Cal State East Bay Helps Get Music Back into Public Schools
- January 19, 2016
This past fall, K-12 school districts across the Bay Area and the state struggled with the worst teacher shortage in recent memory. Oakland was among the hardest hit. According to a spokesperson, with just 10 days before students were set to return to classes, Oakland Unified still needed dozens of teachers.
“The cause of the crisis was a perfect storm of retirements, attrition, and fewer people pursuing education degrees just as school districts were adding positions and reducing class sizes,” said Dr. Eric Engdahl, chair of the department of teacher education. One of the biggest areas of growth has been with music programs, as schools that cut fine arts during the recession are now adding back those programs. This is, however, a problem: Qualified music teachers are in short supply.
“I’ve heard the same thing from multiple places across the state,” said Fillmore Rydeen, Manager of Visual and Performing Arts for Oakland Unified. While Oakland schools maintained music positions through the recession thanks to a parcel tax, the district is still losing music teachers faster than it can replace them.
“Over the last couple of years we’ve actually added positions but it’s been more and more challenging to find credentialed candidates to fill them, in large part because of greater demand across California,” Rydeen explained.
When confronted with that challenge, Rydeen looks to Cal State East Bay — and not just because of proximity. That’s something Dr. John Eros, CSUEB coordinator of music education takes pride in: Eros knows his graduates have worked hard to earn the esteem.
“The music education program is challenging. It’s very labor-intensive and time-intensive. Students have to be serious and really invest a lot of effort,” said Eros, who went on to explain students are required to take many more classes beyond just the degree requirements, including conducting and music technology. (Students need to complete 45 teaching hours before they are allowed to enter the credentialing program.)
Music education students like James Leyba, however, aren’t deterred in the slightest. The program has made going the extra mile second nature.
“In the past year I’ve learned how to play trumpet, trombone, tuba, euphonium, flute, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, violin and viola, and now I have a basic voice class,” Leyba said. “You start to get the idea that you need to have all these things up to par because as a music educator, you realize that if you can’t do something, you can’t be expected to teach it.”
If you ask Rydeen, it’s exactly this kind of open-mindedness that will make Leyba stand out in the job market. “We’re looking for people with a very diverse set of skills who are equally comfortable teaching classroom music as they would be teaching a band class or a violin class.”
Eros said another asset CSUEB music education students have is a strong desire to teach in culturally diverse, urban districts, such as those in the East Bay.
“People look at Oakland and don’t want to jump there because they hear about problems,” Leyba said. “It’s actually a lovely place. There are students in my class right now who would love to teach there. As for me, I went into this knowing that I want to teach low-income students who may have an issue at home or at school.”
Leyba’s dedication to teaching disadvantaged kids is personal. As a second-grader he was told he needed to buy a shirt to perform with his choir. “I’m the youngest of seven, so there was no way my parents were going to toss up 20 bucks for a T-shirt,” he said. The teacher allowed him to stay in the class, but barred him from performances. “It discouraged my musical life for so long. It didn’t diminish my passion for it, but it discouraged the practice. When teachers demand students have money to enjoy the arts, all it causes is students and families to be alienated and assume that they need money to do music. Music is basically free and it’s part of a well-rounded education.”
Rydeen, a 2010 Cal State East Bay alumnus, agrees. Even faced with a teacher shortage, he’s looking for ways to expand and grow Oakland’s music programs. “There’s always a need to do more,” he said. “Some of our elementary schools only have music in fourth and fifth grade instead of all the way from kindergarten. A few of our middle schools don’t have a music program at all. Additionally, there are new opportunities to offer courses in music technology and composition.”
It’s not surprising then, that Eros and Rydeen are teaming up to brainstorm ways to meet Oakland’s need — a need that will only increase, thanks to national legislation that’s pending. Music and the arts were named a core subject in the Every Child Achieves Act, a version of which President Obama is expected to sign.
“I think intuitively we’ve known that music education belongs in the public schools ever since it was first introduced in the early 1800s,” Eros said. “It has something to offer that no other field has to offer.”
“We’re kicking around an idea of creating a career pipeline,” Rydeen explained. “If we could create a cohort of high school students interested in becoming music teachers we could start to give them those foundational skills so they’re college-ready for a music education career.”
Eros said the recruitment approach for high school students would be exactly the same as for his college music students. “We talk with our students. We get to know them. Based on our experience knowing teachers and being teachers ourselves, we can get a good idea of who would make a good music educator. It might be something that hasn’t crossed their minds before.”