Welcome to KeyAction Summer/Fall 2001

Yamaha Helps Assess State of Music Education in America

In national policy discussions and in communities across the country, the state of music education is a hot topic. Based on ongoing scientific research and advocacy efforts, there's a renewed sense that every child should have music as a core subject. Yamaha has once again joined with the American Music Conference (AMC), the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and other organizations to identify the nation's "Best 100 Communities for Music Education."

New York state tops the survey (published in May) with 16 districts on the list, followed by Pennsylvania with nine and Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey with six each. The full results captured media attention around the country. You can view them online at Yamaha's website, yamaha.com (in the "What's New" section), and at www.amc-music.org.

"The communities that made our "Best 100" list have a lot to be proud of," says Terry Lewis, senior vice president, Yamaha Corporation of America. "Perhaps we can all draw inspiration from their diversity: urban and rural, wealthy and poor; all of whom have found a way to make quality music education a reality in their own unique circumstances. What this tells us is that this isn't just a matter of means but one of desire. These communities have it, and others can follow suit."

The survey results show that successful music programs can be found in communities that balance measurable resources, such as budgets and buildings, with less tangible assets, such as the will to make quality music education a reality. The common thread shared by the top schools is that they benefit from the support of parents, teachers, school decision-makers, and community leaders who highly value music education.

Yamaha's long experience with teaching kids music was the key to its participation in the survey. Lewis and other experts helped craft the survey questionnaire and analyze the resulting data. "Considering our global Yamaha Music Education System (YMES), the widespread use of the Music In Education (MIE) system, and our close contact with so many schools that use our instruments, we are pleased and honored to offer our experience in this project," Lewis notes. "This is going to help a lot of people down the road, and we're happy to be a part of it."

The web-based survey gathered input during March and April from thousands of public school and independent teachers, school and district administrators, school board members, parents and community leaders representing communities in all 50 states. The participants answered detailed questions about funding, enrollment, student-teacher ratios, participation in music classes, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, participation in private music lessons and other factors in their communities' quality of music education. Based on this preliminary data, survey organizers conducted telephone audits to verify the accuracy of the responses.

Since the results were published, members of the public have cited the survey in their local school budget deliberations. Music educators whose programs made this list are getting inquiries from colleagues who didn't.

In addition to Yamaha, AMC, MTNA, and NSBA, organizations supporting the survey include the VH1 Save The Music Foundation and Perseus Development Corp. of Braintree, MA, a leading online survey firm that implemented the web content and summarized the numbers.

The survey is an annual event, and people across the country who want to make sure their communities are represented can do so next spring through the AMC website.

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