Taking a Look at Music Education and the Achievement Gap

Nina Kraus. Photo courtesy of Dr. Kraus.

Music has a profound effect on the human brain. Listening to music can bring about a deep emotional response and affect our mood and sense of well-being. But , what I find really compelling is the effect on the brain that making music has. Research in the past couple decades on the musician’s brain has found pervasive effects on brain anatomy---enhancements in auditory and motor centers, increases in gray matter in sensory-motor areas, increases in white matter in the internal capsule and corpus collosum, and increased cerebellar volume. There likewise are increases in brain function, such as a greater activation of left-hand-related motor areas in string musicians, corresponding to the more intricate demands placed on the left (fingering) versus right (bowing) hand. Even more exciting to me are the real-life outcomes of musicianship. Musicians have better auditory working memory and attention, for example. They also are better able to follow conversations in loud background noise. Interestingly, these advantages persist, even years after music training has stopped. And---something of great interest to me---there is a distinct link between rhythmic ability and reading skills. Most of the research on the effects of musical experience has been carried out on individuals who have received one-on-one private instruction. Moreover, these individuals have not been followed longitudinally. What about music education in school-based group settings? What are the biological and educational outcomes? With in-school music programs being slashed for budgetary reasons worldwide, I worry that children are missing out on an opportunity to improve their communication skills, their literacy, and their brains. And in particular, at-risk children---those who need all the academic help they can get---are those whose families are least likely to have the means to engage in private music instruction and must rely on the public schools. However, compared to private one-on-one lessons, in-school classroom music instruction is a different beast. Does this type of music instruction confer the same sorts of benefits as private instruction? The answer to this question represents a huge gap in our understanding of the musician brain, and it could have far-reaching public policy implications. One barrier to answering this question is that a research program to address it is an enormous undertaking. First, researchers must gain the trust of school administrators and access to a vulnerable population. Next, to assess whether meaningful improvements in communication and literacy skills have arisen, and determine the impact on the nervous system, students must be followed longitudinally over the course of a number of years of music instruction. And appropriate control groups must be in place. Happily, I have the privilege of running two such research programs that have managed to tick all of these boxes. These programs, one in Chicago and one in Los Angeles, are studying school-based musical instrument instruction in at-risk high-schoolers and elementary-school-age children, respectively. In Chicago, students attend either music classes or an ROTC program, and in Los Angeles, as part of the Presidential award-winning Harmony Project, young children are either enrolled in music classes or are on waiting lists to get into music classes. Thus in both cohorts, there is a crucial equivalency of motivation and engagement between the music-trained and the control groups. These two studies are still in progress, but results are beginning to come in and there are some very encouraging findings. For example, there is a well-known decline in reading skills among at-risk children in impoverished neighborhoods---resulting in an ever-increasing achievement gap. In our study cohorts, we have observed evidence of this decline in our control non-musically-trained children. But the children in music classes are holding their own in reading skills. In particular, the gains in literacy appear to be linked particularly to gains in rhythm skills among musically trained children. They also have improved abilities to hear speech in noise, an especially important skill to hone in a noisy classroom environment. To understand the biological underpinnings of these findings, we measure objective biological brain responses to speech each year as the children progress through the grades. Our measure, which is an iron-clad accurate gauge of global processing of auditory information, is highly reliable and replicable in individuals, yet experience-dependent, allowing a careful examination of the brain’s plasticity. With this measure, we are finding an increase in the precision of the response, especially when the sounds are masked by background noise, indicating a more efficient brain. Although results are preliminary and studies are ongoing, I am encouraged by these early outcomes. It seems that music instruction has the power to reduce the academic gap that exists between poor children and their more privileged peers. And, it showcases music’s ability to alter the nervous system, affecting brain circuitry and building better learners. Want to learn more about the links between neuroscience and music education? Register for our free #NEATaskForce webinar with Nina Kraus, Margaret Martin of Harmony Project, Jerry Kyle of the U.S. Department of Education, and NEA Research Director Sunil Iyengar.