Evaluating the Effect of No Child Left Behind on U.S. Music Course Enrollments

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate nationwide enrollment in high school music courses from 1982 until 2009 to determine what trends in music enrollment existed and whether these trends were affected by the passage and implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). With data from 10 separate nationally representative high school transcript studies conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, a unique data set was constructed that tracked the transcript-indicated 9th-through 12th-grade music course enrollment patterns for the U.Descriptive results showed that overall music enrollment patterns were relatively stable in the public schools, with roughly 34% of all students consistently enrolling in at least one music course during high school across all cohorts. Abbreviated interrupted time series analyses suggest that NCLB had no effect on overall music enrollment rates but exacerbated the preexisting underrepresentation in music courses of Hispanic students, English language learners, and students with Individualized Education Plans.

“It Really Comes Down to the Community”: A Case Study of a Rural School Music Program

“…The era of accountability, with resulting changes to curriculum and resources, has forced schools and communities to consider the value of public schools and of school music programs in their communities (Elpus 2014). With little incentive for administrators to support content outside of the tested subject areas, course offerings and instructional time for untested subjects, such as music, often were reduced (Elpus 2014).…”

“…The era of accountability, with resulting changes to curriculum and resources, has forced schools and communities to consider the value of public schools and of school music programs in their communities (Elpus 2014). With little incentive for administrators to support content outside of the tested subject areas, course offerings and instructional time for untested subjects, such as music, often were reduced (Elpus 2014). Administrators, parents, and music teachers identified NCLB mandates, standardized testing, budgetary constraints, staffing deficiencies, facilities, and declining enrollment numbers as obstacles in providing and maintaining a school music program (Abril and Gault 2007, Abril and Gault 2008, Major 2013, Miksza 2013.…”

National estimates of male and female enrolment in American high school choirs, bands and orchestras

“…I employed extensive data preparation to ensure that the data were suitable for this analysis, similarly to Elpus (2014), an earlier study that used transcript data to analyse the effect of the US No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 on overall music enrolment. For all cohorts except 1982, this data preparation included the manual verification of each course that NCES had coded as a music class and those courses coded with an omnibus visual and performing arts code (1987 n [of courses verified] = 27, 900; 1990 n = 19,370; 1992 n = 23,880; 1994 n = 37,540; 1998 n = 35,380; 2000 n = 33,240; 2004 n = 19,920; 2005 n = 45,810; 2009 n = 63,250) by comparing the code assigned by NCES to the course with the verbatim course title appearing in the dataset.…”

Music education and the well-rounded education provision of the Every Student Succeeds Act: A critical policy analysis

“…Elpus (2013) examined the effects of the labeling of the arts as a core subject in federal legislation on music programs. Other studies focused on No Child Left Behind, including its effects on course enrollments (Elpus, 2014) and overall program quality (Gerrity, 2009). A number of studies addressed various aspects of the implementation of the National Standards for Music Education, including Bell's (2003) study of teachers' beliefs about the standards, Byo's (1999) study of teachers' ability to implement them, and Fonder and Ekrich's (1999) study of the standards' impact on teacher education programs.…”