School hopes music boosts test scores
LEESPORT, Pa. (AP) — At Lisa Sharer’s command, 18 kindergartners hold violins in place and raise their bows in the ready position.
“Scrolls up. Tummies tall. Eyes on me,” Sharer instructs.
“Rubber Ducky in the Tubby,” Sharer recites as she moves a bow slowly over the strings of her instrument.
The children listen, then join in.
All 130 kindergarten pupils at Schuylkill Valley Elementary School are receiving classroom instruction on the violin this school year.
But the goal is more than just teaching them to play the instrument.
The district is initiating a four-year study to examine if violin lessons boost performance on standardized tests.
“The object isn’t to learn to read music or even to learn to play the violin well,” said Schuylkill Valley Superintendent Solomon Lausch. “It’s to see if learning to play music by imitation has a positive impact on cognitive development such that it improves general academic performance.”
The program will evaluate whether the pupils get better grades, stay on task longer, have higher self-esteem, better musical ability and need fewer special-education services.
The district hired Sharer, director of the Reading Music Academy in West Reading, to teach violin to each kindergarten class on alternating days.
“I’m not aware of anyplace else that is doing this,” Sharer said. “This is unique.”
During a recent lesson, it was apparent that the kindergartners were trying to get the hang of their instruments.
As Sharer demonstrated a rhythm, most of the children put their bows on the correct string and mimicked the teacher to some degree.
A few seemed preoccupied. One boy wandered from his place. Another wiggled a loose tooth.
Schuylkill Valley put $70,000 toward the 2008-09 violin program. The state education department awarded the district additional funding for Title I reading instruction this year, which freed up money elsewhere in the budget for the violin program.
Lausch estimates the district will need $50,000 annually to continue the program in each of the next three years — until the kindergartners finish third grade.
Pupils take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or PSSA test, for the first time in third grade.
“That’s when we begin to assess a student’s ability to master basic skills,” Lausch said.
Lausch and Sharer both see a correlation between music education and academic performance. What they don’t know is which comes first: Do pupils who play musical instruments tend to do better in school, or do some high-achieving pupils tend to gravitate toward music?