Dr Purple's Pages

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/bbcd/?cpg=wnrdf

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2628056.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2624634.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2624476.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2624625.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2624627.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2624629.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2624631.htm

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/cognitivedaily/~3/6vvoLkuixbg/music_participation_doesnt_app.php

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/07/music_participation_doesnt_app.php

When school budgets are cut, programs in music and the arts are often the first to get axed. While this makes a certain amount of sense because music isn't always considered "essential" to education, recently in the U.S. we're starting to see another justification for cutting music out of schools. The No Child Left Behind Act demands that students meet a certain basic level of academic success, or a school's budget can be cut. "Extras" like music classes and recess only distract from the primary goals of learning English, math, science, and history, some say.

But does music participation actually cause students to do worse in the core academic subjects? Some studies have found the opposite, with kids' IQ scores improving after a year of music lessons. Other studies have found that students who participate in music tend to have higher grades and test scores in other subjects. This, however, is only a correlation--we don't know if music caused the improvement. Kids in music classes might be better in other subjects just because better students are more likely to take music classes. Maybe these kids would do even better in school if they weren't distracted by music.

Peter Miksza took a look at data from the 1988 National Educational Longitudinal Study to see if he could find stronger evidence of the impact of music on performance in school. He analyzed the records of 5,335 students who either participated in school music programs from 8th through 12th grade or did not participate at all (students who participated only part of the time were excluded from the analysis). Here are some of the results: