Factors Related to the Integration of the Creating and Responding National Standards in High School Bands (2013)

The often performance-dominated focus of many high school wind band programs can be linked to the genre's cultural and historical heritage, which includes professional bands, military bands, and the school band contest movement (Milburn, 1982, Whitehill, 1969). In contrast, the National Standards for Music (hereafter referred to as Standards) were developed out of ideals of comprehensive musicianship that grew out of the educational reform movement of the 1960's (Austin, 1998; Lehman, 2000). This emphasis of teaching comprehensively, which permeates the Standards, and the emphasis on performance found in many high school wind band programs have been in conflict since the Standards were introduced in 1994 (Kvet & Williamson, 1998).Three studies on the integration of the Standards into the high school wind band have been conducted on the state level: Wilson (2003) in Missouri, Skube (2002) in Michigan, and Kirkland (1996) in South Carolina. These studies confirmed that while the Standards associated with performing were being integrated into the high school wind band curriculum, creating standards (Standard 3 [improvising] and 4 [composing and arranging]) were integrated at a very low level. In addition, the responding standards (Standard 6 [listening, analyzing, describing], 7 [evaluating], 8 [relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts], and 9 [relationships to history and culture]), were also integrated at a significantly lower level than performance standards. The state-level studies also identified two main factors that inhibited the integration of the Standards into the wind band curriculum: (1) lack of instructional time and the (2) overwhelming performance-related expectations of school administrators and the local community.A review of literature associated with a National Research Council (2002) research framework established that the three primary channels through which educational reform moves from theory to practice (curriculum, teacher development, and assessment and accountability) were not aligned with the Standards. This lack of alignment was evidenced in the curriculum channel by the findings that selection mechanisms for repertoire were largely based on practical and personal criteria rather than on curricular goals (Bauer, 1996; Dahlman, 1991). This lack of alignment also existed in the teacher development channel based on the findings that undergraduate music education curricula were not aligned to the Standards (Adderley, 1996; Wollenzien, 1999). Finally, this lack of alignment was also present in assessment practices where band teachers emphasized student attendance and behavior/attitude (Hill, 1999; Sears, 2002; Simanton, 2000) rather than curricular outcomes.The purpose of this study was to identify the level of integration of the creating and responding standards in the high school wind band curriculum on a national level and to identify which factors may impact the level of frequency of instructional tasks that address them. Identification of the factors that both positively and negatively influence the frequency levels of these tasks may provide useful information for administrators, educators, and teachers to use in developing channels through which the Standards can continue to gain influence within the wind band curriculum.Two research questions guided this study:1. What is the level of integration of the creating and responding standards in the high school wind band curriculum?2. What factors might impact the level of frequency of creating and responding standards-related instructional tasks?MethodThe population for this study was public high school (grades 9-12) wind band teachers. Participants were self-selected by choosing to fill out an online questionnaire in response to an emailed invitation that included a link to the study. Emails were sent during the months of February and March of 2006 to all 1 173 members of the National Band Association (representing all 50 states) who were listed as high school band teachers. …