By Diana Whittle
Music education in local schools is alive and well, say administrators from both Kyrene and Tempe Elementary districts.
This agrees with a new nationwide study of 1,000 music- and arts-education teachers and 800 parents, which finds strong support for music education at all grade levels.
“Striking a Chord: The Public’s Hopes and Beliefs for K-12 Music Education in the United States 2015,” a recently released study, found that a strong majority of teachers and parents say music education is very important and should continue to be funded, even at the expense of other programs and classes.
According to the survey conducted in January-February 2015:
Seventy-seven percent of teachers and 64 percent of parents agree that music and arts education are “extremely important” or “very important.”
Eighty-seven percent of teachers and 81 percent of parents believe children should have a chance to learn to play musical instruments as early as elementary school.
Sixty-three percent of teachers and 57 percent of parents believe music education should be a required subject in middle school.
“Teachers speak from first-hand experience on what matters to keeping kids engaged in school and learning,” said Mary Luehrsen, executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation, which funded the study.
“And nobody is more personally invested in kids’ long-term success than parents. What we see here is that parents and teachers overwhelmingly agree on the importance of providing every child with access to music education in school.”
Pat Burdette, coordinator of fine arts for Tempe Elementary schools, agrees that the local community continues to encourage the district’s goal of offering strong music education.
“Tempe Elementary School District has a long tradition of supporting music education in our schools,” said Burdette. “We believe that music education is an integral and vital component to the full development of children.
“All of our Tempe elementary students have music twice a week. General music is taught from kindergarten through fourth grade. Fifth graders choose between band, orchestra, or choir. Additionally all elementary schools have fourth grade choir, which meets outside the school day and is voluntary.”
The district’s Rover Elementary is an Art and Science focused school and has additional music; next year they plan to offer introductory band, orchestra and choir to third graders, and will continue to offer it to both fourth and fifth grades.
Burdette explains that the district employees nearly 35 music instructors and when students reach sixth grade, music becomes an elective with many more choices and differentiation for skill level by offering beginning, intermediate and advanced levels to meet the needs of all of our students.
“Band, orchestra, choir, guitar, music technology, and keyboarding are offered at our comprehensive middle schools and K-8 schools,” said Burdette. “There are extracurricular ensembles at some of our schools as well.”
The Kyrene School District also values and supports music education as an educational experience for students, says Kelly Alexander, director of Community Education and Outreach Services.
“In K-5th grade, our students all take music as a part of their regular specials schedule. They also take library, PE, and art.
“In our middle schools, students and their families choose two elective experiences, which include: chorus, band, orchestra, theatre, family and consumer science, PE, art, multi-media, and Spanish,” said Alexander.
In total, Kyrene employees 30 music teachers; while some teachers do work at a couple of schools, are part-time and teach a combination of band, orchestra or chorus.
“Most recently, a fine-arts task force was assembled and identified Kyrene de la Paloma and Kyrene del Pueblo as two schools who will begin to collaborate next year on designing new experiences for students to integrate more arts experiences into these schools,” said Alexander.
“While, these schools are already high achieving Kyrene neighborhood schools, over the next several years, teachers will work together to expand the opportunities that students can pursue, which might include a fine arts academy or other delivery structure.”
Additional growth plans also are underway in several Tempe Elementary schools, says Burdette.
“Tyler Hutta, band director at Rover Elementary and Ward Traditional Academy, has been working really hard to increase the instrument inventory at both his schools. Both PTAs have run an instrument drive, committed thousands of dollars, and applied for a matching arts grant with the city of Tempe.
“The Tempe Academy of International Studies will add band and orchestra to their curriculum choices; and, as a smaller school and PTA with little money, this school had an instrument drive this spring, too.”
