Mascoma Valley Regional School District to Implement New Fourth-Grade Band Program

Like many arts programs across the country, the Mascoma Valley Regional School District’s music education programs struggled post-COVID. With socioeconomic status imposing additional barriers to students, Mascoma’s arts programming participation dipped even further.

Amy Morse, who has worked as a music educator for the past 26 years, approached Superintendent Amanda Isabelle with hopes to rejuvenate the District’s programming.

As a result of their efforts, a new band program will be coming to fourth-grade students’ schedules this fall.

“We’re a rural district. It’s socioeconomically diverse. Some of our students live in poverty,” said Morse.

Morse noted that it was always the same families who could afford to rent instruments, pay for and get transportation to lessons after school. Due to these external factors, not every student had an equal opportunity to participate in music education. 

Music education, however, has been shown to improve a child’s brain development, emphasizing the importance of removing these barriers for students.

A study published in the American Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that children who learn a musical instrument experience an increase in cortical thickness, the measurement of the thickness of the brain’s outer layer. This part of the brain influences factors such as organizational skills, memory, attention span and emotional and impulse regulation.

Thanks to grant funding, Mascoma Valley is leveling the playing field for all fourth-graders at Canaan Elementary and Enfield Village School. 

The District partnered with Ellis Music of South Royalton, Vt., to purchase instruments for all Grade 4 students, who will participate in a new band program as part of their day-to-day school schedule. By having the program during the day, it eliminates the need for transportation to lessons after school hours.

The program will be at no cost to students and their families.

“I thought, ‘Why are we not giving every student the same set of tools?’ The science is there. Playing an instrument enhances math, it enhances social skills, recall is better, and verbal and written language is better. If we can give every kid an opportunity to bolster that learning, we should,” said Morse. “By making this part of the regular schedule, we’re saying: ‘We’re making this commitment to you.’ It’s gonna be fun, and it’s our hope that the students will be able to show growth immediately and that they’ll stick with it.”

The incoming fourth-graders have already selected their top three choices for instruments. They made their decisions through a combination of listening to demos, seeing and holding the instruments in person, and learning about the benefits of each choice.

Before school starts in August, the District plans to hold a “matching ceremony” where the students will discover which instrument they’ve been matched with.

High schoolers will take part in the ceremony by helping the fourth-graders set up their instruments for the first time.

Once matched, the students will be able to keep their instrument as they move through the District, until they decide to stop playing or until they graduate from high school. 

“Music is such a huge part of human culture,” Morse said. “Having the ability to make music is going to give these kids something that will follow them their whole lives.”

“We have high hopes for this program. Music education is incredibly important to the development of young minds and has been shown to improve teamwork and social skills, as well as academic areas. We are excited to watch these students take on something new,” said Superintendent Isabelle. “Thank you to Amy Morse and our Director of Curriculum April Guinness for their work to secure the grant funding that made this new program possible.”