Break the barriers of IEPs and test scores to bring music to the ears of ALL children

Editor's note: John Skelton shared with other parents and educators in The Opt Out of Tests New York group the actions he took to restore the ability of a student with an IEP to participate in music class. I'm sharing here in hopes that it will prove useful for others who want to do the same.

Guest post by John Skelton | Parent and Teacher

To put this story in the proper context, I must first tell you a few details. I teach orchestra at a public middle school about an hour north of New York City. Orchestra is a regularly-scheduled class during the school day, just as math, ELA, and other such subjects are.

Obviously, one difference about what I teach compared to something like math is that students choose to take my class. While that does mean that I don't need the compelling force of a governmental curriculum to motivate my students to learn, it also means that music, as a discipline, is treated as less important. You know..."just an elective" (as if choice were a bad thing).

This past year, I had a 6th grade violin player who was really quite advanced. I was expecting great things from him because he was easily one of the best players in the group. He studied privately. He performed conscientiously. He was eager to take part and show what he could do. However, he also had the misfortune of having an individual education plan (IEP) which required him to be in an academic intervention services (AIS) class for a specific number of hours. I first noticed this when, about two weeks into the school year, he stopped showing up at my class. When I asked him why, he showed me his schedule which had AIS where Orchestra used to be. He told me both he and his parents were none to happy about the change.

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