Policies, Practices, and Promises: Challenges to Early Childhood Music Education in the United States

An Analysis of State Music Education Certification and Licensure Practices in the United States

“…The increased use of the early childhood designation in music certification likely aligns with the expansion of early childhood programs in the United States. Early childhood programs gained momentum in the late 1960s and paralleled the trend of mothers entering the workforce (Alvarez, 1981; Miranda, 2002; Persellin, 2007). Statistics reported in The State of America’s Children (Children’s Defense Fund, 2014) indicate that the percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in preschool or kindergarten more than quintupled between 1964 and 2012.…”

Is Music an Active Developmental Tool or Simply a Supplement? Early Childhood Preservice Teachers' Beliefs About Music

“…More than 10,000 school districts across the nation have reduced music instruction in order to expand time to teach math and reading (Persellin, 2007). In spite of general agreement regarding the importance of music in early childhood education, music has been deemphasized in recent years due to the increased emphasis on academic achievement in response to social and political pressures (Hill, 2003;Raver & Zigler, 2004).…”

Early childhood music education research: An overview

“…An issue of Arts Education Policy Review (2007) contained commissioned articles dedicated to international accounts of policy for early childhood education (see, e.g. Andango & Mugo, 2007;Ilari, 2007;Persellin, 2007;Woodward, 2007), and prompted authors to review and in many cases challenge the institutional and policy context for music in their countries. However, aside from this one issue and its valuable articles there is no research-based literature describing, analysing and critiquing early childhood music education policies, programmes and systems or doing so comparatively across multiple societies.…”