Evaluation of the Impact of Music Program Participation on Students’ Musical and Academic Success, and School Engagement in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools: A Comprehensive Test of Pathways and Contextual Factors

The purpose of this project was to examine the effect of participating in music on student school engagement and academic achievement in a Metropolitan Nashville Public School district. Student records for the class of 2012 (N = 6,006) in a major urban school district were collected and examined for student personal characteristics, music participation, their indicated level of school engagement, and their academic achievements. These variables were examined using Structural Equation Modeling techniques. Results indicated that the quantity of Music Participation had an important effect on both the level of School Engagement and Academic Achievement. Conclusions indicate that more music involvement was advantageous to the school system’s overall performance, and that steps being taken to engage a wider cross-section of students might well have a significant impact on the students’ academic lives. Music Participation & Engagement & Academics 3 Evaluation of the Impact of Music Program Participation on Students’ Musical and Academic Success, and School Engagement in the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools: A Comprehensive Test of Pathways and Contextual Factors The extant literature is replete with investigations examining the effects of music study on the academic success of students. Researchers have paired music participation with various academic outcomes, including math and reading skills, as well as overall grade point averages. Most of these studies look at students in the elementary and middle grades. Several researchers have reasoned that, in the primary grades, student participation in music class is compulsory and therefore consistent across students in the same school. In high school, however, students have more degrees of freedom in selecting their classes, so any given student might take no music throughout high school, or might have many music credits. This variability makes the high school population more challenging to study. Therefore, though there are some investigations that look at secondary students and academic progress, those are far fewer. Most studies investigating connections between participation in music and general academic achievement have demonstrated that participation in music parallels increased academic achievement (Johnson & Memmott, 2006; Kinney, 2013; Perry, 1993). This relationship has been demonstrated with standardized tests in reading (Butzlaff, 2000; Neuharth, 2000), mathematics (Neuharth, 2000; Whitehead, 2001), grade point averages (Miranda, 2001; Zanutto, 1997), SAT scores (Butzlaff, 2000; Cobb, 1997; Miranda, 2001), and ACT scores (Cobb, 1997; Miranda, 2001). Some studies have shown that music participation did not affect academic achievement more than other variables investigated, but consequential academic gains were still noted (Andrews, 1997; Elpus, 2011; Perry, 1993). None of the studies found that participation in music negatively influenced academic progress. Music Participation & Engagement & Academics 4 Studies of elementary students have typically focused on those in third and/or fourth grade (when state assessments are regularly administered). Fitzpatrick (2006), Kinney and Forsythe (2005), and Wallick (1998) all looked at relationships between music participation and fourth grade assessment scores, and found that music participation, even when it required being pulled out of traditional instruction, was positively associated with test scores (or at least did not negatively affect them.) Gregory (1988) found that third-grade students receiving music instruction though the "Leap Into Music" curriculum made significant academic progress in mathematics. Similarly, Smithrim and Uptis (2005) found that participation in an arts-integrated curriculum led to modest but statistically significant gains in mathematics scores, but only after three years. Not every study showed consistent academic gains for young children who participate in music education. For example, a longitudinal study by Costa-Giomi (1999) showed that private piano lessons increased several measures of intelligence in the short term. However, those gains, as well as any academic gains, were not maintained through the entire three-year span of the study. By the end, both the experimental and control groups were relatively equivalent on both measures—academic and intelligence scores. In another study, Kemmerer (2003) found that the number of hours spent in a general music class had no effect on reading skill scores. However, closer examination showed that the difference of time actually spent in music instruction between the groups was less than 18 minutes per week, so the case for differing amounts of instructional time did not appear to be strong enough to be significant. Further, the famous “Mozart effect” studies by Rauscher et al. (1993, 1995) were later found not to stand up to additional researcher scrutiny and replication (e.g., Schellenberg, 2005; Winner & Cooper, Music Participation & Engagement & Academics 5 2000). However, enough studies have found connections between music and academics that the topic merits further research. Rather than examining the effect of music on academics, some researchers have examined the converse relationship—that of academics on music participation. Fitzpatrick (2006), Klinedinst (1991), and Miksza (2007) all found a predilection for high achieving students to choose to participate and to persist in music classes. Kinney (2008, 2010, 2013) determined that this relationship persisted into Middle School, but moreso for instrumental music participants than choral music participants, echoing the findings of Johnson and Memmott (2006) regarding statistically significant differences between instrumental and choral music participants. Scant research exists on the relationship between music participation and academics in the middle and high school years, but those studies that have been conducted reinforce the findings concerning elementary students. Research shows a relationship between statistically significantly higher academic achievement for students who participate in music education than for those who do not (Babo, 2004; Catterall, Chapleau & Iwanga, 1999; Cobb, 1997; Kinney, 2008; Miksza, 2007). Many of these researchers readily acknowledge that the evidence is unclear at best regarding which came first—the academic achievement or the music participation—but the relationship is undeniable. Perhaps the three most compelling reports on the relationship between music participation and academic achievement are by Cobb (1997), Catterall, Chapleau and Iwanaga (1999) and Butzlaff (2000). Cobb (1997) examined the ACT registration forms of 17,099 test takers and compared those who indicated that they had two or more classes or activities in music to those who had not. Findings indicated that individuals with a musical background had Music Participation & Engagement & Academics 6 significantly higher ACT scores on the English, reading, and science subtests. Scores for math were also higher for all subgroups, but not significantly so for African American students. Catterall, Chapleau and Iwanaga’s 1999 investigation tracked approximately 25,000 students over the course of ten years. Results indicated that, regardless of socioeconomic background, secondary school students involved in music had significantly higher standardized test scores— specifically mathematics proficiency—than students not involved in music. This study examined several standardized tests, including the SAT. Similarly, Butzlaff (2000) completed a metaanalysis of all studies wherein a reading standardized test followed music instruction. He documented a consistent correlation between reading ability and music instruction. Though many claim that involvement in a variety of school activities aids academic progress, several studies have shown that not to be the case. In four investigations, music participation was the only activity shown to correlate significantly with academic progress (Miranda, 2001; Schneider, 2000; Trent, 1996; Underwood, 2000). Athletics and all other extracurricular activities did not show similar results. While clear trends arise in a study of music participation and academic achievement, the extant research on potential relationships between student engagement and activity participation (to include music participation) is far less focused. This lack of focus stems from the related difficulties of 1) defining “engagement” in a school setting, and 2) determining effective ways to measure engagement, once a definition has been selected. Qualitative studies (Bartolome, 2013; Smithrim & Uptis, 2005) tend to examine engagement via student self-reports and teacher observations regarding a sense of belonging, feelings of empowerment and commitment, and motivation for success. These studies have found that participation in music fosters a strong Music Participation & Engagement & Academics 7 sense of belonging and activity commitment (Bartolome, 2013), as well as a commitment to academic achievement (Smithrim & Uptis, 2005). Quantitative studies tend to define engagement in terms of future-predicting behaviors, such as motivational beliefs (Simpkins, Vest & Becnel, 2010) and aspirations (Darling, 2005), or the predictive power of present participation on future activity engagement (Mahoney, Cairns & Farmer, 2003). For these studies, “participation” was generally defined as level and intensity of activity participation (Brown & Evans, 2002; Darling, 2005; Mahoney, Cairns & Farmer, 2003). In general, all of these studies found positive effects resulting from activity participation, however positive effect was defined—high aspirations for the future, greater engagement in activities over time, and evidence of interpersonal competence. However, the lack of a concise, agreed-upon definition for “student engagement” between the various studies makes it difficult to draw any definitive conc