August 8, 2020
By: Tyler Luginski
LAKELAND, Fla. – As school districts across the nation begin to release back-to-school guidance and plans for re-opening in the upcoming fall semester, questions surrounding the practicality as well as the health and safety of faculty and students in arts/music education programs are growing.
The challenges that music education faces amidst a global respiratory pandemic start at the very structure of traditional music programs.
“Music classes are always large: far bigger than your typical math class,” said James Weaver, Director of Performing Arts and Sports for the National Federation of State High School Associations. “An average size marching band in the United States is somewhere between 150 and 300 people. Choirs and orchestras are quite large. That’s the issue we have: all of our activities create large gatherings of people.”
The relative newness of the coronavirus and its potential implications further complicate the ease with which educators can determine the best course of action.
“It makes it very difficult because there’s a lot we don’t know about this particular virus and how it spreads and occurs,” Weaver said.
In conjunction with the National Association for Music Education, the National Federation of State High School Associations released a Fall 2020 guidance for K-12 schools and music educators.
“The 2020 Fall return guidance was developed to start a conversation with our teachers and our school administrators,” Weaver said. “We already know that the challenges are there: we need to make sure that people are being proactive in having those conversations.”
The guidance provides schools and educators with practical recommendations for returning to music education in three main formats: in-person instruction, hybrid instruction, and online instruction.
“We are still doing our standards-based education within the arts programs and allowing for students to continue their music education regardless of how the format looks,” Weaver said.
The National Federation of State High School Associations also developed a performing arts aerosol study with the objective of obtaining qualified scientific data to further inform best practices for health and safety within music education programs.
“We started a coalition that is now over 125 different organizations around the world that have come together to try to find what we can do to make sure that music performance and music education come back in the safest manner as possible,” Weaver said.
Preliminary results of the study have shown that adding certain preventative measures, such as face masks and proper social distancing guidelines, have proven effective in helping to mitigate potential risks in the classroom. Other measures include seating students in the same direction, providing teachers with portable amplifiers, outside rehearsals, and fitting classrooms with HEPA filters to increase air filtration.
“We’re hoping to provide directionality,” Weaver said. “We trust our music educators to take the ball and run with it.”
Polk County Schools have announced three learning format options for families to choose for the fall semester: campus learning (brick-and-mortar), campus eSchool (campus virtual school), and Polk Virtual (entirely online option).
While specifics have not been announced for music education, many of the policies and guidance suggested by the National Federation of State High School Associations can help to inform and empower music educators within the district.
“Everything with COVID has to be adjustable based on what the new science is saying,” Weaver said. “I have great faith in our music educators for being professional problem-solvers.”
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