March is Music In Our Schools Month

Music education has been shown to have enormous benefits to student learning, including helping to develop language, math, and reasoning skills; increasing memorization capability; improving coordination; strengthening emotional development; and helping kids stay engaged in school. The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) says that by studying music,

students continue the generational conversation and become fluent in the language of music as a manner of artistic, intellectual, and cultural expression. The acts of performing, creating and responding to music provide a means for development and growth in the ability to express the otherwise inexpressible and to facilitate growth in many areas of academic development.

In our library collection you can find many resources on the study of music in Colorado’s schools. CDE has recently published a new edition of its guidebook Arts Education in Colorado, which provides helpful guidance on how to implement a study of the arts into Colorado school curriculum. CDE also has academic standards for music which can be viewed online, along with curriculum support. See the music section of A Guide to the Colorado Academic Standards for quick summaries of music standards by grade level.

Colorado Creative Industries has done several studies on arts education in Colorado, their most recent being Colorado Visual and Performing Arts Education Survey Statistical Report: A Comprehensive Survey of Arts Education in Colorado Schools. Previous publications include The Arts, Creative Learning & Student Achievement and Arts Learning in Colorado: More Than an Elective.

Additional resources on music education in Colorado schools include:

• Arts Education Highlights (CDE)
• Creativity, Leadership, Visual and Performing Arts (CDE)
• Early History of School Bands in Western Colorado (Mesa State College)
• The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning (University of Northern Colorado)