It could have been a regular Tuesday morning in Ms. Rivas' kindergarten class, with writing and reading centers. But today, the class is introduced to a live performance of American music. A woodwind quintet composed of students from the University of Arizona plays a lively piece by Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag.

"Listen to see which of the quintet members play the melody the most," asks Christa Robinson, the oboe player. "Can you find which instrument plays a solo? Who knows what a solo is?"

Most hands are raised, and several children give the right answer. A tune by George Gershwin, I Got Rhythm, follows.

"This time, listen to hear which of us gets to play the bass line, or the bottom sounds, under the melody. Here is a hint. This is the melody (the flute plays the melody). The bass line will not sound like that."

What is happening in this classroom is not just an entertaining music session for the children. This is part of a thoroughly conceived project aimed at infusing fine arts and music into the academic curriculum. The expected result: proving that integrated arts can effectively enhance children's ability to learn.

From an Idea to a Curriculum Entitled
Entitled Opening Minds through the Arts (OMA), the research project is based on an experimental program run in 1993 in North Carolina. Peter Perret, the music director of the Winston-Salem Piedmont Triad Symphony, started an ensemble-in-residency program with Bolton Elementary School, located in a poor school area. His goal was to investigate the connections between music and thinking abilities. Results compiled after the three-year experiment show a significant increase in children's reading and math competencies.

With initial funding from arts advocate Eugene Jones, a team of educators in Tucson, Arizona visited the Bolton school in Winston-Salem and designed a similar model to be applied to Tucson Unified School District. As the second largest school district in Arizona, Tucson serves many "at risk" students. Arizona, including Pima County where Tucson is located, has consistently scored below the national average. A report card compiled by the magazine Education Week shows that Arizona fourth grade students score poorly in math, with only 17 percent of students at or above proficient level and 42 percent below basic level. Only 22 percent of students scored proficient or above in science and reading.

The OMA project team targeted three inner-city elementary schools grade K-5 to introduce their creative program: Peter Howell, Corbett and Lynn-Urquides. All three schools have a very high percentage of minority students (Hispanics representing 40 to 96 percent; African-Americans 7 to 11 percent, Native Americans 1 to 4 percent); a majority of students living in poverty, as indicated by an average of 80 percent of students on free and reduced lunch; students scoring consistently below the mean on the national Stanford 9 test; and a high percentage of second-language learners.

The OMA team, directed by Dr. Joan Ashcraft, assistant director of curriculum for the school district, sought help from the community and gathered resources through the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the University of Arizona School of Music and Dance and the Arizona Opera Company. They put together a comprehensive plan, which was initiated in the year 2000-2001.

Unlike the Bolton project, OMA was intended to tie directly with the curriculum and to introduce music concepts to children at an early age. Music experiences were developed for each grade level. For example, the focus in kindergarten is on auditory acuity. Students are exposed to music for half-an-hour, twice a week. Literature and historical data enhance the musical experience. The first grade program concentrates on language acquisition and literacy development. Students are expected to perform original operas. Second graders explore creative movement and its relation to music with dance specialists. Third graders learn to play the recorder, while fourth graders learn to play violin, receiving music instruction twice a week by certified music teachers. All fifth graders play an instrument in the band or orchestra and compose, direct, stage and perform an original opera.

The Science Behind OMA
To come up with an innovative approach, OMA researchers designed their project around the latest theories in children's neurological development. One of the most famous theories—dubbed the "Mozart effect"—suggests that "music makes you smarter." It refers to a study showing that college students performed better on a spatial reasoning test, where students were asked to visualize paper folding and cutting task, after listening to Mozart. Experts in the field note that the study was limited in its scope and that it may be inappropriate to apply these findings to the musical education of children.

Nevertheless, the study of the brain and music has generated a lot of excitement within the scientific and musical communities and optimism about future discoveries. Early results compiled on the OMA project by Dr. Robert Cutietta, director of the University of Arizona music and dance department, are similar to the findings of the researchers who used Mozart. It shows that OMA students score significantly higher in pictures, forms and words testing than non-OMA children. The assessment study showed another significant difference in aural perception (perception received by the sense of hearing) between the two student populations tested. OMA students showed a better disposition to listen and identify differences in musical phrases.

The study also looked at whether the OMA project had influenced children's artistic identity and their attitude toward school. Results show that boys generally tend to identify with being a musician "when they grow up," implying that the OMA musicians act as role models for the students. The test did not prove that OMA students were having a significantly different attitude toward school compared to students in the comparison schools. Dr. Cutietta notes that these results are preliminary and more testing needs to be done in order to insure the thoroughness of the study.

In the long term, the program's goal is to enhance students' achievement through music. Music instruction is expected to forge connections between the different disciplines and make them more meaningful to the students.

"Music is connected to the real world. It is not separated or segregated. It makes the world more beautiful and meaningful for children," says Howell Elementary School Principal Jan Vesely.

To ensure a full immersion in the world of music, speakers were set up in the hallway of two of the OMA schools, playing classical music all day long. "In doing so, we are hoping to set a calm and supportive environment for the children at school," remarks Dr. Jane Klipp, coordinator of OMA. She says that the hallway music put the children in a different emotional state.

Klipp spends a lot of time between the three schools observing and measuring changes. She says that she has witnessed dramatic improvements in students qualified at risk and emphasizes that the project has the potential "to change a child's life."

Sources

• "Opening Minds Through the Arts, Nurturing Personal and Academic Excellence through the Arts in Tucson, Arizona," a grant submitted to the U.S. Department of Education and prepared by Dr. Joan Ashcraft, Jan Vesely, Nancy Landes, July 16, 2001.

• "Opening Minds through the Arts 2001 Assessment," prepared by Dr. Robert Cutietta and Lorraine Dow, August 27, 2001.

• "Does Music Make you Smarter?" by Steven M. Demorest and Steven J. Morrison, Music Educators Journal, Sept. 2000, p33-39.

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  Virginie Kippelen is a freelance writer living in Tucson, Arizona.