RESTON, VA (May 8, 2008) — MENC: The National Association for Music Education has always been a strong and successful advocate for music education in all its forms. Recent problems faced by the International Association for Jazz Education have caused the dissolution of that association, challenging the music education community to step in and fill the need to support education in this quintessentially American art form.
MENC will step forward to meet that challenge by providing enhanced services and benefits in the area of jazz education, including:
- A major area on the MENC web site for jazz education, with weekly short articles, a forum for discussions, and links to standards-based jazz lessons on the MENC “My Music Class” online idea center and lesson plan library.
- Increased performance, discussion, and pedagogical opportunities at MENC national events beginning in summer 2010 or before.
- Increased coverage of topics on jazz and jazz education in print or electronic format.
To implement these new initiatives, MENC will work with leaders in jazz education to better serve the 11,000 MENC members already working in that field, rally those former IAJE members who are left without a professional association, and activate a new and exciting network of supporters for jazz in our schools and our culture.
Future announcements about MENC’s jazz education initiative will be posted at www.menc.org/news.
MENC: The National Association for Music Education, the world’s largest arts education organization, marked its centennial in 2007 as the only association that addresses all aspects of music education. More than 130,000 members represent all levels of teaching from preschool to graduate school. Since 1907, MENC has worked to ensure that every student has access to a well-balanced, comprehensive, and high-quality program of music instruction taught by qualified teachers. MENC’s activities and resources have been largely responsible for the establishment of music education as a profession, for the promotion and guidance of music study as an integral part of the school curriculum, and for the development of the National Standards for Arts Education.
