Music faculty member gets $50,000 grant

A project headed by Utah State University music department faculty member Nicholas Morrison is the recipient of a $50,000 grant from the Dana Foundation.

Working with colleagues Leslie Timmons and Thomas P. Rohrer, Morrison will develop a pilot program to assist and retain rural secondary school music teachers new to the classroom.

USU received one of only 11 grants awarded by the Dana Foundation in the Rural Initiative area. USU was the only university program that received funding.

The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic organization with principal interests in brain science, immunology, and arts education.

With funding from the Dana Foundation, the Utah State University group will provide professional development for full-time music teachers in Utah’s rural schools. This will be accomplished in three ways – site visits by faculty, remote mentoring using two-way audio and video and summer training in Orff Schulwerk music and movement education in sessions held on the USU campus.

USU’s music department has been involved in music education of secondary teachers since its inception, Morrison said. Many of the secondary music teachers in the state are USU graduates. The success, or what Morrison calls the “career life expectancy,” of these novice teachers is a concern.

“The average career length of these music educators is only 4.2 years,” Morrison said. “Thus, when you consider that the average time it takes to earn a degree is almost six years, they spend 1.8 years more earning a degree than practicing their profession.”

Morrison hopes the Dana Foundation grant will help his team develop techniques to reduce this short cycle and encourage longer careers for fledgling educators.

“Rural Utah attracts many first-year teachers,” Morrison said. “Often, there is not another teacher in your study area closer than a two-hour drive. Where do these new teachers go to ask questions or observe teaching technique? There aren’t many options for help and support. We would like to develop ways to provide that.”

Through planned site visits and then video monitoring, the USU mentors will be able to observe the teachers’ classroom techniques, then share observations on teaching, organization, classroom management, pedagogy, conducting, materials and musicianship. After an initial site visit, mentoring visits will continue through weekly remote observation of a particular class and a video conference follow-up. It is during the follow-ups that teaching strategies will be discussed and specific goals for improvement will be set. Then, during the summer of 2007, five public school teachers will attend the USU Orff Schulwerk Teacher Training Course.

Interest in the project grew from a request from the State Office of Education. Morrison was asked to go to rural San Juan County to mentor teachers.

“The state wanted me to walk into a first-year teacher’s classroom, watch them work, watch them teach and provide examples,” Morrison said. “It was a great professional experience for me, but a full-time faculty member can only do that once or twice a year.”

That’s when Morrison was directed to the Dana Foundation.

“I saw this grant as a great opportunity and it would provide a great way – especially through the technical support – to help these first-year teachers,” he said. “Utah State University has extensive experience in distance education and this adds another excellent component.”

Five, early-career secondary level music teachers will be selected for the pilot project. Technology – including a camera and microphone – will be installed in the band room, while another set will be installed in Morrison’s office. Then, via the Internet, Morrison and his colleagues can watch what is taking place at the remote site. Then, later in the day the teacher and the USU team can have a conversation about the teaching.

The object is to make teachers feel comfortable in the classroom while providing the expertise and mentorship of more experienced teachers.

“We want to keep teachers in the profession longer,” Morrison said. “Through the pilot program we want to see if the technology can provide the same caliber experience as a ‘live’ visitor in the classroom. Can the technology supplement or replace site visits?”

The pilot project is a good fit for the music program at Utah State University and a land-grant mission.

“We are taking what we are good at and going beyond,” Morrison said. “This is an exciting project.”

The Dana Foundation received 86 applications in its Rural Initiative program. Utah State University’s grant proposal was one of three that received the highest award of $50,000.

The public school teachers taking part in the project can earn credit toward a master’s degree – a master’s of secondary education with an emphasis in music.

More information about the Dana Foundation can be found at its Web site (www.dana.org).