Music Education Opportunities in Ohio K–12 Public and Charter Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine which Ohio schools offered curricular music courses and the rates at which students participated in those courses. The analysis involved descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, logistic regression, and partially nested multilevel modeling using data from the Ohio Department of Education ( N = 3,222 schools). The investigation revealed that charter schools offered music courses far less often than public schools. However, in charter schools that did offer music, students participated at higher rates than those in public schools. Nearly all public schools featured music classes. The exception was high schools in the highest poverty urban neighborhoods, 31% of which had no curricular music. Students identified as Black, Hispanic, or indigenous were more likely to attend schools without music programs. Elementary students enrolled in an average of 1.00 music classes per year, whereas middle and high school students enrolled in 0.67 and 0.35 music classes per year, respectively. Suburban districts saw the greatest decline in music participation as students progressed to high school. Urban schools with greater percentages of white, non-Hispanic students had higher music enrollment rates.