Music Advocates Take Case Directly to Education Secretary

A project developed in collaboration with NAMM, AMC and the Museum of Making Music was featured at a July 20 conference at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. Anne Fennell, director of the MusicVentures program, was one of four leading researchers and practitioners invited to brief U.S. Department of Education and White House Cabinet member Rod Paige at a gathering of leading teachers from around the nation as part of the Department of Education’s “Research-to-Practice Summit.”

L to R: Heather Katz, Larry Scripp, Anne Fennell and Abner Baez

The conference was part of the Department of Education’s ongoing “Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative,” which Secretary Paige unveiled in April. That program brings teachers together for round-table discussion in select cities.

Fennell’s MusicVentures program provides teacher training, mentoring, artist residencies, museum field trips and family music learning toolkits to enhance music education opportunities in school districts that lack music education programs. It was included in the program as a teaching/mentoring model partnered with a research strategy that are assessing program effectiveness and student outcomes.

Dr. Lawrence Scripp, director of the Research Center for Learning Through Music at the New England Conservatory of Music, also reported on research findings from an assessment study of MusicVentures being funded by the International Foundation for Music Research (IFMR). Other presenters included Maine elementary school teacher Heather Katz and Massachusetts music education specialist Abner Baez.

Presenters stressed importance of researchers and educators working together to investigate and implement the most effective teaching strategies for children.

The same month, Secretary Paige sent a letter to all U.S. school superintendents urging them not to allow music and arts programs to suffer as a result of implementing the federal “No Child Left Behind” law (see related article).