Timothy Tovar

AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14

Should Music Education be

Required for All Students In School?

Timothy Tovar
7th AP Statistics
12-3-14

Stats in Action: Music Required in School

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14
Music dominates popular culture around the world, in America, in Texas, and
in the public school, and private school classrooms. Though it may not come in the
form of a catchy song, or fun dance beat, music is important to almost every person
around the world. In the Austin area, orchestra, band, and choir is home to
thousands of students. The passion, and the drive to make music is unlike none
other. However, in many cases, different schools have to cut back on funding and
redistribute their funds. The fine arts, which include band, orchestra, and choir,
have to get cut from different schools. This is unfortunate for many students, but
also for the people around them. The opportunity for these students to develop
their skills and produce something that could be heard in a concert hall, or radio has
been taken away. In this observational study, I will be asking children from my
mothers school (ages 3-5), middle school students from a range of public, private,
and homeschool, and high school students their opinions on music education. I
understand that the questions presented to each of the students should be easy to
understand and also get the point across. I believe that most of the kids in the
younger grades will disagree with music education being required by schools,
because at their age they do not have much of a choice in what they do.
In my life, I have always been surrounded by music. Since I was 6 years old, I
have been playing the drums. Music is vitally important to me, and the way it has
helped shape my life is even more important. To conduct this experiment, I hope to
find the future of music for all students to be secure. Im not imposing any bias, or
influence on the students I will be conducting the observation on. I want to know
their opinion on music, and how that may be related to their grade, gender, and
what type of schooling they have (public, or private). Random sampling will be

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14
difficult with this situation, so the idea was to cluster the students by grades. At my
mothers school, and the youth group at my church, I will survey the students from
all the different classes.
The half sheet of paper I will give out will look like this:
NAME:
Grade:
Age:
Home

Gender (Circle One) Male

Type of School: Public

Female

Private

Should music education be required for all students in school?

Yes

No

The data collected will not be 10% of the people that could be tested, but it
will be over 30 people, with what should be a variety of different results. The
process of collecting data was simple. There are many different classrooms at my
church, which all hold about 15 kids per class. They range from 6 th grade on up to
12th grade. Within the middle school classes, I took a census. I wanted to focus on
middle school and younger kids, because that is when music and fine arts start
playing a role in a persons life. In middle school, there is a required fine arts
element. In elementary school, especially when I was in elementary, they
emphasized recorder playing. Music, choir, and orchestra are some of the few
musical choices offered by public and private schools around the Austin area.
Some problems I came across was with the younger students. I definitely wanted to
know about their opinions on music, but I had to word it slightly differently. I felt as
though they would not understand some of the words or context of the question. I
tried to ask the same question but at a lower level, and with some answers already

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14
filled out. An example of the simpler card is seen on the top of the next page. As
mentioned before, I was comparing gender, age, and type of schooling. Within each
of those, there could be a confounding variable on the students asked. Whether the
school is a Magnet program, or have a higher requirement for fine art credits, the
students might be forced to take a class they dont desire. This could highly
influence whether they actually enjoy the class, or whether they just feel obligated.

NAME:
Gender (Circle One) Male
Age:

Female

PRIVATE SCHOOL

Should everyone take music class?

Yes

No

When visually looking at the data, I used three two-way tables to represent the
different aspects I was observing. I always had Yes and No as one of the comparing
variables, and I changed Public/Private, Gender (M/F), and Age.
After looking at the data, there is clear conclusions to present. From the data
collected, within Austin area schools, from a variety of ages, and gender, it is clear
that most people would like for some type of music class to be required. According
to my hypothesis, I was mostly accurate. However, it was interesting to see that
the middle school kids definitely had some varying answers. I believe that the
reason why these students vary was the people around them. They might have not
necessarily been influenced by the questions themselves, but when discussing in
their classes, the kids around them could have influenced them. For instance, the
7th grade class has a definite leader, and it he said No as an answer. As a result, I
noticed that many others also said No. This may be because it would seem silly to

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14
want anything different than their friends. I looked at the smaller kids, and they all
had their own opinions. It was interesting to see that some kids were against music.
After talking to some of the smaller ones after they answered the questions, I asked
why they chose Yes or No. As my prediction said, they were unhappy with the idea
of their parents signing them up for things. But, some also said childish things, such
as I dont like singing, so there shouldnt be music class. Overall, the ideas I had
coming into the experiment were what I expected. Many students feel as though
music is important enough to take a class about it. Though this population is small
comparatively to the entire Austin area student numbers, there seems to be a want
for music in school.

GRAPHS AND TABLES

Female or Male vs. Yes or No

F
M
Total

Yes
11
12
23

No
5
6
11

Total
16
18
34

Private or Public School vs. Yes or No

Privat
e
Public
Total

Yes
7

No
3

Total
10

16
23

8
11

24
34

Ages (4-11, 12-14) vs. Yes or No

4 to
11
12 to

Yes
8

No
4

Total
12

15

22

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14
14
Total

23

11

34

Yes or No vs. Public or Private Schooling

Gender vs. Yes or No Totals

20
15

Yes

10

12

11

5
0

No

5
Private

Public
Yes

No

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14

Age Range (4-11, 12-14) vs. Yes or No

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

4 to 11

12 to 14
Yes

No

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14

Appendicies

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14

Timothy Tovar
AP Statistics
Kiker 7th
12-3-14