight local authorities delivering Wider Opportunities programme at Key Stage 2
• Music teaches skills that business leaders need – 32 CEOs interviewed for their music education stories
• Case studies of the transformational power of music, Federation of Music Services

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Also, various pieces of evidence from specific programmes for example:

• Sing Up Programme evaluation 2007-11 Musical Futures – reports by Ofsted and Susan Hallam/Institude of Education
• ImagineNation: The case for cultural learning – Cultural Learning Alliance (2011) Key Research Findings: The case for cultural learning “Using only evidence from cohort studies with large sample sizes (12,000+) and research with control groups, the CLA can emphatically say there are instrumental outcomes delivered by cultural learning and these have been grouped into five key research findings.”
• Reinvesting in arts education – Winning America’s future through creative schools. President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (2011, U.S) Includes longitudinal data on students ie as pupils and beyond school education
• Champions of Change: the impact of the arts on learning – E Fiske, AEP (1999)

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Music education in the United States has been under threat for years and various organisations have developed some great resources for advocating music education:

• http://advocacy.nafme.org/resources/general-resources/
• http://childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/index.html
• For parents specifically: http://www.amparents.org

Research collated by Anita Holford of Writing Services.