A national analysis of high school music course grades

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the grades given to students in U.S. public high school music courses and to examine the relationships between student characteristics, music course grades, and grades in additional subjects. Using descriptive statistics, logistic regression, and latent profile analysis, I analyzed over 5,000 student transcripts from the U.S. Department of Education’s High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 that contained at least one grade in music. Fifty-six percent of all music grades were As, and 79% were As or Bs. Ensemble grades were generally higher than general music grades, which were more evenly distributed. Regression modeling revealed that ethnoracial identity, socioeconomic status, and having an individualized education program (IEP) were closely associated with students’ music grades, with students representing two or more minoritized populations being particularly unlikely to earn an A in music. Latent profile analysis illustrated that student demographics explained differences in music grades even among students with equivalent grades in other school subjects.