Exploring Links Between Music Education and Academic Outcomes in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

• In Event: Using Large-Scale Longitudinal Data to Understand Music Student Outcomes in Diverse School Contexts

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to explore the relation between rigorous, high-quality music education in high school and academic outcomes at the high school and postsecondary levels. Prior research on this association has yielded mixed results, possibly due to wide variation in the definitions of arts education and the academic measures used by researchers. In this study, the research team analyzed a novel longitudinal administrative dataset that overcomes those weaknesses to understand the relationship between music education and academic outcomes.

We examined the academic achievement outcomes for students who chose elective music courses compared to those who did not for ten cohorts of American students who were enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program. We used data provided by the International Baccalaureate Organization that we linked to data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) to compare postsecondary outcomes—college attendance and completion--for music and non-music IB students. We also explore if findings from the IB dataset replicate using data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System (MLDS) Center for students in the public high schools of Maryland.

The IB dataset includes all U.S. students who pursued any IB course or courses from 2005-2015 (N = 656,194). A separate dataset from the MLDS Center includes a cohort of 2,286 Maryland IB students who were 9th graders in 2012, and a matched sample of 9th graders attending non-IB schools.

Key measures included the IB end-of-course exams to measure student academic outcomes in the arts, English, science, world language, and mathematics as well as data from the NSC and the MLDS about students' postsecondary enrollment, persistence, degree attainment, and college major choice. Results suggest that music students performed significantly better than non-music students in certain secondary and postsecondary outcomes, and that music students were not disadvantaged in college admissions.

Authors

• Kenneth Elpus, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Prichard, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author