Music Education and Educators in Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois

Abstract

The purpose of this survey study was to provide a demographic profile of PK-12 public school music teachers and details about the public school music teaching positions in Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois. An invitation to complete a questionnaire was emailed to all PK-12 public school music teachers in these three states whose email addresses could be gathered via a school district website search or phone call to the district, yielding a 26.1% response rate in Missouri, a 35.1% response rate in Iowa, and a 31.7% response rate in Illinois. The questionnaire contained items used to gather demographic data about the music teachers and details about their class offerings. Results indicate over 93% of music teachers in these three states identify as White and approximately two thirds identify as women. The teachers in these three states who responded to the survey travel less for their positions compared with music teachers in the United States as a whole, and findings were inconsistent between the states with respect to experience level and school location. Further, 28% to 47% of secondary-level educators in these three states teach a music class that is not band, choir, or orchestra.