Student Performance:

The College Entrance Examination Board found that students involved in public school music programs scored 107 points higher on the SAT’s than students with no participation.
-Profiles of SAT and Achievement Test Takers, The College Board, compiled by the Music Educators National Conference (2002)

According to a 2003 Gallup survey, 95 percent of Americans believe that music is a key component in a child’s well-rounded education.
– American Attitudes on Music, Music Making and Music Education, The Gallup Organization 2003

In spite of this public support and documented benefits, “only one in four eighth graders reported being asked to sing or play a music instrument at least once a week.”
-1998 NAEP Assessment

Life Skills:

Arts involvement teaches children many skills necessary to succeed in life, including problem solving and decision making, building self-confidence and self-discipline, the ability to imagine what might be and to accept responsibility for it, teamwork, the development of informed perception, and articulating a vision.
– Compiled from various research documents and reports

Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs).
– Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Houston Chronicle, January 11, 1998