Atlanta Public Schools eliminates orchestra, band teaching positions

[G_j]

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2015/06/atlanta-public-schools-eliminates-orchestra-band.html?ana=e_du_pap&s=article_du&ed=2015-06-02&u=iB+E2%2Fr%2FUYSKzNEC2fPJVz4a0Yi&t=1433272697

Jun 2, 2015, 5:15am EDT Updated Jun 2, 2015, 2:28pm EDT

Atlanta Public Schools plans to have 10 fewer band teaching positions and eight fewer orchestra teaching positions at elementary schools when students return in August. Some APS band and orchestra teachers work at more than one school.

The decision means students at some schools will likely return to class in August without the programs.

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There are 52 elementary schools in the school system. Before the position cuts, APS has a total of 58 band and orchestra teachers, Malone said.

APS is one of the last of the state's 180 public school districts that provides orchestra and band instruction at the elementary school level, Malone noted.

A prepared statement issued by APS about changes to music programs said, “This mirrors the District’s direction to increase instructional quality and efficiency."

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[shenmue]

1. ...

[msongs]

2. band/orchestra or pay ever more $$ to corporations who create tests. tough choice nt

[mercuryblues]

3. WTF

really WTF are they doing? Music students tend to do better in school. Learning music will help the students, which I am guessing is something they don't want. That way they can lament on public schools failing your kids.

http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education/

According to the Children’s Music Workshop, the effect of music education on language development can be seen in the brain. “Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds,” the group claims.

This relationship between music and language development is also socially advantageous to young children. “The development of language over time tends to enhance parts of the brain that help process music,” says Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a practicing musician. “Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.”

Increased IQ
A study by E. Glenn Schellenberg at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, as published in a 2004 issue of Psychological Science, found a small increase in the IQs of six-year-olds who were given weekly voice and piano lessons. Schellenberg provided nine months of piano and voice lessons to a dozen six-year-olds, drama lessons (to see if exposure to arts in general versus just music had an effect) to a second group of six-year-olds, and no lessons to a third group. The children’s IQs were tested before entering the first grade, then again before entering the second grade.

Surprisingly, the children who were given music lessons over the school year tested on average three IQ points higher than the other groups. The drama group didn’t have the same increase in IQ, but did experience increased social behavior benefits not seen in the music-only group

[dhill926]

4. and just north in Cobb County...

is one of the strongest public school music programs in the country. Crazy.

[KamaAina]

5. The most effective PSA I ever saw

was Wynton Marsalis playing the trumpet for few seconds, then putting it down, looking into the camera, and saying: "You know where I learned to play the trumpet? In school."

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R

[Orsino]

7. That sound you're not hearing is the sound of children being left behind. n/t