For the Love of Music

For the Love of Music
Author: Alexandra Andreassen
Publisher:
Total Pages: 67
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

A variety of recent research has shown that the academic achievement gap has been growing between low- and middle-income students. Socioeconomic status has proven to have a large influence on academic attainment as well as the educational opportunities that a child is offered. This paper argues that, because poverty significantly affects children during the after-school and summer hours, extracurricular activities are an important way of closing the rich-poor achievement gap. Moreover, I hope to show that music programs have specific benefits for low-income children. First, I summarize the existing literature surrounding the socioeconomic achievement gap, extracurricular programs, and music education. Then, I review the results of my study of the academic and non-cognitive attainments of urban low-income students who participate in two extracurricular music programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey. In a time of decreased funding for extracurricular programs and the arts, this research has implications for educational policy and practice. The following are appended: (1) Data Tables; and (2) References. (Contains 7 tables.).

Global Perspectives on Issues and Solutions in Urban Education

Global Perspectives on Issues and Solutions in Urban Education
Author: Petra A. Robinson
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2019-03-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1641135409

In 2014, The Urban Education Collaborative at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte hosted its first biennial International Conference on Urban Education (ICUE) in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In 2016, the second hosting of the conference took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Additionally, in 2018, the third hosting of the conference took place in Nassau, Bahamas. These solution-focused conferences brought together students, teachers, scholars, public sector and business professionals as well as others from around the world to present their research and best practices on various topics pertaining to urban education. With ICUE’s inspiration, this book is a response to the growing need to highlight the multifaceted aspects of urban education particularly focusing on common issues and solutions in urban environments (e.g., family and community engagement, student academic achievement, teacher preparation and professional development, targeted instructional and disciplinary interventions, opportunity gaps, culturally-relevant and sustaining practices, etc.). Additionally, with this book, we seek to better understand the challenges facing urban educators and students and to offer progressive initiatives toward resolutions. This unique compilation of work is organized under four major themes all targeted at critically addressing concerns that may inhibit the success of urban learners and providing solutions that have implications for curriculum design, development, and delivery; teacher preparation and teaching diverse populations; career readiness and employment; and even more nuanced issues related to foster care, undocumented students and mental health, sustainable consumption, childhood marriage, food deserts, and marine life and urban communities.

Effects of Music Education on Academic Achievement

Effects of Music Education on Academic Achievement
Author: Karen Palubinski
Publisher:
Total Pages: 70
Release: 2019
Genre: Academic achievement
ISBN:

This study aims at exploring whether English Language Learners (ELL) who are enrolled in a music education program have higher standardized test scores compared to those who are not engaged in a music education program. A West Phoenix, inner city school was studied were the majority of students are Hispanic and qualify for free and reduced lunch. The main purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the effects of instrumental music courses on the AZmerit assessment scores. AZMerit is a standardized assessment used to measure student growth during the given timeframe of one school year (AIMS A Science, n.d.). In this study, I compared a cohort of instrumental music students who studied performance against a cohort of comparable students who did not volunteer to participate in an instrumental music program. Many of these students are bilingual in English and Spanish. As such, students were divided into subcategories based on their level of language acquisition in sixth grade. The secondary purpose of this study was to determine if being a part of an instrumental music program affected students at different languages levels in different manners. Over a two-year period, the English Language Learners (ELL) students were examined to determine the effects of music education by focusing a large part of this research on ELL students' success within music education programs and academic content areas.

Truth and Knowledge in Curriculum Making

Truth and Knowledge in Curriculum Making
Author: Lobat Asadi
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2021-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1648023282

Truth and Knowledge in Curriculum Making, addresses issues in curriculum and instruction, such as the lack of Black teachers, minority representation, and mentorship. The book arose from a serial interpretation of five published narrative inquiries that pinpointed complexities lived in a teacher knowledge community at T.P. Yaeger Middle School, a campus located in the fourth largest urban center in America. The inquiry initially resulted in a documentary-style presentation at an educational conference using performance narrative inquiry as an arts-based method to recount the research. In Truth and Knowledge in Curriculum Making, the process of researchers turned actors is unraveled by looking at the lived experiences and identifying the embodied knowledge of teachers in different content areas including Physical Education, Music, Teaching English as a Second Language, Mathematics, and Reading. The authors use parallel stories, counter stories, story constellations, musical narrative inquiry, performance narrative inquiry and other narrative means of sense-making as they examine how they may relate to those stories. Ethical research dilemmas, including the how and why behind each author’s choice to burrow into difficult topics such as race, gender and conflict resolution are revealed. By unpacking the hidden curriculum, examining value creation and by revealing isolated relational experiences of participants and researchers, Truth and Knowledge in Curriculum Making instantiates and outlines how truth and knowledge may be formed in educational settings through intertwining narrative inquiry, teacher knowledge and aesthetic ways of knowing.

Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom

Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom
Author: Carol Frierson-Campbell
Publisher: R & L Education
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2006
Genre: Education
ISBN:

The change needed in urban music education not only relates to the idea that music should be at the center of the curriculum; rather, it is that culturally relevant music should be a creative force at the center of reform in urban education. Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom: A Guide to Leadership, Teacher Education, and Reform is the start of a national-level conversation aimed at making that goal a reality.