On January 13th the Music Education Policy Roundtable, a coalition of likeminded organizations and institutions, advocating for high quality music education in America’s schools, identified its legislative priorities for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The Music Education Policy Roundtable has outlined these priorities for Congress: To create policies and teaching environments that give all students access to a well-rounded education which includes high quality instruction in music.
With the goal of soliciting bipartisan support to accomplish these goals on behalf of all students across America, the Music Education Policy Roundtable has identified five key areas of prioritization in this reauthorization:
I. STRENGTHENED STATUS: In order to strengthen the importance of music education in the law, for purposes of both garnering state-level funding and other forms of support, we ask that Congress maintain the core academic subject section in any reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
II. INCREASED ACCESSIBILITY: In order to ensure that even the most disadvantaged students have access to high quality music education programs no matter their personal circumstance or background, we ask that Congress strengthen language throughout any reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act so that it increases clarity as to the availability of such resources for use in this regard.
III. EQUITABLE TEACHER EVALUATION: In order to ensure that music educators are always evaluated by qualified individuals utilizing reliable measures germane to their discipline of study, and to make certain that ultimate accountability for all such measures is directly attributable to music teachers themselves, we ask that Congress offer language in any reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, recommending the institutionalizing of this practice.
IV. BALANCED ACCOUNTABILITY: In order to ensure that, in making school district accountability determinations, “well-rounded” factors, such as achievement in music, are considered, in addition to state assessment results in reading/language arts and mathematics, we ask that Congress recognize the reliability of such multiple measures of performance, in developing corresponding State plans, in any reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
V. ENHANCED TEACHER PREPARATION: In order to ensure that all federal granting opportunities for purposes of preparing, training, and recruiting high quality teachers and principals include a measure of consideration as to the importance of high quality music and arts education delivery abilities, we ask that Congress insert further clarifying language in any reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The National Music Council is a member of the Music Education Policy Roundtable. For more information on the Roundtable and its legislative agenda, including the specific requests as they relate to ESEA Reauthorization, please visit the Roundtable’s website (http://www.nafme.org/take- action/music-education-policy- roundtable/).
The NMC board is requesting that member organizations promote our new, innovative education tool for primary school students designed to teach respect and admiration for creators, inventors and their works.
The program was created by the National Music Council and Music Publishers’ Association to teach young students the consequences of disrespecting the rights of creators, and how activity such as appropriating the work of others without permission negatively impacts creators and stifles creativity in general.
The lesson plan, video, and educational extension activities are available via a free website at: http://www.IMadeIt.org. The 2:30 Emmy Award winning PSA is also available by clicking HERE!.
The NMC is requesting members to post a link and/or article on their organization website and in member magazines that feature the classroom teaching tools and the PSA. We need members to help get the word out and believe that the issue is of interest to your membership, as it affects the entire creative and educational communities.
You can find an article on the program, the press release announcing the Emmy Award, and view the award winning video and teaching tools at the National Music Council Website at www.musiccouncil.org.
Please let NMC know of your willingness to disseminate this information by contacting the NMC office at (973) 655-7974, or via email at Sandersd@montclair.edu.
The NMC and MPA have announced the winners of the 2014 Copyright Awareness Scholarship for creative videos that engage students in copyright and intellectual property protection. The scholarship award was introduced in 2010 by the Music Publishers Association. Joining with other educational outreach organizations like the National Music Council and the National Association for Music Education, the MPA has awarded more than $50,000 in funds.
The winners are:
1st prize: Sean Musaeus of Portland, Oregon:
Sean Musaeus is a Sophomore at Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon. While he has yet to declare his major, he’s been focusing on music and biology but also has interests in photography, filmmaking and fiction-writing.
2nd prize: Inioluwa Oguntola of Fayetteville, New York:
Inioluwa Oguntola is a senior at Manlius Pebble High School in Fayetteville, New York. He plans to study engineering in the fall, though he hasn’t settled on where he will head for school.
3rd prize: Sunny Yang of Chicago, Illinois:
Sunny Yang is a college junior at the Illinois Institute of Technology studying marketing business, marketing and advertising.
We would also like to extend a round of applause to our honorable mention students Matthew Randall, Thomas Phelan and Josiah Brown. We are sure all of these students have a bright future ahead of them in the fields they wish to pursue.
Judges were extremely impressed with the creativity that this year’s students brought to the table, and commend all of the brave students who told us why copyright and intellectual property is important. .
About the Music Publishers Association
Founded in 1895, the Music Publishers Association is the oldest music trade organization in the United States, fostering communication among publishers, dealers, music educators, and all ultimate users of music.
This non-profit association addresses itself to issues pertaining to every area of music publishing with an emphasis on the issues relevant to the publishers of print music for concert and educational purposes.
The National Music Council will be promoting its I Made It… Please Don’t Steal It copyright education tools at the National Association for Music Education conference in Nashville on October 26-29. We invite and encourage you to stop by our booth!
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ADVOCACY ACTION: Sign the NAfME / Change.org petition to Department of Education and Congress: “You say music is a core subject, it’s time your policies reflect that.”
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The Music Education Policy Roundtable, of which NMC is a member, has drafted the following letter to the 114th Congress. We encourage everyone to support these policies by writing letters of their own to legislators.
Dear Senator/Representative:
On the eve of the 114th Congress, and with the state of our nation’s prekindergarten-12th schools ever in the forefront of the minds of voters and candidates, we ask that you make classroom music education a priority in any legislation pertaining to education—from preschool development funding to reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
The Music Education Policy Roundtable, a coalition of 30 organizations standing together to promote music education for every U.S. student, uphold the following status for music education and seven legislative priorities:
- Core Status: In order to ensure that all students receive a comprehensive education including sequential, standards-based music education as part of the core curriculum, we ask that Congress maintain the status of the arts as a core academic subject in any reauthorization of the ESEA.
- Evaluation: Congress and the U.S. Department of Education should offer guidance language recommending that music educators be evaluated on how well their students learn and achieve in their respective disciplines. Accountability for any and all such measures of evaluation should be directly attributable to certified music teachers. New evaluation systems should be developed in the context of the number of students being taught and instructional time available, limiting the use of data to reliable measures. Likewise, observation-based teacher evaluations should be limited to those conducted by individuals with expertise in music education.
- Research: Congress should mandate that the U.S. Department of Education develop and carry out the process of collecting and disseminating federal data pursuant to the status of music education programs in order to generally benefit the field, and to assist organizations working to accurately gauge the landscape and provide support to educators in areas of the country where music education is threatened.
- Accountability: Congress should include in any re-authorization of the ESEA, accountability provisions that include a measure of and for student achievement in music, to be implemented in a manner that ensures fairness to all students.
- Funding: Congress should ensure that all appropriate federal funding streams authorized under the ESEA, particularly Title I monies, are made available for purposes of teaching music and for music education teacher training.
- Accessibility: Congress and the U.S. Department of Education should offer language acknowledging the nationwide trend of reduced school day time for music education programs, and recommending that this trend be reversed, via an increased focus on the delivery of comprehensive curricula of learning.
- Charter Schools: The U.S. Department of Education should offer guidance language to those involved in the development and administration of public charter schools, recommending that curricular decisions be made with an eye toward providing all students with a comprehensive education, including music taught by certified educators.
- Early Childhood Education: Congress should ensure that all appropriate federal funding for early childhood education, including but not limited to those funds made available under Head Start, Early Head Start, and the Child Care and Development Block Grant, as well as any proposed legislation, is made available for early music education and for purposes of early music education teacher training. Further, Congress and the U.S. Department of Education should issue guidance language clarifying the availability of funds under such programs for the purpose of early music education.
Please keep these priorities in mind as you clarify your positions on educational priorities during election season, and when you return to Capitol Hill in January. Our nation’s progress depends on the success of our students, and we know music education is a critical component of a complete education, preparing students for the 21st century workforce. Will you stand with us in these commitments to music education? We look forward to your statement of support.
Click here for more information about the Music Education Policy Roundtable.
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Check out new music education news including the new National Core Music Standards, recent Gallup Poll on public attitudes toward public schools, the adoption of the STEAM Curriculum in California, New Jersey’s pioneering support for Music and Arts Education, and a GAO Report Commission on No Child Left Behind.
Announcing the New National Core Music Standards
PDK/Gallup Poll on Public Attitudes toward Public Schools
New Jersey Pioneers Music and Arts Education Support
California MEA Adopts STEAM Position Statement
Education Committee Members Commission GAO Report on No Child Left Behind
Announcing the New National Core Music Standards: The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards has released the New National Core Music Standards after two years of inclusive writing and review involving hundreds of music educators. The new standards replace the original standards released twenty years ago, and represent a notable shift in the Coalition’s recommended approach to improving each student’s musical education experience, supporting educators with enhanced instructional strategies, and emphasizing the benefits of music education for the community at large.
Unlike national Common Core standards that have been widely criticized for narrowing student learning opportunities, the New National Core Music Standards aim to broaden and deepen learning opportunities for students.
Unlike controversial education standards mandated within other disciplines, the New National Core Music Standards were written by a team of professional music educators and vetted through a two-year inclusive public review process.
The standards were developed by the profession for the profession, with a student-centered focus that respects each professional educator’s teaching style and unique contributions. The goal of the new standards is not to impose restrictive rules governing what to do or how to teach, but to provide voluntary and pragmatic flexible processes and strategies that can be welcomed, implemented, and assessed in every American school district.
The new standards seek to instill music literacy. The standards emphasize conceptual understanding, which is a departure from the previous emphasis on knowledge and skills. The new standards reflect the actual processes in which musicians engage. The standards cultivate a student’s ability to carry out the Three Artistic Processes of Creating, Performing and Responding, presented together as steps, which enables students to understand music holistically in a way that relates to their personal life experiences.
The new standards provide teachers with frameworks that closely match the unique goals of their specialized classes. The standards are presented in a grade-by-grade sequence from pre-K through grade 8, and discrete strands address common high-school music classes, such as Ensembles and Music Composition/Theory.
Find out more at nafme.org/standards.
PDK/Gallup Poll on Public Attitudes toward Public Schools: A new poll sheds light on how Americans are feeling about national education topics. Out of those polled 81% had heard of Common Core, and 60% opposed local teachers using Common Core to guide how they teach. Interestingly, 54% of Americans say standardized testing is “Not Helpful,” including a majority of both parties (52% of Republicans and 54% of Democrats); perhaps more tellingly, that number jumps to 68% if the respondent identified as a public school parent. In addition, 32% of Americans say that lack of funding is the greatest obstacle, but there is a sharp partisan divide, with 44% of Democrats and only 21% of Republicans agreeing. To read more click HERE.
New Jersey Pioneers Music and Arts Education Support: Following the inclusion of the arts in New Jersey’s School Performance Reports released by the State Department of Education, Inside New Jersey Magazine has included the arts as one of their criteria used to rank the best high schools across the state. This is the first time the arts have been used as a qualitative measure of high schools across the state and may be seen as a model for other publishers across the nation.
In January 2014, New Jersey became the first state in the nation to include arts education measures as part of the annual School Performance Reports including information on the percentage of students enrolled in each of the four arts disciplines (Dance, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts). In March, the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership debuted Interactive School Performance Dashboards for Arts Education based on the individual high school data from the School Performance Reports released by the New Jersey State Department of Education. Read more HERE.
To read the Inside New Jersey coverage of arts education in the School Performance Reports, go to: CLICK HERE!
To review the Inside New Jersey list of High School rankings, go to: CLICK HERE!
For more information about the School Performance Reports and information regarding arts education, visit CLICK HERE!
California MEA Adopts STEAM Position Statement: This month the California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Board of Directors adopted a “STEAM ( Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math) Education Position Statement,” which it plans to distribute widely to constituents of the state via standup4music.org and other channels. “CMEA calls for music classes taught by full-time, qualified music teachers to be scheduled alongside other STEAM curricula,” the statement reads in part. “Music education is most effective when presented on its own by those with educational and musical training.” To learn more click HERE.
Education Committee Members Commission GAO Report on No Child Left Behind: Earlier this month Senator Lamar Alexander and Representative John Kline requested in a letter to the Government Accountability Office on Tuesday that the agency study the current waiver policy for No Child Left Behind. Senator Alexander is the senior Republican member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Rep. Kline is chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee. The request asks that the GAO look into several waiver issues, including the Department of Education’s process for approving and denying waivers, and the changes that states have made in order to qualify for a waiver from the department. Learn more HERE.
The National Music Council (NMC) and the Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA) announced the release of a new, innovative education tool for primary school students designed to teach respect and admiration for creators, inventors and their works.
Developed by NMC Executive Director and Montclair State University Professor, Dr. David Sanders, entertainment attorney and Songwriters Guild of America counsel Charles J. Sanders, and award winning animation creators Bevin Carnes, the lesson plan and educational extension activities will be available to educators via a free website, http://www.IMadeIt.org. The program was created to teach young students the consequences of disrespecting the rights of creators, and how activity such as appropriating the work of others without permission negatively impacts upon creators and stifles creativity in general.
“This project is part of a world-wide effort by creators to foster an understanding that the online protection of creative work enhances freedom of speech and the marketplace of ideas, rather than encroaching on them.” said Dr. David Sanders in announcing the curriculum.” The rampant disrespect for the creative and property rights of not just music creators, but creators of in all types of media, has resulted in incalculable harm over the past decade not only to the individual creators, but also to American culture as a whole. It is impossible to determine exactly how many composers and songwriters have stopped creating because they can no longer afford to do so, but suffice it to say that the problem of Internet piracy which has resulted in the diminution of music community income by well over fifty percent since 1999 has been personally devastating to most. One of the best long term ways to address and eventually reverse this trend is through education, starting in the youngest grade levels, by teaching respect for creators and their rights.”
According to Bevin Carnes and Charles Sanders, however, the approach has to be a gentle one. “You can’t hit kids over the head with morality plays,” stated Carnes. “You just show them through a medium they understand and love, animation, that actions have consequences, and ask them to draw their own conclusions.” According to Charles Sanders, inspiration for the more subtle approach was drawn from the famous anti-litter campaign of the 1970’s, in which the tear on the cheek of a Native American over the mindless disrespect of litterers for natural beauty spoke volumes. “That silent, iconic image has stayed with an entire generation of Americans, who were convinced as youngsters that though it might be easier to throw trash out of a car window, it just isn’t right, and it has consequences for all of us. That’s the approach we’ve tried to take regarding the consequences of disrespecting creators.”
Sanders added that the curriculum also instructs educators on the finer points of teaching concepts such as copyright and free expression to older students who may view the two as antithetical to one another. “James Madison and the other Founders knew it in the 18th century, just as the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly stated it in the 20th and 21st centuries,” he said. “Far from being in conflict with one another, copyright protection is the very ‘engine of free expression,’ and promotes the advancement of culture.” Added David Sanders, “Again, though, students are asked to reason through to their own conclusions, and perhaps adjust their own behavior accordingly.”
The project was underwritten by the Music Publishers Association of the United States. Founded in 1895, the Music Publishers Association is the oldest music trade organization in the United States, fostering communication among publishers, dealers, music educators, and all ultimate users of music.
The National Music Council is celebrating its 72nd anniversary as a forum for the free discussion of America’s national music affairs and challenges. Founded in 1940 to amplify the positions of its music community members on issues concerning the importance of music in American life and culture, the Council’s initial membership of 13 has grown to almost 50 national music organizations, encompassing every important form of professional musical activity.