Music in middle school math: Educators cautious of proposed state bill to incorporate mixed disciplines

WUFT | By Marta Zherukha | February 12, 2024

A state bill may run into problems when trying to incorporate music education into middle school math classes.

“In the same way that some people may not be math people, math teachers may not be music people,” said Chris Curran, director of the Education Policy Research Center at the University of Florida’s College of Education.

A new Florida Senate bill proposes a trial program to adopt music-based supplements to support math classes in middle schools. Alachua, Marion and Miami-Dade are the only counties eligible for the program as of Jan. 17. Middle schools would adopt the program July 1 and test it for two years until its end on June 30, 2026.

Ten elementary schools in Florida used a similar program, the Early Childhood Music Education Incentive Pilot Program, in kindergarten through second-grade classes. Participating school districts received $150 each for approximately 2,000 students in the program. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the elementary school version of the program into law last May.

Bridgette Wicke, a seventh and eighth grade math teacher at Westwood Middle School, said while the program may have worked in elementary schools, she’s unsure if a similar program would work for her students.

“We have so much to teach them,” she said. “I don’t think it would be as easy to implement.”

The new pilot program, Music-based Supplemental Content to Accelerate Learner Engagement and Success, or mSCALES, requires middle schools to undergo evaluation by the UF College of Education after a two-year trial period.

Anne Seraphine and David Miller, researchers at the university, investigated the outcome of the elementary school program. Their analysis noted that while students showed improvement in math scores, the program lacked a control group, so impact was difficult to determine.

Miller is the director of UF’s School of Human Development and Organizational Studies in Education. He said curriculum, attitudes and implementation methods were considered in their evaluation. He also said acceptance of the pilot program was an issue.

“It took some time to convince everybody we were there to help them out,” he said. “We had difficulty with permissions, and we had to convince teachers this was a worthwhile project.”

The analysis also found that parents of elementary school students were positive about the program, he said. They liked their kids learning math from music.

Curran and Miller both said it would be hard to convince politicians, teachers and parents the program is worth the money. Participating school districts would receive $6 per student enrolled in the mSCALES program.

“We have to ensure teachers have the training to implement this,” Curran said. “It’s less about the passing of a bill and more about doing this in a meaningful way.”

Jackie Johnson, director of communications for the Alachua County superintendent, said there’s not enough information in the bill to determine how effective implementation will be.

“Most teachers will tell you music has a way of engaging students and helping them retain materials,” Johnson said. “We’re always open to new ways of sharing content with students, but until we know how it’ll be implemented, it’s hard to predict.”

For a school district to participate in the mSCALES pilot program, its superintendent must contact the Department of Education.

Johnson said the Alachua County superintendent would be interested in reviewing the mSCALES curriculum and how it would fit in with the county’s STEM benchmarks.

“Many educators in our district have taken advantage of the power of music to help students learn and maintain skills,” she said. “Gloria Merriex, who is now deceased, taught at Duval [Elementary School] and was very much known for creating songs and using movement to teach kids about math concepts.”

She also pointed out that the current Teacher of the Year for Alachua County is a music teacher at Metcalfe Elementary School.

Curran said adding music education to STEM programs could increase student engagement and encourage them to care about math.

“Beyond the elements of music that can translate to math, like patterns, there is an opportunity to see kids’ excitement in math,” he said. “When you get to middle and high school, you start to see kids form their identities and declare themselves math people or not.”

He highlighted an EducationWeek survey that showed out of 90,000 high school students in the United States, less than half said their math work was often interesting, with 23 percent saying it never or rarely was. Students also said while “school math” is important to apply to colleges, “real math” is important in their futures.

“There’s been a push toward STEM for decades for good reason,” he said. “Economic competition, business needs and high-paying jobs are all important. But there’s also been a purposeful reintegration of arts to improve academic outcomes.”

Abigail Davenport, a kindergarten teacher at Littlewood Elementary School, said she thinks the program would be a good idea to raise student engagement and focus. Littlewood Elementary School was not one of the 10 chosen to implement the pilot program.

“Kids need all the help they can get in learning things,” she said. “Students would have more fun with math and be more willing to participate, especially students with behavior issues.”

The mSCALES bill was passed unanimously in the Florida Senate on Jan. 17, and it was found favorable by the Florida House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 8. It is now in fiscal policy.