Why Does Elementary Stringed Instrument Instruction Matter? One Reason - Student Demand is Strong
I sent the following letter to the School Board last week after reviewing data and text on elementary strings sent to the School Board by the Fine Arts Coordinator. In late March, I spoke before the School Board about working together on strengthening strings and fine arts education and hoped that we would not see another spring of "surprise reports." Shwaw Vang and others thought this was a good idea, but I guess the administration did not agree. Following my talk, the Superintendent sent a memo to the School Board with a proposal to eliminate elementary strings the end of next school year and offer General Music.
For the past five springs, in one form or another, reports on strings have been presented to the School Board, which present data and give reasons why not to teach strings. These reports are all prepared by top administrators with basically no input from or curriculum review by teachers, parents, students, the community. No other data are presented in the same manner and with as much detail as this course - none, which I find troubling. Courses are dropped for lack of enrollment, which is not the case with elementary strings. Also, no other academic course has come before the School Board year after year for cuts - not even open classroom, ropes, wrestling.
I have MMSD historical data on strings from when the course was first introduced. In spite of the administration's best efforts to cut the course,
- demand from students remains strong and
- the community still values the course.
In a comment,
Lucy Mathiak wrote: "As a board member, I do not see the issue as strings vs. math vs. athletics, which is how the annual budget pageant usually works. I see the issue as strings and math and athletics vs. cost overruns in building projects, growth in business services, and expenditures for contracted services that may or may not benefit our schools.
Attacking strings, or extracurriculars, or sports, will not put teachers, librarians, and other key staff into schools. Nor will it repair curricula that are of questionable efficacy. If we want good schools, the conversation starts with what is in the budget -- ALL of the budget -- and whether the budget supports the kind of programs that we value in our schools." I strongly agree with her statement, because focusing on ALL of the budget keeps the focus on what's important - student learning and achievement. An increasing body of research and experience shows studying an instrument positively affects student achievement. If so, why isn't the School Board working with the community to strengthen fine arts education.
Dear School Board Members,
You recently received some statistical information from the District Fine Arts Coordinator on string instrumental enrollment for Grades 4-12 that was in response to a question from Ms. Carstensen on enrollment.
I feel the information presented could have been titled, “Reasons [the Administration Wants] to Cut Elementary Strings,” which, of course I found strange and inconsistent with data on this course and how other data are presented to the School Board [for issues/practices the administration supports].
I would like to provide you with some additional information that I believe provides a bigger picture and shows how this course has grown as the District has changed:
- Historical Enrollment:
[Please excuse me, I don’t know how to change the x axis to years. Year 1 is 1969 and the last year is 2005.] This data was kept in the Fine Arts Department by those overseeing the elementary strings enrollment. I have a copy of the original chart, which I would be happy to provide MMSD if they cannot find a copy of this information..
The dip around year 23 (1991) was due to a proposal to cut elementary strings and the later dip around year 29 was due to the inability to replace an FTE. You can see the strong growth in the course following a proposal to cut the course. During the 1990s enrollment grew, peaking in the early 2000s at 2,049. Even with the Superintendent's proposals to cut the course, demand for instruction remains strong. During the same time period in the 1990s, low-income and minority enrollment in the elementary grades increased (while total enrollment in elementary school declined). Even with the proposed cuts to elementary strings since 2002, enrollment has stayed strong, consistently about 50% of 4th and 5th grade students participate. This course is a high demand, highly valued course as growth in enrollment continues to show.
- Elementary Strings – Demographics and Over Time:
When you look at the statistics you received on elementary strings – I would recommend that you look at the entire course over time as well as student groups over time (cohorts). If you look at the course over time, you see increases in demographics at all grade levels as you see increases in low-income and minority in the total student population – that’s moving in the right direction and teachers deserve praise for this. In fact, if you look at the low-income (%) enrollment in Grade 4 strings this year – that percentage is 2.8% lower than the percentage of low-income students in the entire Grade 4 this year.
Also, when students go from Grades 5 to Grade 6, they have another choice of instrument to study – a band instrument. When you look at the historical enrollment in instrumental music from grades 5 to 6, you will see an increase in students opting to play an instrument in Grade 6. Elementary strings plays a role in preparing students to read music and to perform with other students in an ensemble. The curriculum is an instrumental curriculum from Grades 4-12. [Low income children have no other viable option to learn how to play an instrument - $2,000 per year for lessons and instrument rental.]
It is not unusual to see a decrease in participation as children have more options. By the time children are in high school, music is an elective among many, many more electives than in earlier grades. Before jumping to conclusions, I would suggest learning why more children do not continue to study an instrument. One of those reasons might be they did not like to play an instrument or they have other interests they want to explore in another course - or they moved on to play a band instrument. Another reason might be they became discouraged, because they needed more instruction and help learning the instrument – something that I feel a fine arts community committee could help happen.
When I look at the data, I’m impressed with how the enrollment in the program has grown over time and has grown with the changing demographics in the District. [This is during the same time the District is making strong gains in closing the achievement gap.] This is wonderful. One question I have when I see this data is – how can we help children build upon their interest and success in the classroom? There are many options for doing this, but first we need to keep elementary strings as part of our children’s elementary music instruction in school and build upon what they learn. I believe we can do this if we work together as a community, and I hope the School Board considers this additional data, maintains elementary strings and considers putting in place a community committee for fine arts education to help grow and strengthen fine arts education in Madison.
Barbara M. Schrank
Fine Arts Advocate, Parent
Posted by at May 8, 2006 7:38 AM
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