The Claiborne County Board of Education traveled to Cumberland Gap High School, Thursday night, for their monthly meeting. They welcomed the opportunity to recognize two of their elementary schools for their outstanding achievements. Forge Ridge Elementary School placed third in East Tennessee, for their three year increase, in the Value Added Assessment Scores. They placed 16, out of 1300 schools, in the State of Tennessee, while Clairfield Elementary School placed 21, out of the 1300 schools in the State. The Value Added Assessment is another method the State uses to evaluate the progress of each school and how well they advance each child from one year to the next. For the four years they have been giving these awards, so far a Claiborne County School has been awarded. In fact, it appears Forge Ridge and Clairfield are taking turns, since they have both won twice. Mr. Marty Cosby, the Principal at Forge Ridge Elementary School, will travel to Nashville May 4, 2009 to be presented with the award. School Board member, Dave Chesney, thanked all of the principals for the wonderful job they do.
The board is looking into the possibility of cutting bus routes for the next school year. Apparently all of the buses are not filled to capacity. They will look at the whole county and decide if routes can be combined or eliminated. The need of the each route will be addressed and the proper guidelines complied. The board hopes to have all of the decisions made before the close of this school year and they will notify parents immediately of any changes affecting their child.
The approval was needed from the board to submit the “No Child Left Behind Consolidated Application” for the 2009-2010 school year. The application is standard and necessary to receive the funds available. The Competitive Foods Policy Statement was approved by the board to be implemented in the schools. It will replace the existing policy and outlines what can be sold to children on school premises from the beginning of the day until after the last lunch period. It complies with Tennessee State Board of Education Rules for Food Sold or Offered for Sale in Schools.
The board approved Dr. Shoffner’s recommendation that the Extended Contract Administrator Monies be utilized in the schools for the children, instead of being a flow through money.
Due to low enrollment, the following positions will be abolished: The band at Claiborne and Cumberland Gap High School and the Business Tech at Cumberland Gap High School. While these are positions the board wanted to keep, the low enrollment forced them to reconsider.
Several resolutions were approved to amend the General Purpose Budget. According to the government accounting standards, the GASB 45 had to be adopted. It is an accounting document set up for retirement and insurance monies. The board was also informed of an amendment to the school calendar for the 2009-2010 school year.
The school board will be having a workshop April 23, 2009 at 6:00pm at the Central Office. Everyone is welcome to attend.
From http://www.edarticle.com/k-12-subject-areas/the-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education-to-children.html
By Edward Droscher
Music is a very powerful subject - It has been used since the Greek times for healing, communication, relaxation and for enjoyment. Even before birth we are aware of our mother’s heartbeat and during infancy are relaxed by the song of a lullaby. Every day everybody hears some form of musical pitch or rhythm and it can even be found in nature such as how birds communicate through a song-like speech.
Music is such a powerful force, it creates deep emotions in humans - it is played at weddings for happiness, in horror films and during war for fear and at home for happiness and because of this lends itself to relaxation, stress relief and health therapy - and the connection between music, body, and soul has even been shown to improve physical and mental health.
Skills such as working in teams, communication, self-esteem, creative thinking, calmer attitudes, imagination, discipline, study skills and invention are learnt and improved through the study of music and by focusing on the fact that young children are mostly highly receptive to pitch and rhythm - one of the main ways a child learns its language - that we can drive education in music to children to help them with benefits ranging success in society and in life.
“We believe the skills the arts teach -creative thinking, problem-solving, risk-taking, teamwork and communications - are precisely the tools the workforce of tomorrow will need. If we don't encourage students to master these skills through quality arts instruction today, how can we ever expect them to succeed in their highly competitive business careers tomorrow?" -Richard Gurin, Chief Executive Officer, Binney and Smith, maker of Crayola crayons
Music is a part of our society and a part of all communities - every human culture uses music to carry forward its ideas and ideals. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to developing greed and a selfish attitude, provides bridges across different cultures that lead to a respect of other races at an early age.
Music has a great value to our economy - it creates jobs, increase's tax base, boosts tourism and spurs growth in related businesses. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace such as teamwork skills and discipline - during musical performances all members must work together to create the sounds they wish to achieve and for this regular practice is also required. Music favors working and ‘doing’ as opposed to observing, and these are the ethics employers are looking for.
Because of music's ability to relax, calm and heal, and its optimal platform for emotions, the involvement with music helps to carve brighter attitudes - more optimism towards the future, less TV and non productive activities, low use of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs and desire to develop individual abilities.
Music requires study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills and as these are learnt and developed they expand the student’s abilities in other academic areas and help them become better students. - Students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation. — College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College
Entrance Examination Board, 2001.
The discipline of music, particularly through participation in ensembles, helps students learn to work effectively in the school environment without resorting to violent or inappropriate behavior - According to statistics compiled by the National Data Resource Center, students who can be classified as “disruptive” (based on factors such as frequent skipping of classes, times in trouble, in-school suspensions, disciplinary reasons given, arrests, and drop-outs) total 12.14 percent of the total school population. In contrast, only 8.08 percent of students involved in music classes meet the same criteria as “disruptive.” — Based on data from the NELS:88 (National Education Longitudinal Study), second follow-up, 1992..
Many studies have been conducted on the effects of music in the brain. Scientists say that children who are exposed to music or those who play an instrument do better in school than those who don't. Recent research suggests exposure to music may benefit a child's reading age, IQ and the development of certain parts of the brain.
It can be shown that some measures of a child’s intelligence are increased with music instruction - a connection between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things) helps people to visualize and imagine solutions. This helps people to solve problems creatively and is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for solving mathematical problems and even general daily tasks.
“The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling--training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attention skills, intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression.” — Ratey John J., MD. A User’s Guide to the Brain. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.
Along with mental development music study can support the brains physical development - it has been indicated that musical training physically develops the parts of the brain known to be involved with processing language and reasoning, and can actually wire the brain's circuits in specific ways. Memory can be improved through the linking of familiar songs with objects just as linking images can - past memories and emotions can be triggered by audio.
"Why arts in education? Why education at all? The purpose of education is not simply to inform but to enrich and enlighten, to provide insights into life as it has been led and as it may be led. No element of the curriculum is better suited to that task than arts education." -David Kearns
Now retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation
Ideally we want our children to experience “success” throughout life itself. The benefits may be psychological, spiritual and physical and with the challenge of making life meaningful and fulfilled and to reach a higher state of development by participating in music we develop self expression which in turn leads to self esteem – ultimately helping us to succeed at these challenges.
“Casals says music fills him with the wonder of life and the ‘incredible marvel’ of being a human. Ives says it expands his mind and challenges him to be a true individual. Bernstein says it is enriching and ennobling. To me, that sounds like a good cause for making music an integral part of every child’s education. Studying music and the arts elevates children’s education, expands students’ horizons, and teaches them to appreciate the wonder of life.” — U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, July 1999.
Conclusion
Music is a powerful tool and as seen can dramatically improve and enrich everybody. It makes sense to push music education and to allow young generations to gain these wonderful benefits - higher intelligence through increased creative thinking, problem solving and physically stronger brains, a higher perception of life including better attitudes, strong desires to achieve and fulfil and higher self esteem, better developed discipline, study skills, concentration, communication and team skills which transfer from education through to career and a better understanding of communities and society.
http://www.comptroller1.state.tn.us/repository/ca/2008/claiborne.pdf
Start on page 175 for the details of where the money goes.
Help the school board find ways to save money.
What are they spending on the band program?
What are the parents and boosters spending on the program?
Why music in our schools is important.
Top 10 from www.childrensmusicworkshop.com
1. Surveys show that a majority of parents believes the arts are as important as reading, writing, math, science, history, or geography. Most parents want their children to have more experience with the arts than they had when they were young.
- Louis Harris, Americans and the Arts VI, 1992.
2. Students in two Rhode Island elementary schools who were given an enriched, sequential, skill-building music program showed marked improvement in reading and math skills. Students in the music program who had started out behind the control group achieved statistical equality in reading and pulled ahead in math.
Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey, and Knowles, Nature, May 23, 1996.
3. Over nine in ten adults (93%) surveyed agree that music is part of a well-rounded education.
- Americans’ Attitudes Toward Music, The Gallup Organization, 1997.
4. The Kettle Moraine school district in Wales, Wisconsin is requiring piano lessons for all K-5 pupils after seeing encouraging results from a district pilot program. District officials based their pilot program on research findings that show music training - specifically piano instruction - is far superior to computer instruction in enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills.
- Karen Abercrombie, Education Week, October 14, 1998.
5. The arts are recognized as a core subject in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act approved by both houses of Congress in 1994.
- National Education Goals Panel.
6. A two-year Swiss study involving 1,200 children in 50 schools showed that students involved in the music program were better at languages, learned to read more easily, showed an improved social climate, demonstrated more enjoyment in school, and had a lower stress level than non-music students.
- E.W. Weber, M. Spychiger, and J.L. Patry, 1993.
7. Research shows when the arts are included in a student’s curriculum, reading, writing, and math scores improve.
- J. Buchen Milley, A. Oderlund, and J. Mortarotti, “The Arts: An Essential Ingredient in Education,” The California Council of the Fine Arts Deans.
8. The College Board identifies the arts as one of the six basic academic subject areas students should study in order to succeed in college.
- Academic Preparation for College: What Students Should Know and Be Able to Do, The College Board.
9. When researchers analyzed the NELS:88 database of the U.S. Department of Education, which tracked 25,000 students over a ten-year period, they discovered that students who were involved in music scored higher on standardized tests and reading tests than students not taking music courses. This finding was consistent for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997.
10. School districts with strong arts education programs report that superintendents and school principals who collectively support and regularly articulate a vision for arts education are critically important to the successful implementation and stability of district arts education policies.
Gaining the Arts Advantage, The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, 1999
http://www.whymusic.org
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/parents/yourchild/...
http://www.mca.org.au/mpfl/Kit2.pdf
http://school.familyeducation.com/music/intel...
http://www.supportmusic.com/
http://www.vh1.com/partners/save_the_music/in...
http://www.amc-music.com/research_briefs.htm
Below are just a few websites on the subject of The benefits of high paid school administrators.
Wow didn’t find any, only the benefits some administrators have (county paid BlackBerries, cell phones, cars, vacation days, meals……..)