String Education:

Teacher Retention and

Recruitment

Rachel Pettee
MUS 585
Final Paper

Ms. Sara Smith was excited to start her new job as a

string education specialist at the local university.

The

university had a good music school and undergraduate program

for music education majors.

Sara was reviewing all of her

materials for her string classes when she noticed something

strange.

Out of seventy music education students enrolled

in the program, only five were string education majors.

Sara was stunned by these numbers and could not believe that
there were not many string majors. She had assumed that
since she came from a previous job where there were many
string students, that she would have the same amount here.
She was frustrated by these results and decided to take
action.

Sara started to do more research and wanted to find

out why the university had a shortage of string students.

Why Strings?

This is a slogan that is being used by

the American String Teachers Association to help promote

string education.

There are many others, just like Ms.

Smith, who are finding similar results and are frustrated

and disheartened.

Current research shows that string

programs are on the rise and enrollment is growing with each

year.

(Hamann, 2002) With these programs being on the rise,

one would think that there would be many teachers available

to help fill these programs.

The results, however, are

different. String education is facing its biggest challenge

to date: finding quality teachers to teach string programs

and to help those programs continue to grow.
String education has evolved much over the years.
Instrumental music instruction did not become part of school
until the early 1900s.

Albert Mitchell of Boston

established the first violin class in America in 1910.

(Turner, 2001)

After this, orchestra instruction became

popular and by the late-1920s, it was common for most

schools to have an orchestra program.

In the late 1940s and

1950s, professional organizations such as the American

String Teachers Association (ASTA) and the National School
Orchestra Association (NSOA) were formed to help increase
the number of string teachers.

(Hamann, Gillespie, 2004)

String programs were threatened in the 1960s by a lack of

string teachers and therefore the Tanglewood Symposium was
held in 1964 to help address this problem. (Turner, 2001) By
the 1970s, string programs began to build again in the
schools and as of today, research indicates that orchestra
programs have increased.

(Hamann, Gillespie, 2004)

How much of an increase has there been with orchestra

programs?

Camille Smith (1997) conducted a study on school

orchestra programs and found that out of 14,183 districts

surveyed only 16% of them offered string instruction.
According to Robert Gillespie, the number of string students

in the public schools increased by 79% between 1991 and

1995. (www.astaweb.com) Gillespie and Hamman (1998) did a
study on the status of orchestra programs in the schools and
found that larger schools are more likely to offer orchestra
instruction.

They also found that 35% of elementary

schools, 42% of middle schools and 37% of high schools

offered string instruction.
Hamann (2002) did a similar study in 2002 and found
similar results.

He found that orchestra enrollment had

increased each year and about 25-30% of string teachers are

non-string players.

Hamann (2002) also found that string

instruction normally began in fourth or fifth grade and the

average number of students taught at that level was sixtyfour students.

The average number at the middle school

level was sixty-seven and at the high school, the average

was fifty-one students.

In 2000-2001, 43% of 920 districts

surveyed had string positions that were not filled.

Hamann

(2002) also stated that between 2002 and 2004, more than
5,000 programs would be in need of string teachers.

As of

today, ASTA states that there are more than 8,000 string
teaching positions available today.

(www.astaweb.com)

Why is there such a shortage of string teachers?

The

first problem to address is why string teachers are hard to

find.

Many music students enter college not being sure

about pursuing performance, education or some other related

music degree.

(McNulty, Wagner, 1998) Research shows that

universities with string education specialists on their

faculties do the most recruiting and retaining of string
education majors. However, there are many schools of music
that do not have string specialists. (McNulty, Wagner, 1998)
In this study, Jacquelyn Dillon-Krass, who was a former ASTA
president and string teacher states:
Recruitment and retention of string education majors
begins with a faculty member who is knowledgeable in
the field and a strong advocate for string education
as a career choice. (p. 62)
Many students go into music education because of a role
model, such as a high school orchestra director or private
teacher; who encouraged them to pursue teaching and some
students did not have quality role model to encourage them.
(Gillespie, Hamann, 1999) In this study done by Gillespie
and Hamann, they found the number one reason students went
into string education was because they liked teaching as a
profession and it was rewarding.

The second reason, which

was very close, was the enjoyment and love for music.

Some

students feel that the job market for string teachers is not
as steady because of budget cuts.

There are students who

feel that certain universities do not offer quality-teaching

experience because of the lack of string specialists in the

area and this can be discouraging for students.

There are

also students who do not think about a career in string

teaching until they are told about it.

(McNulty, Wagner,

1998)
The second problem to address is why string teachers
tend to leave the profession earlier than other teachers.
In a study done by Hancock and Madsen (2002), they studied
over 200 certified teachers, all of whom had finished a BME
during a ten-year span.

They took two surveys: one in 1995

and one in 2001 and came up with some interesting results.

In 1995, 79% of the teachers were teaching and in 2001, only
57% were still teaching.

Also, in 1995, 12% were not

teaching and in 2001, 24% were not teaching.

(p. 16) A

concern that was brought up by many in this study was a lack

of support.

This tends to be an area where string educators

struggle because of the smaller programs and not as many

students.

Hancock and Madsen also found that a higher

percentage of women than men left the profession earlier.

(p. 14)
There are other reasons why music teachers choose to
leave the profession earlier.

For many, poor working

conditions can make the job more challenging.

These can

range from sharing rooms with other teachers, having small

spaces to teach and store things and also the quality of the
instruments. (Scheib, 2004) As of today, only about 60% of
the string teacher positions available are not full-time
assignments, which is discouraging for teachers who are
looking for full-time positions. (www.astaweb.com)
Another factor is a lack of interest in the program and
having small numbers of students.

This is most likely the

biggest challenge string teachers face because if they do

not have a lot of student interest, then the program could
be cut.

Aside from that, another huge issue for string

educators is a lack of support from administration, parents

and colleagues.

In order to have a quality string program,

all three of these areas need to be met and often times,

they are not.

There are many string teachers who often feel

like they are by themselves and providing mentors for these

teachers would be beneficial.

Research has shown that

teachers who have regular mentors tend to feel more

supported and they provide them with information that they
would not have known before.

(Scheib, 2004)

What can be done to help recruit more string teachers

and keep them in the profession?