2009 AIME Symposium

"Keeping Music Programs Strong in Challenging Economic Times
and
Addressing 21st Century Skills in the Music Classroom"

On Friday, October 16th, 2009, I traveled to Westborough High School for the 2009 Massachusetts Administrators in Music Education Symposium. The conference was focused on relating 21st Century Skills with what we do in the music classroom as well as ways of having our music programs survive the current economic crisis.

The 21st Century Skills we discussed included: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, decision making, solving complex/open-ended questions, creative problem solving (Metacognition), creativity, entrepreneurial thinking, literacy, making innovative use of knowledge, and taking charge of financial, health, and civic responsibilities.

A long discussion took place and it was agreed that in our music classrooms, we are creating new and innovative ways to address these 21st Century Skills. At Pentucket, we are engulfing the 5 Common Elements of Powerful Learning and the 5 Habits of Learning into our curriculum. In our band, we are using Smart Music to create E-Portfolios. In Music Technology I, we are creating soundtracks for picture stories which will then be presented to the Groveland Langley Adams Library. These are just two examples of opportunities we are giving out students that address 21st Century Skills that enhance their education.

The following statistics were shared with us from the September 22, 2009 speech of Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan:

• 27% of America's young people drop out of high school. That means 1.2 million teenagers are leaving our schools for the streets.
• Recent international tests in math and science show our students trail their peers in other countries. For 15 year-olds in math, the United States ranks 31st.
• 17 year-olds today are performing at the exact same levels in math and reading as they were in the early 1970's on the NAEP test.
• And just 40% of young people earn a two-year or four-year college degree
• The US now ranks 10th in the world in the rate of college completion for 25-34 year olds. A generation ago, we were first in the world but we're falling behind.

From this information we broke into small groups to see how we as music teachers, address 21st Century Skills. We quickly discovered a common trend in Massachusetts Public Schools. Though we as music teachers address 21st Century Skills, MCAS driven curriculums often take over whatever it is the music teacher is doing. In a band/chorus/orchestra rehearsal, we cover everything from literacy, mathematics, and most importantly, creativity. Additionally, we address these skills for a larger population in our general music classroom, Massachusetts administrators are asking teachers to take time out of their core subject areas in order to address issues in other areas of teaching. One band director from western Mass expressed that she now has to take one band rehearsal away a week in order to have the students write a paper. She is not supposed to correct the paper unless she receives the professional development to teach her the school's standards in grading of writing (similar to the John Collins Writing System when I was a student at Pentucket). As you can guess, that professional development which was promised to her still has not been granted. Another teacher mentioned that she has to teach a math remedial class as part of her teaching load. Massachusetts currently lets administrators decide if they want their teachers to teach out of their certified area as long as it does not exceed 20% of their teaching load.

A common detail we all agreed on was that students with academic issues often get pulled out of the music classroom for remedial help. We also agreed that it seemed like it was the music class that excited the student enough to want to come to school and this motivational factor is gone when they cannot attend music classes.

After our 21st Century Skills discussion, we talked about scheduling. The principal from the Trottier Middle School in Westborough then came in to outline their successful scheduling program. The middle school there used to run on a rotating schedule where all of the performing groups would meet the same period (this is exact to our middle school schedule at Pentucket). In order to make the ensembles seem more like a class and part of the core curriculum, the ensembles were then scheduled throughout the day and not the same period. The entire school's schedule would be based off of the music department and the periods they needed. Everyone in the school reported positive results, especially the teachers because there would no longer be Monday mornings with a 1st period where students had nothing to do during their "silent reading" period. The music department there reported a huge change in the success of their program.

We then talked about high school scheduling and how to deal with students who have AP classes and want to take a music ensemble. It was agreed that it is common knowledge that the music department students get scheduled first when the guidance offices schedules the entire school schedule. This is what successful programs do. At Pentucket, our head of Guidance, Janice Hirschfield, really helped us last year in getting our high school students scheduled into band. This is the major reason our band doubled in size in one year. It is essential to have support from the guidance and administration in order to have a successful music program.

For saving our music programs, we all agreed that this is going to be a bad budget season and we need to be proactive rather than reactive. We discussed ways of getting parents and students involved in advocacy campaigns. The biggest topic was stressing the fact that our curriculum supports creativity, more so than most subjects, and therefore should be considered integral to the curriculum at all levels. We think this notion needs to be proven from the top down, specifically with our local legislatures. Hopefully a campaign will be started in the near future.

In all, this conference gave me new ideas on how to relate what we do in music to 21st Century Skills. Additionally, I received great advice about scheduling and ways to try and improve our outlook in this tough budget season.