Who Enrolls in High School Music? A National Profile of U.S. Students, 2009–2013

By Kenneth Elpus, Carlos R. Abril. Journal of research in music education, 2019

142 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The purpose of this study is to construct a complete demographic profile of high school music ensemble students using nationally representative data for the U.S. graduating high school class of 2013. We make use of restricted-use data from the National Center for Education Statistics High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS). Results showed that 24% of the class of 2013 enrolled in at least one year of a course in band, choir, or orchestra at some point during high school. Music students were 60% female and 40% male, and the racial/ethnic composition of music ensemble students was 58% White, 13% Black or African American, 17% Hispanic or Latino, 4% Asian or Pacific Islander, 8% two or more races, and under 1% American Indian or Alaska Native. Students from the highest socioeconomic status quintiles were overrepresented among music students. Fully 61% of music ensemble students participated in some form of arts activity outside of school, and 71% of music students attended a play, concert, or live show with their parents as ninth graders. Complete results presented in the article include disaggregated profiles by type of ensemble and a multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Music, Social Psychology

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