Access to String Instruction in American Public Schools

This study is an examination of string access in American public schools; the researcher sought to determine the actual number of school districts in each state that offered string instruction and at which grade levels. Specific questions posed were (a) What is the current relationship between access to string instruction and school-district location, size, and socioeconomic level? (b) How does access vary by school type—elementary, middle, high school? (c) How does access vary in different regions of the country? Data were obtained for each of the 14,183 school districts listed in the 1994-1995 Market Data Retrieval School Directories. A total of 2,268 districts (15.99%) were identified that offered string instruction. Of these, it was found that 71.42% (N = 1,620) offered string instruction at the elementary school level, 78.52% (N = 1,781) at the middle school level, and 80.15%) (N = 1,818) at the high school level. The findings also indicated that string instruction was offered most often in average-socioeconomic-level, medium-sized, urban districts in the Eastern, North Central, and Northwest Music Educators National Conference divisions, and in average-socioeconomic-level, large, metropolitan districts in the Southern, Southwestern, and Western divisions. String instruction was offered least often in low-socioeconomic-level school districts (N = 100) regardless of location or size.