This is a personal project dedicated to the advocacy of music education. There are a lot of scattered resources and collections out there, but none that I feel are comprehensive or organized in a way that is helpful and easy to navigate. I have taken the resources that I have found over the years, then sorted them out so that anybody looking for music education advocacy has organized, strong and accessible information regardless of what angle of the debate one is trying to target.
As the research and social discourse continues, there is no doubt that an education in music and the arts is invaluable to the experience and development of the whole student. Unfortunately, music often continues to be placed on the fringe of importance and underprioritized when big decisions are required and sacrifices are made.
This site is an evolving collection of resources for the music teacher, administrator or advocate to help access supporting information, organize thoughts, choose a target audience by focusing on a particular element of the larger debate, and ultimately state a strong and specific case for creativity and how it benefits students. Individuals simply interested in more information on the value of music education in our schools are also encouraged to join us.
Each page covers a different area of discussion with relevant articles, infographics and other resources. Ultimately, this site is intended to be a central resource of advocacy materials from around the web that are simple yet effective, informative and powerful. More will be added as they are found. This collection does not contain all resources but rather what I consider to be some of the best resources on the topic.
This is not a compilation of information for music program recruitment or retention, but simply for advocacy. In my experience of searching to resources on music education advocacy, there is a lot of information out there, but it is often of mixed quality and sometimes too overwhelming to sort through and process. The resources compiled here are a result of years of collection and sorting. They are not links to broad websites, but rather to specific pages and key information sorted into different categories of the debate to help you target your message depending on your audience and intent. While music should be shared and taught simply for the sake of music with no need to justify music's value in relation to other areas of importance, it is clear that a broad knowledge (and knowing how to most effectively promote to different audiences) is power in gaining support.
Please note that I am not an expert in music advocacy, but rather simply a music director with the belief that knowledge is power and that the more we know, the more solid we can make our case. This is a personal project of mine simply to help do some of the initial legwork for my colleagues and fellow advocates in your own quests. Also remember that in some cases, less is more and a few strong pieces make the case much more effectively than an overwhelming wave of information.
If you have any suggestions, comments or quality resources that you would like to see added, please drop a note on the Suggestions & Feedback page and let me know!