Dr. Cory Meals, Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Houston, was the 2025 featured presenter for the Graduate Research Forum at the Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) Professional Development Conference. Dr. Meals presented two studies highlighting composer diversity in secondary ensemble lists. Analyses revealed an…

This article provides an overview of the research method meta-analysis as a tool for general music advocacy. "Why music education?" is framed as underlying advocacy efforts, noting a historical duality between musical outcomes and nonmusical outcomes. A vignette is provided to show how meta-analyses were used to impact legislation on…

Academic music libraries in the US collect resources to support music students and faculty in their performance and research needs. These resources include non-text items such as musical scores and recordings that are difficult to represent in standard library information systems that were built for text items. The advent of web scale discovery…

On Friday, March 13, 2020, the School District of Osceola closed its doors for Spring Break and did not open again until 3 weeks later in a digital capacity. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way teachers and students learned. The band, chorus, and orchestra classrooms were empty, and replaced with digital meetings with the need to unmute and turn…

The purpose of this study was to examine the performance trends of middle school, junior/senior high school, and high school ensembles at District Florida Bandmasters Association (FBA) Jazz Band Music Performance Assessments (MPAs) from 2012 to 2017. More specifically, this study investigated the pieces, composers, and arrangers most frequently…

At intersections of popular music education, music technology, and community music practices, music teachers in the United States adapted to teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically from March 2020 to March 2021. The purpose of this research was to better understand the perspectives of modern band teachers regarding the…

The purpose of this investigation was to provide a thorough documentation of the life and career of William F. Cramer. William Cramer was professor of trombone at the Florida State University for more than thirty-five years. He was a master teacher, musician, and scholar. His students remember him fondly as a grandfatherly figure whose teaching…

Editor's note: In assembling this issue, I sought to compile compelling stories of arts education cuts and the responses of local communities. I invited National Council on the Arts member Dr. Bruce Carter to share such a story. The following article begins with Carter's narrativized account of informal research on the arts partnership in the…

The purpose of this study was to identify and detail the contributions and methods, decisions and specific techniques that Dr. Bobby Adams used while President of the Florida Bandmasters Association and Director of Bands at Stetson University to build and maintain a nationally recognized collegiate wind band program and a strong music education…

This action research discovers the learning preferences of middle school students enrolled in an advanced steel drum class in central Florida, specifically their attitudes toward the learner-centered approach while composing and learning music. Sixteen participants compare the traditional teacher-led formal instruction to student-led informal…

The purpose of this descriptive quantitative research study was to investigate the relationship between instrumental experience and sight-singing proficiency. This research was conducted in two phases: a quantitative survey of known high-achieving sight-singers and a comparison of sight-singing proficiency among participants with diverse musical…

Teacher certification is an important topic in the history of teaching in American education. Policymakers have recognized that for students to meet high standards, their teachers must also be of high quality (Goldhaber, Perry & Anthony, 2004; McCaffrey, Lockwood, Koretz, & Hamilton, 2003). The National Board for Professional Teaching…

This paper is a research project report for the purpose of developing methods to document cultural responsiveness and student identification of cultural identity in the community, school and in online global cultural exchanges at a 98% minority Title I Elementary Center for Fine Arts. This school was ranked as one of the 300 lowest performing…

The Department of Research and Evaluation (DRE) has completed an analysis of the performance of students who participated in the Teamwork USA Program, administered in FY2014 at three District schools. Teamwork USA hopes to improve student achievement at select Title I elementary schools via its Instrumental Music Program grant. This memorandum to…

The growth of guitar education in schools has been dramatic. From regional, specialized, and isolated programs just a few years ago to a broad-based movement with strong support from administrators, parents, and students, guitar classes are taught today all over North America. Colleges now offer guitar education. A dramatic indicator of guitar's…