String Programs in Low Socioeconomic Level School Districts

This study examined string programs in low socioeconomic level school districts where more than twenty-five percent of the children fell below the U.S. Census poverty level. The preliminary findings revealed a 28 percent decrease in the number of such districts that offered strings during the five-year period from 1994 (100) to 1999 (72). Questionnaires were sent to the remaining 72 districts that still had viable string programs with a response rate of 83.3 percent (60). The findings indicated that 90 percent of the districts offered orchestra at the high school level, 85 percent offered strings at the middle school level, and 70 percent offered beginning string classes at the elementary school level. It was also found that as school district size increased, strings were offered primarily in either performing arts or academically gifted schools. Findings related to string program funding indicated that one-third to one-half of the districts with less than 10,000 students or more than 30,000 students used outside funding sources to pay the teachers’ salaries and provide instruments. Among the outside funding sources identified were 1) private foundation grants, 2) corporate grants, 3) state arts grants, 4) federal government Title I funds, and 5) magnet school desegregation funds.