Friday, May 2, 2003

Fulton County one of the "best places" for music education

The Fulton County School System has been recognized for a fourth consecutive year in a nationwide survey of public and private school programs that identify the top 100 places to live in America for quality music education.

The Top 100 list, which represents an annual snapshot of music education at its best, is based on a nationwide survey conducted earlier this year by The American Music Conference and several partner organizations in the fields of music and education.

The survey results show that successful music programs are to be found in communities that balance measurable resources, such as budgets and buildings, with less tangible assets such as the will to make quality music education a reality.

The top schools for music education are to be found in urban communities and rural ones, in wealthy areas and not-so-wealthy ones, but the common thread is that they benefit from the support of parents, teachers, school decision-makers and community leaders who value music education highly.

Thousands of public school and independent teachers, school and district administrators, school board members, parents and community leaders participated in the web-based survey earlier this year.

The participants answered detailed questions about funding, enrollment, student-teacher ratios, participation in music classes, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, participation in private music lessons and other factors in their communities' quality of music education.

The fourth annual survey was conducted jointly by the country's top organizations devoted to music and learning. The American Music Conference joined the Music Teachers National Association, the National School Boards Association, Yamaha Corporation of America and VH1 Save the Music Foundation in creating the survey and interpreting the results.