Rye City School District Earns National Honor For Music Education

RYE, NY — For the second year in a row, Rye City Schools have received national recognition as a leader in music education from the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM).

The Rye City School District has been honored with the "Best Communities for Music Education" designation from The NAMM Foundation for its commitment to music education. Now in its 25th year, the Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement in providing music access and education to all students.

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, and community music-making programs. Responses were verified by school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.

"Music education plays an integral role in the development of our students. In addition to fostering academic skills like critical thinking, it promotes social growth through teamwork and collaboration," Music Department Coordinator Tyler Schwirian said. "This special designation reaffirms our commitment to providing music education that is inclusive and accessible for all of our students and celebrates the incredible work of our RCSD music faculty, who go above and beyond to create opportunities for our students to learn, create, and find joy in music."

District officials said that there are good reasons for music education to be a centerpiece of the curriculum. The district cited studies that confirmed music knowledge benefits students in unexpected ways throughout their lives.

After two years of music education, researchers found that participants showed more substantial improvements in how the brain processes speech and reading scores than their less-involved peers and that students who are involved in music are not only more likely to graduate high school but also to attend college as well. In addition, everyday listening skills are stronger in musically trained children than in those without music training. Significantly, listening skills are closely tied to perceiving speech in a noisy background, paying attention, and keeping sounds in memory.

Later in life, individuals who took music lessons as children show stronger neural processing of sound: 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. Social benefits include conflict resolution, teamwork skills, and how to give and receive constructive criticism.