Music should not be removed from schools on the strength of claims that it fails to raise test scores. The evidence does not establish that music classes reliably improve achievement in unrelated subjects, but that is not the only reason to teach music. The better question is whether a school’s program is accessible, well taught, culturally inclusive, and worth the instructional time it uses.
What does “should not be taught” mean?
The title’s categorical claim goes further than the available evidence. In the United States, federal education guidance includes music and other arts in a well-rounded education. That is a policy context, not a requirement that every school provide an identical course or proof that every existing program is effective.
The argument becomes clearer when two different cases for music are separated:
- Music as an educational end: students learn musical ideas, practices, expression, and cultural traditions. Whether schools should value that learning is a curricular judgment, not something test scores alone can settle.
- Music as a means to other outcomes: advocates may claim music instruction improves grades or achievement in unrelated subjects. Those are empirical claims and should be judged by evidence specific to the program and outcome.
The U.S. Department of Education says the ESEA, as amended by ESSA, includes “music and the arts (dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts)” among subjects that provide a well-rounded education. The Department also notes that states and local districts have discretion in defining and supporting that education. U.S. Department of Education: ED Arts Education Resources
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Does music education improve academic achievement?
It should not be promised as a dependable shortcut to higher grades or test scores. A 2018 American Institutes for Research review identified 88 arts education interventions eligible under ESSA evidence-based criteria. That is an arts-wide count, not 88 music programs; the interventions appeared across evidence tiers, most often Tier IV, the lowest tier in the review’s classification. The review also recorded more than 10 ESSA funding opportunities potentially usable for arts education at that time; that report-era figure is not current funding guidance. ERIC record: Arts Education and ESSA: A Comprehensive Guide and Plan
Evidence tiers are not a simple ranking of whether an idea is good or bad. The Institute of Education Sciences explains that they take account of study rigor and statistical significance, sample size, number of sites, and how closely the study’s participants and setting resemble the places where an intervention might be used. A result from one program or district therefore cannot automatically answer what will happen in another. Institute of Education Sciences: ESSA Evidence Tiers
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A 2024 evaluation record for the Turnaround Arts pilot reports no statistically significant effects on achievement measures. That is a useful caution against broad promises of academic gains, but it concerns one initiative and does not measure every possible musical or cultural benefit of music education. Institute of Education Sciences: Turnaround Arts evaluation
Conversely, an Arts Education Partnership publication from 2011 makes an affirmative case for music’s potential contributions to learning, academic achievement, creativity, and lifelong capacities. It represents a pro-music position, but its broad claims should be read alongside evidence reviews and evaluations that examine particular programs and outcomes. Arts Education Partnership resources
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Time is a real trade-off, but the evidence cited here does not show that music instruction necessarily damages performance elsewhere. A 2011 single-district study followed 353 eighth-grade students: 61 band students received weekly pullout lessons, while 292 students were not in band. The study record found no significant academic disadvantage associated with the lessons in that setting. It does not prove that pullout instruction has no cost in every school, schedule, or student population. ERIC record: Hash, 2011, study of band pullout lessons
Schools should ask what students miss, how instruction is scheduled, and whether the answer applies to the students affected. A finding from one suburban district is not a universal scheduling rule.
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When should schools rethink a music program?
The strongest case for reform is not that music has no place in school; it is that a program can be poorly designed, unfairly accessible, or defended with promises its evidence cannot support. Families and school leaders can assess a proposal with these questions:
- Purpose: Is the program intended to teach musical literacy and expression, cultural learning, academic spillover, or a combination? Are its stated aims realistic?
- Access: Which students can participate? Do scheduling conflicts, fees, prerequisites, or limited places exclude some students?
- Instructional quality: Are instructors prepared to teach the intended material? Do students get meaningful instruction rather than merely occupying a slot or rehearsing without clear learning goals?
- Cultural relevance: Does the repertoire and curriculum represent a breadth of musical traditions and whose knowledge is treated as worth learning?
- Opportunity cost: What class time is displaced, and is there evidence relevant to this schedule and student group?
- Evidence quality: What outcome was measured, how rigorous was the study, and does it support a causal claim—or only an association?
What the evidence cannot settle
The cited material is U.S.-centered and does not establish an international consensus or provide a current state-by-state survey of music requirements. Federal recognition of music as part of a well-rounded education does not settle what any particular state mandates, what a local school offers, or how a program should be funded.
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Nor does the evidence establish a single net value for making music compulsory in every school. That judgment depends partly on educational priorities—whether musical learning itself belongs in a broad education—and partly on local facts about access, teaching quality, curriculum, and time. Academic spillover should be assessed carefully, not treated as the only legitimate measure of a music class.
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