Relationships Among High School Students’ Large Music Ensemble Enrollment and Academic Performance in Rural Public-School Systems in South Georgia

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the relationships between high school large music ensemble enrollment (band and/or choir) and academic achievement among public high school students in rural Georgia. The research questions were: (a) RQ1: Is there a statistically significant relationship between student enrollment in different types of high school large music ensembles (band or choir) and academic achievement?; (b) Is there a statistically significant relationship between student years of enrollment in high school large music ensembles (band and/or choir) and academic achievement?; (c) RQ3: Is there a statistically significant relationship between academic achievement and enrollment in high school large music ensembles (band and/or choir) when both ensemble types are included in the same model? I used an original, student-level dataset comprised of anonymized secondary data from eleven rural schools in South Georgia. The dataset included every student in those eleven schools (N = 2,981). High school large music ensemble (band and/or choir) enrollment was operationalized binarily (yes=1, no=0) for RQ1 and RQ3. High school large music ensemble (band and/or choir) enrollment was operationalized continuously as years of enrollment for RQ2. Academic performance was operationalized as GPA, ACT score, EOC grade, EOC American literature score, and EOC level. The results showed consistent statistically significant and positive relationships between enrollment in band and enrollment in both band and choir and academic performance. The results for enrollment in choir but not band were less consistent, with some statistically insignificant results, some statistically significant negative associations, and some statistically significant positive associations with academic performance. Practically, the results demonstrate that high school large music ensembles, specifically band, are associated with improved academic performance and could potentially be considered fundamental to general education in rural high schools in Georgia. Future research should account for omitted covariates such as previous music learning experience, nature of high school program variable bias and simultaneity bias.