The Haddonfield School District has earned a Best Communities for Music Education (BCME) designation from The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation.
The award is given for outstanding commitment to music education and access. To qualify, the school district provided detailed information about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instructional time, facilities and support for the music program and community music-making initiatives.
“It is gratifying to bring recognition to such a hard-working department within our district,” said Rob Fox, fine and performing arts supervisor for Haddonfield schools. “The faculty have worked tirelessly to enhance music education at all grade levels throughout our schools, including finding many new ways to further engage and challenge our young performers.”
Music has educational, cognitive and social skills benefits for children. After two years of music education, researcher shows, participants showed more substantial improvements in reading scores and how the brain processes speech than their less-involved peers. The social benefits of music education include conflict resolution, teamwork skills and learning how to give and receive constructive criticism.
The borough school district has seven full-time music teachers, two part-time theater teachers and one part-time dance instructor. Students can participate in orchestra, band and chorus beginning with elementary school. Middle- and high-schoolers can participate in a spring musical, and high-school students can take a number of performing arts electives, including sound engineering, theater and dance.
