President's Message

by Anne Fennell, CMEA President

It’s the end of June and that means one thing in the NAfME world – it’s time for our National Assembly in Reston, Virginia! For the state presidents, the event began on Wednesday, June 21 and concluded on Monday, June 26th, and every day was packed with meetings, learning, and times to connect, as well as brainstorm with state and national leaders, and take part in our Hill Day. It’s quite amazing to be in a space where hundreds of people are coming together as volunteers and in service to one goal – to simply provide a quality music education to all students. The energy was palpable!

The highlight of our time together was our national Hill Day, with all in attendance of our National Assembly, visiting our U.S. Representatives and Senators’ offices to thank them for their support for music education and to continue to advocate for full education funding with Title I, part A, Title II, part A, and title IV, part A – because, yes, we CAN use these funding sources for music education! Click here to read more.

This was our first in-person Hill Day since 2019 and it was wonderful to be with people face-to-face and see their excitement about music. So many of the Legislative Aides/Staffers were in some type of performing arts class in high school or college and they personally knew the importance of arts education. Honestly, it’s kind of an easy ‘sell’ when we talk about music making, joy, community, and contributing to our creative economy. This year I was joined by Scott Hedgecock (Western Division President) and Mike Stone (Western Division President-Elect) and we were quick to share stories about the power of music and the need in California. It’s so important to continue to build relationships with our elected officials to keep music (and arts) education on the forefront, and in fact, if any of you want to reach out to your elected officials, follow the hyperlinks below:

- State Senate and Assembly Representatives

- U.S. Congress (U.S. Senate and House of Representatives)

The contact information for all members are hyperlinked with both their local and D.C. addresses. Feel free to reach out and share all that you are doing or share a need, because I do know that they are always grateful to hear what is really happening in your schools. If you aren’t sure what to ask for or say, you can also use any of NAfME’s resources.

After Hill Day, we had 3 days of workshops and breakout sessions. On Friday I was on an interactive panel for our Collegiate Advocacy Summit attendees where we shared stories about ‘Thriving as a Music Educator’. I shared the session with Annamarie Bolino (VA), Johnny Hamel (NC) Judy Bush (NE), and David Kaufman (MD), and what fun it was to connect with the students, hear their connections and support them in their questions. I am always so energized and encouraged when I see aspiring music educators who are ready to take on the world and share music with our young people. The future is in great hands! (I also suggested that each collegiate move to California to teach, given that we have jobs for them; everywhere I go I’m recruiting for our state!)

In addition to the Collegiate Advocacy Summit, I presented about Prop 28 to the entire National Assembly and shared the outcomes and needs of this new law. While I focused on the fortunate financial outcome, I was also honest about the struggle with the rollout, the need for educators, and the concern I have for small schools in our state. The disparity of funding based on population doesn’t provide equity in funding to create opportunities in arts education, and while I am grateful for every dollar, I also know that the smaller schools in our state need additional support.

Speaking of small schools, NAfME has launched a professional learning community on this very topic, and I was encouraged by their initial steps! Please note that even the term ‘small schools’ has varied definitions, depending on the individual or group, and we spoke about schools with 6 students to those with several hundred, for the average person, it’s actually a relative term depending on the school and its location. California has hundreds of ‘small schools’ and I think this is an opportunity to connect the sites and educators to NAfME’s initiative. I hope our members can be a part of this! Click here if you would like to contribute your experiences teaching in a small school. While this is still in its initial phase, I have a feeling that their next steps will help many of our California members feel seen and heard. This session also made me realize that I need to intentionally do more as the president of CMEA to support all of our schools and teachers, and I hope to fix this starting in the fall. Stay tuned with more information to come! capabilities of AI and its future in music education. I’m a fan of AI and I’m actually looking forward to what can be possible in music education to support our teaching to reach every individual learner. I mean, who wouldn’t want to improvise with Maynard Ferguson, play a duet with Yo-Yo Ma, jam with Neil Peart, or have an AI program quickly generate a new music part for a student with learner-centered specifications? While I’m all in on those ideas, I am a little nervous about its possible negative uses. So, the question is, how do we align with AI to create a shared vision of education? If you want to know more of what the US Department of Education thoughts are, check out this May 2023 report: AI and the Future of Teaching and Learning

Closing out the National Assembly, NAfME’s Music Teacher Profession Initiative (MPTI) presented “A Blueprint for Strengthening the Music Teacher Profession ” “This document is a report of the Music Teacher Profession Initiative’s work concerning music teacher educators’ perceptions of barriers to and through the profession, as well as mitigations to those barriers” (page 5). I encourage you to read this, and when comments or participation are requested to lend your experience and voice, please do so! Given that the goal is to prepare the next generation of music educators, I look forward to the possibility of surveying students and identifying their needs in music education. This would support a backwards design to meet student requests while also addressing how this can drive a realignment of teacher preparation programs. This data would be invaluable and help us refocus our trajectory.

From the numerous sessions that were available to us, one additional session was quite impactful, and that was Navigating Divisive Concepts Laws. While this report was already shared with us in the spring, I so appreciated Karen Salvador’s (MI) presentation as the author. Teachers in many states are struggling to teach where censorship in education exists and many feel afraid to teach music that is historically representative of our country. The reality is that as of 2023, 37 states have laws that directly impact and censor education, and more are in the works. While I would like to say that this would never happen in California, it is present. This past year we were informed of several divisive concept laws that did not pass. My largest concern is that if these are passed, we would narrow the curricula and leave out historically and culturally valuable music that is definitive of people and the whole of our country’s culture. We are who we are because of all of us who have contributed to our collective culture. I will always stand firm in providing the most and best for all children in music education that reflects all children. A session that created the hot topic of the week was The Implication of AI – Friend or Foe? Rick Dammers (Rowan University, NJ) and Mary Luehrsen (NAMM) presented the