National Music Education Award Bestowed Upon West Morris Regional

The West Morris Regional School District has once again been acknowledged for music education program is one of the nation's best.

The National Association of Music Merchants Foundation recently named its 2022 Best Communities for Music Education.

Among the 738 school districts chosen by the foundation was the West Morris Regional School District.

The award program recognizes outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students and community leaders who have made music education part of a well-rounded education. Designations are made to districts and schools that demonstrate an exceptionally high commitment and access to music education.

To qualify for the Best Communities designation, the District answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, community music-making programs and more. Responses were verified with school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.

According to The NAMM Foundation, research into music education continues to demonstrate educational/cognitive and social skill benefits for children who study music.

After two years of music education, research found that participants showed more substantial improvements in how the brain processes speech and reading scores than less-involved peers and that students who are involved in music are not only more likely to graduate high school, but are also more likely to attend college as well.

Everyday listening skills are stronger in musically-trained children than in those without music training.

Significantly, listening skills are closely tied to the ability to perceive speech in a noisy background, pay attention and keep sounds in memory. Later in life, individuals who took music lessons as children show stronger neural processing of sound; and young adults and even older adults who have not played an instrument for up to 50 years show enhanced neural processing compared to their peers.

There are also noted social benefits including conflict resolution, teamwork skills and how to give and receive constructive criticism.

The West Morris Regional High School District was established in 1958, and is one of the Nation's premier International Baccalaureate (IB) high school districts. Mendham High School serves the communities of Mendham Township, Mendham Borough, Chester Township, and Chester Borough. Central High School serves residents of Washington Township. In addition to being one of only 433 districts in the nation named to the College Board's Advanced Placement Honor Roll, West Morris Regional is also New Jersey's only district authorized to award both the IB Diploma and the Career-related certificate.