A National Analysis of Music Coursetaking, Social-Emotional Learning, and Academic Achievement Using Propensity Scores

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between curricular high school music participation, academic achievement, and social-emotional learning. The analysis involved a “doubly robust” approach combining propensity score weighting and nested multiple regression using data from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009. Results of the study were mixed. Preliminary tests revealed many significant differences between the choral and instrumental students and the control group, but the propensity score weighting moderated almost all of these effects to nonsignificance. The only unambiguously positive finding was that instrumental music students had higher reading scores than comparable students who did not enroll in music. Yet, subpopulation effects emerged for certain categories of music students based on factors such as race, sex, and prior school achievement. Although the lack of widespread main effects in this study coheres with prior research, the results for certain subpopulations suggest intriguing future directions for research on potential extramusical benefits of music education.