shortchange them in the one resource they most need to reach their potential—high-quality teachers. Unfortunately, rather than organizing our educational system to pair these children with our most expert teachers, who can help “catch them up” with their more advantaged peers, we actually do just the opposite. The very children who most need strong teachers are assigned, on average, to teachers with less experience, less education, and less skills than those who teach other children. Regardless of how teacher quality is measured, poor and minority children get fewer than their fair share of high-quality teachers (pp. 1-2). These researchers also compared


teacher quality between some urban and non- urban schools. Results indicated that 34% of students at urban schools as compared to 19% of students in non-urban schools were taught by “out-of-field” teachers. This corroborated research with teachers in Tennessee, Texas, Massachusetts, and Alabama, which determined the effects of teacher quality on student academic learning (Institute of Education Sciences, 2012). Results included that effective teachers (those in the top quartile) covered approximately 150 percent of the required curriculum, where as, non- effective teachers (those in the bottom quartile) covered only 50 percent of the required curriculum. The cumulative impact over multiple years indicated that students who had three consecutive years of highly effective teachers improved test scores by 21 percentile points, while students with three years of non-effective teachers fell by 30 points behind. Transfer to Music Education: Although


there are no nationally based standardize tests in music education, “gaps” or differences tend to exist among music students of urban and non-urban schools. Similar to general education, such gaps in music education are a result of a lack of student access to quality music education curricula and quality music teaching. Also, there are substantial gaps in the quality of resources (i.e., instruments, facilities, etc.).


Another music education


“gap” includes the perception of the quality of formal and informal musical experiences students encounter outside school. Although many urban students may have an extensive amount of informal music experiences (i.e., church, community groups, make shift studios), our profession continues to place


40


more value on more formal music experiences (i.e., lessons, etc.). This gap actually becomes a barrier and oftentimes eliminates students’ access to broader music experiences. The Teacher Shortage and Chronic Teacher Mobility The “teacher shortage” has become century


a significant part of the 21st


educational landscape and it has generated some of greatest challenges American public schools have ever encountered. In one national study of all schools, the researcher discovered that approximately 535,000 teachers were hired one year and the following year, approximately 546,200 departed, indicated that more teachers left the profession each year than remain, creating a critical shortage of teacher for vacant positions (Ingorsall, 2003). All schools— rural, suburban, and urban—experience varying degrees of teacher shortages; however, urban schools are the most severely affected by the teacher shortage (Howard, 2003). Frank (2003) states, “while one school experiences a teacher shortage another school just miles away may have a perennial waiting list of potential candidates. Although both are in essence drawing from the same labor pool, one school is simply more desirable as a place of employment” (p. 3). According to the Council of the Greater City Schools (2013), out of necessity to fill vacancies, approximately 80% of urban districts hire noncertified teachers, 60% hire teachers with emergency permits and 60% hire long-term substitutes each year; approximately 12% of new teachers hired in urban districts each year entered the classroom without any professional training in education at all (Howard, 2003).


Another problem urban districts encounter in addition to not having enough teachers is teacher mobility. Mobility occurs when teachers transition from school to school (Hancock, 2009). There are several repercussions as a result of voluminous teacher turnover, including disruption of cohesiveness and effectiveness of school communities, the interruption of educational programs, and a negative impact on professional relationships (Elfers, Plecki, & Knapp, 2006). The most detrimental consequence is the disruption of cohesive instruction each time a student encounters a new teacher. “A class of predominately African-American students has a 50% chance of having two or more teachers each year” during their public school academic experience (Haberman Foundation, Inc., 2009).


The continual change of teachers


combined with the social, emotional, and personal challenges urban students typically must endure makes successful academic attainment nearly impossible. Haycock (1998) suggests that this continual change of teachers generates a “compounding effect” in which the learning gap expands as student progress through school, making consistent academic development is nearly impossible. Transfer to Music Education: There are


many talented music teachers dedicated to teaching in urban schools. However, due to the shortage of music teachers in large, urban districts, there is typically a reliance on less experienced teachers to fill vacancies. Each time a general music, choral, or band program employs a new music teacher, a disruption occurs in the cohesive learning of music for those students. When students experience chronic teacher turnover year after year, they are not able to obtain consistent, systemic music training and instruction; making consistent music development nearly impossible.


“Urban” and stigmatization In most contexts, the word “urban”


is used positively and creates images of hope and social prosperity. “Urban living” is innovative and contemporary; “urban sprawl” indicates growth, development, and expansion; “urban wear” is cool, hip, and creative; “urban” legends are modern, mystifying, and exhilarating. Sadly, when the word “urban” is used in the context of education, the word often references a deficit, despair, and social hopelessness. The official definition of urban is


“of, relating to, or designating a city.” The U.S. Census Bureau (2014) defines the classification of urban areas to “densely settled territory that meet minimum population density requirements with at least 1,000 people per square mile; urban counties are those with populations of 200,000 or more people.” Therefore, urban should not be used to describe the general population of students that attend such schools; urban should merely refer to the geographic location in which the schools are located. Due to locations being in large metropolitan areas, urban schools educate a large percentage of the overall U.S. student population. There are approximately 18,000 public school districts that educate 64 million students in the United States. Of these, 100 of the largest urban districts educate 14 million of these students each year. In essence, less than 0.6 percent of the schools in country educates more than one- third of the total US student population.


May/June 2015


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