In light of nationwide budget cuts in education, Madison Bush, a Scholars Magnet for Business and Law senior, is focusing her AP Research Project on music education. She feels the budget cuts will most likely harm music programs in schools. Her research question is “What are the effects of music education on high school students?” and defines students in music education as students who either actively play a musical instrument, sing, and/or dance. The overall goal of this project is to explore the effects of music education on high school students and understand why, despite these effects, arts education funding is being cut. According to Bush's research, there are many benefits of taking music education. Quoting Kathryn Proctor Duax, a retired music professor, “students who take music performance or appreciation classes score higher on the SAT than students with no arts participation.” Music education preps students for the future by teaching them “teamwork, knowledge, continuous improvement” and many other benefits, according to the late Ken Petress, who was a fine arts professor at the University of Maine. Bush wants to help raise awareness for the importance of music education. You can follow her research on Twitter. Click the image to access her Twitter research page. You can also email her at valuemusiceducation@gmail.com.
