High School Students’ Attitudes Toward Competitive Marching Band: A Comparative Analysis Based Upon Contest Rankings

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative study was (a) to determine the extent to which secondary school students find educational and musical value in competitive marching band programs, and (b) to discover how contest rankings influence how students perceive these values. Participants (N = 439) included secondary school students from 11 different suburban public high schools located just outside the city of Chicago. All participants were competitive marching band members at their school who competed in at least one marching band competition in the state of Illinois between September and October of 2015. A Likert-type survey was distributed to participants during one of their regularly scheduled band classes and administered by the researcher. The survey instrument consisted of 50 statements relating to eight different constructs based on themes found in previous literature, and concluded with four demographic questions. Participants were categorized into three groups (i.e., minimally successful, moderately successful, highly successful) based on their marching band’s win percentage at every competition during the 2015 marching band season prior to data analysis. A chi-square test of independence was conducted on each survey item to determine if any significant (p ≤ .05) differences existed between how each category of participants responded to the survey. Of the 50 survey items, 35 produced statistically significant results, indicating that high school students’ perspectives of competitive marching band are influenced by their success in competition as determined by contest rankings.