Music Education Statistics and Information

    Music Major are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school.
    Lewis Thomas, Case for Music in the Schools, Phi Delta Kappa, 1994

    High school music students have been shown to hold higher grade point averages(GPA) than non-
    musicians in the same school.
    National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988

    In Rhode Island, researches studied eight public school first-grade classes. Half of the classes became
    "test arts" groups, receiving ongoing music and visual arts training. In Kindergarten, this group had
    lagged behind in scholastic performance. After seven months, the students were given a standardized
    test. The "test arts" group had caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpasses their
    classmates in math by 22 percent. In the second year of the project, the arts students widened this
    margin even further. Students were also evaluated on attitude and behavior. Classroom teachers noted
    improvement in these areas also.
    Nature, May 23, 1996

    During moments of musical euphoria, blood travels through the brain to areas where other stimuli can
    produce feelings of contentment and joy-and travels away from brain cell areas associated with
    depression and fear.
    Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2, 1999

    Students of lower socioeconomic status who took music lessons in grades 8-12 increased their math
    scores significantly as compared to non-music students. But just as important, reading, history,
    geography and even social skills soared by 40%.
    Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles, Nature, May 23, 1996

    Children given piano lessons significantly improved in their spatial-temporal IQ scores (important for
    some types of mathematical reasoning) compared to children who received computer lessons, casual
    singing or no lessons.
    Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Wright, Dennis, and Newcomb, Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool
    children's spatial temporal reasoning. 1997

    A study of 237 second-grade children involved with both piano keyboard training and innovative math
    software scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than students only using the math
    software.
    Graziano, Peterson and Shaw, Neurological Research 21, March 1999

    When a child learns by experience that music forges direct links between self and world, self-expression
    becomes more fluent; the music helps interpret "who I am."
    Growing up Complete, the report of the National Commission on Music Education, 1990