students to help them navigate the pathway to get through high school and successfully into college. The third area is alternative pathways, so folks that have gotten a music degree in another area and are interested in coming into education.” BREAKING BARRIERS Over the last year, the Coalition’s work, research and collaborative initiatives — which include some 40 organizations including the NAMM Foundation and the Save The Music Foundation — have resulted in the release of Teach Music’s website that houses all of its information. “We’re focusing on additional strategies in the future, including collaboration with the American School Counselor Association to get our information in front of school counselors so they can be better informed and encourage students to come into the area [of study],” Morrison said. “We work collaboratively with NAMM on the number of resources to help get the word out, and to empower local retailers to be able to become advocates in not only in recruiting more mu- sic educators, but actually recruiting more people to come into music as a profession.” Central to the website’s mission is the accessibility of information that empowers educators, policymakers and retailers to support and promote music education in their communities. From evidence-based strategies for enhancing student engage- ment to guidance on curriculum develop- ment and program implementation, the website offers resources tailored to address the multifaceted challenges. Music retailers can use the website’s digital assets, which include talking points, press release templates and advertisements that they can customize and use in their own communities. FOSTERING FUTURE GENERATIONS Currently, Teach Music is working on developing additional assets including a job finder where it’ll regularly list music education jobs and resources to support students as they’re applying to colleges, as well as creating a system to help students match themselves with colleges based on their interest. “We’re working on developing an interim teacher program, where we can have at least some teachers [who] can fill in for people at school districts [on] a short-term basis that maybe aren’t able to find somebody,” said Morrison, adding that he’s already seeing changes occurring at universities.
“Montclair State University — one of our members — has created a new program to assist students [who] graduated with performance degrees and want to get into education with a pathway,” Morrison said. “John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State created [the] Cali Pathways Project that’s designed to identify students [who] come from low-economic communities that show promise to become music educators and get them instruments, free lessons and a mentor to help them through all the dif- ferent barriers and roadblocks.”
Through its initiatives, Teach Music seeks to inspire the next generation of music educators, empower current educators, and cultivate a vibrant and inclusive community. “It’s really about getting our entire in- dustry behind the idea that it’s our respon- sibility to go out and make sure we have a robust pipeline of not only students wanting to become music educators, but we have a robust pipeline of people who want to come in and be involved in all aspects of our broad and diverse music community,” Morrison said. MI
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