MENC member Roger Maxwell wondered if there was a correlation between the work of academically successful high school students and their participation in music study. From statistics compiled over a 10-year period from Des Moines Sunday Register special editions, Maxwell found that of a group of 500 high-scoring Iowa students (50 selected each year over 10 years) called Academic All-Staters, some 331, or 66.2 percent, participated in music.

Intrigued by these numbers and interested in music as one of the human intelligences, Maxwell contacted Dr. Randall Hamilton, a neurologist in Des Moines, who referred him to a series of studies, some unpublished and others found in peer-reviewed journals, compiled with the assistance of the International Music Products Association (NAMM).

Here are the highlights of three of these [Please link to Maxwell’s Web site for more information and a full list of the studies, as well as additional research on music study.]:

• High school students who participated in instrumental music scored higher than nonband peers on standardized tests, and this achievement increased over time. [J. L. Kluball, “The Relationship of Instrumental Music Instruction and Academic Achievement for the Senior Class of 2000 at Lee County High School, Leesburg, Georgia” (published by the University of Sarasota, Florida, 2000)]
   

• Among college graduates, music majors were the group most likely to be admitted to medical school (66 percent, the highest of any group) [P. H. Wood, “The Comparative Academic Abilities of Students in Education and Other Areas of a Multi-Focus University,” ERIC Document no. ED327480 (1990)]
   
• Music training can help underachieving students excel. In eight first-grade classes in Rhode Island public schools, seven months of music and visual arts training helped lower-scoring students catch up with their peers in reading and surpass them in math by 22 percent. The following year, the arts students further widened this margin. [M. F. Gardiner, A. Fox, F. Knowles, and D. Jeffrey, “Learning Improved by Arts Training,” Nature 381, 284 (May 23, 1996)]
   

Maxwell is fascinated by the relationships he perceives among music and other academic subjects. He says, “School music programs are a major contributor to the educational development and academic achievement of young people.”

Roger Maxwell is a composer and arranger of band and choral works and served as the chief arranger for the U.S. Army Band of the Pacific while stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now retired from the Iowa State Board of Regents where he served as its equal opportunity compliance officer, Maxwell lives in Windsor Heights, Iowa. He can be contacted at bunmax@mchsi.com.

--Ella Wilcox, December 3, 2008, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)