During the past decade urban American schools saw a decline in music programs due to value-based decisions favoring investment in subjects with high stakes testing. At the same time advances in neuroscience research point to a link between playing a musical instrument and increased literacy skills. The purpose of this case study was to understand how playing a musical instrument for five consecutive years relates to measures of literacy achievement for urban middle school students. Furthermore, how the perceptions and beliefs of educators about this relationship affect their value-based decisions was explored. The findings indicate that in seven out of eight independent t-tests of eighth grade scores from the 2014 English Language Arts MCAS exam, a statistically significant difference was found suggesting that instrumental students outscore their non-instrumental peers. Focus groups of administrators, music educators and English Language Arts educators were conducted separately and findings yielded nine major themes relating to educators' perceptions, beliefs and values. They indicate that educators have a belief system that is built on personal experiences and research. Across all three focus groups the belief was expressed that students who study a musical instrument have higher achievement on measures of literacy. This belief paired with the parallel belief that band builds skills for success, guided educators to advocate for decisions that allocate resources to increase opportunity for instrumental instruction in the studied district. Recommendations for practice include increasing opportunity for sequential instrumental instruction in urban public schools and convening small discussion groups of educators, parents or other to discuss perceptions, beliefs and values..

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship between instrumental music education in Grades 8 and 11 and critical thinking as assessed by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment. The subsets that were examined included Reading (B): Interpretation and Analysis of Fictional and Nonfictional Text, which assesses the academic standards 1.1, Learning to read independently; standard 1.2, Reading critically in all content areas; standard 1.3, Reading, analyzing and interpreting literature, and Mathematics, sections C.1 Geometry- Analyze characteristics of two and three dimensional shapes, D.2 Algebraic concepts- Analyze mathematical situations using numbers, symbols, words, tables and/or graphs, and E.1 Data analysis and probability- Interpret and analyze data by formulating answers or questions (Pennsylvania Department of Education, 2009-2010). The sample consisted of Instrumental students (N = 50) and Noninstrumental music students (N = 50) over 2 graduated high school classes. The results indicated that the Instrumental music sample consistently outscored the Noninstrumental music sample when comparing the Reading B, Mathematics M.C.1, M.D.2, and M.E.1 subsections of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment with significant increases noted from 8th to 11th grade.