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A joint effort of Metro Nashville Public Schools, the Mayor’s office and music industry and community leaders, the Music Makes Us® initiative aspires to be a national model for music education. With a focus on music literacy and student participation, Music Makes Us® is strengthening traditional school music while adding a contemporary curriculum that embraces new technologies and reflects our diverse student population.
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The vision of Music Makes Us® is for all Kindergarten through Grade 12 students in MNPS to have access to high quality traditional and/or contemporary music instruction that is standards-based and sequential, taught by highly qualified music educators and enhanced by a network of music professionals, music industry and community based organizations from the Nashville community and beyond.
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Since its launch in 2012, the initiative restored band at all 33 middle schools, created new choral programs in 10 middle schools, established 45 new classes in 18 schools in mariachi, rock band, world percussion, country/bluegrass, songwriting and hip hop and launched an online hub to connect Nashville music professionals with teachers.
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The CMA Foundation enabled the purchase of over 9,000 instruments through a decade-long investment in
Metro Schools, facilitating greater participation in music classes and now impacting teacher education. Music industry partners continue to lead the way with the launch of a state-of-the-art recording studio and studentrun record label in a local high school.
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The 2013 research study, Prelude: Music Makes Us Baseline Research Report , established a strong affirmation for music education in Metro Nashville Public Schools. The study finds a strong correlation between participation in music and positive impact on attendance, ACT, GPA, discipline referrals, graduation rate and student engagement.
For more information:
Laurie T. Schell
Director, Music Makes Us®
Laurie.schell@mnps.org
615.259.8770 direct
Connect with Music Makes Us® online: http://musicmakesus.org https://www.facebook.com/musicmakesusmnps https://twitter.com/MMUNashville