Best Communities for Music Education designation from The NAMM Foundation

Anyone who has been involved with or seen performances from the Troy City Schools music department knows how talented Troy’s students and staff are, as well as how dedicated they are  to the pursuit of musical education and excellence.

And now they have been nationally recognized for their efforts.

For the seventh year, the Troy City Schools have been honored with the Best Communities for Music Education designation from The NAMM Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education. Now in its 26th year, the Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement for providing music access and education to all students.

To qualify for the Best Communities designation, Troy’s music department answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program and community music-making programs. Responses were verified by school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.

“This is an incredible honor, and truly says a lot about how hard our students and staff have worked to get to this point,” said Rachel Sagona, Troy City Schools Music Department Head. “We are incredibly proud of our music program, which touches the lives of students from kindergarten through high school. We have incredible buy-in from our students and staff. We are also very fortunate to have the amazing support of the district, administrators and, of course, our community. Troy has always been very proud and supportive of our music programs.”

Troy’s music education staff consists of: Rachel Sagona (choir and department head), Stephanie Strope (orchestra), Molly Venneman (band), Casey Layer (band), Erik Strope (classroom music), Jenny Hewitt (classroom music), Jerry Nelson (classroom music) and Abigail Greenfield (classroom music).

“This is definitely an award we all take pride in,” Sagona said.

Research into music education continues to demonstrate educational/cognitive and social skill benefits for children who make music: After two years of music education, researchers found that participants showed more substantial improvements in how the brain processes speech and reading scores than their less-involved peers and that students who are involved in music are not only more likely to graduate high school but also to attend college as well. 

In addition, everyday listening skills are stronger in musically trained children than in those without music training. Significantly, listening skills are closely tied to the ability to: perceive speech in a noisy background, pay attention, and keep sounds in memory. Later in life, individuals who took music lessons as children show stronger neural processing of sound: young adults and even older adults who have not played an instrument for up to 50 years show enhanced neural processing compared to their peers. Not to mention, social benefits include conflict resolution, teamwork skills, and how to give and receive constructive criticism.