Three Best Practices to Improve and Sustain Music Education

In 2019, an audit of Boston Public Schools (BPS) music education opportunities identified that instrumental music was least accessible to students attending schools in East Boston. EdVestors launched the East Boston Music Collective (EBMC) in 2022 as part of a collaborative effort to address this equity issue. This collective effort aims to increase equitable access to sequential music education across all 11 East Boston BPS schools. It is part of BPS Arts Expansion, a citywide effort to ensure equitable, quality arts instruction for all students in Boston.

After two years of implementation, the EBMC has shown that a carefully conceived, wide-reaching, collaborative music education effort can provide public school students with rewarding arts experiences. In our case study, Scaling Sequential Music for All Students Through the East Boston Music Collective, we highlight three East Boston schools, Donald McKay K-8 School, Umana Academy, and Patrick J. Kennedy School (PJK), that prioritized sequential music instruction in their overall arts programming. 

Below are three key themes that emerged, highlighting the factors supporting the successful expansion of sequential music education in East Boston: 

A school-wide commitment to the arts is key to expanding sequential arts instruction

All three schools demonstrated a school-wide commitment to the arts, with music teachers at the helm of music programming, supportive school leadership, and enthusiastic students. 

At the McKay K-8 School, school leadership allocated time during the school day for the two full-time music teachers to coordinate their curricula. Each teacher had a dedicated classroom, which helped them create a stable and organized environment for learning. For its middle school band class, the school provided a variety of quality musical instruments for the students to use. Having passionate and dedicated music teachers, intentional curricula, and access to a range of quality musical instruments highlights the school’s clear commitment to music education, which fosters an environment where the arts are integral to the student experience.  

Investing in professional development and teacher support bolsters high-quality programming

In addition to funding new musical instruments and materials, the EBMC has also invested in fostering connections between schools and local arts partners to provide instructional support to music teachers. The PJK’s music teacher focused on addressing individual student’s needs, while a teaching artist from ZUMIX provided instruction. Another teaching artist from the New England Conservatory helped individual students at PJK with instrument-specific support. 

All music teachers from the three schools also dedicated time to participate in professional development opportunities. They joined a professional development series led by the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education to build their skills in supporting students with different learning needs. Teachers shared that they immediately implemented what they learned into their teaching approaches.  

Culturally responsive curricula and instructional methods are beneficial to schools and their communities

Teachers maximized the resources and support they received from the EBMC by creating culturally relevant curricula to meet the needs of their school communities. East Boston is unique among the city’s neighborhoods, wherein it has the highest percentage of foreign-born residents, with 56% of its residents being of Hispanic or Latino origin in 2022. BPS has also prioritized students living in the neighborhood to attend East Boston schools. 

Through intentional dynamic curricula and instructional methods, the EBMC fosters inclusive learning environments to empower students through the arts. At the Umana K-8, the music teacher and teaching artist from the Community Music Center of Boston are bilingual in English and Spanish. This proved essential in teaching the afterschool band program, which had primarily students who had recently immigrated to Boston from Spanish-speaking countries and were yet to be fluent in English. The teachers had different skill sets in their co-teaching dynamic, which fostered a fun, warm, and engaging learning environment. We observed that students were highly energized and dedicated to practicing their music.

The past two years of the EBMC have provided promising insights on deepening and sustaining high-quality music education that can be applied to other neighborhoods in Boston. Schools can replicate this model by building school-level commitment, strong community-specific partnerships, prioritizing teacher support, and implementing culturally responsive curricula to improve and sustain inclusive music education in their buildings. Moreover, we hope that schools will see how music and the arts can engage students and bring communities together. 

Read the full case study here.