LATEST RESEARCH FROM THE UK (England) linking music qualifications with higher ATTAINMENT – Music Education Works

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Taking a music qualification in school is linked with higher academic achievement, according to Cambridge Assessment research.

Tim Gill, the researcher who carried out the detailed analysis of national data for England for the 2017-18 academic year, said: “The results show that a comprehensive school student who typically takes nine GCSEs would expect to get a higher grade in one or two of their other subjects if they studied GCSE music, or a higher grade in at least three subjects if they achieved a graded music qualification at Grade 4 or above.”

The study has an advantage over much previous research in that it uses a large dataset (478,085 students), which included a range of factors known to affect attainment, such as gender, deprivation, ethnicity, special needs and school type. The main source of the data was the National Pupil Database, which is administered by England’s Department for Education.

Tim acknowledges limitations with the study, in particular that we need to be cautious about correlation and causation; it may be, for instance, that students who were more motivated to do well academically were also more likely to take part in extracurricular activities, such as learning a musical instrument. However, because GCSE Music is not an extracurricular activity, the positive link between taking the qualification and attainment is more robust.

SOURCES:
Cambridge Assessment (News story): https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/news/taking-music-qualification-linked-with-higher-achievement/
Cambridge Assessment (Report): https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/603850-the-relationship-between-taking-a-formal-music-qualification-and-overall-attainment-at-key-stage-4.pdf
inews.co.uk: https://inews.co.uk/news/education/learning-musical-instrument-higher-results-gcses-793078?ito=twitter_share_article-top

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