In this new podcast, Anita Holford, co-editor of Music Education Works, is talking with Penny Swift, Executive Director and Katherine Damkohler, Director of National Activities of Education Through Music (ETM).
ETM is a New York-based organisation working with under-resourced schools to provide music education as a core subject for all students.
It has experienced significant growth over the last few years, and has an effective model which combines partnering with schools in the poorest neighbourhoods in New York, and employing and training music teachers who then go on to be employed by the schools.
We talk about how ETM:
- works with schools in the poorest districts in New York to provide music education as a core subject
- works with every class in each school, for 1-3 years – prioritising ‘long-term, sequential music education’
- works with the Principal (headteacher) as a partner, securing a commitment to sustaining the music programme after ETM’s work is finished
- trains and develops the music teachers they employ, and gets them hired by the school after 1-3 years
- aligns their curriculum with the teacher assessment framework used by headteachers
- works with classroom teachers to understand how music can tie into other areas of the curriculum
- is expanding nationally and internationally and is open to approaches from music educators about their model, and to share learning
You can access the podcast via a blog on our main website – Young people, music mentoring and digital stories – or on iTunes or Spotify (search for Music for Education & Wellbeing).
