<p>The author has some good points for choosing a music education school such as choosing one in a state you wish to teach. Otherwise it is a starting point for finding a music ed program.</p>
<p>No matter what the field, before anyone uses an arbitrary “top ten” list, they should investigate who exactly is assembling this list and what ranking criteria they are using. Most of these lists, including this one, are merely “click bait”. The person who makes his money via high click volume knows that thousands of parents or students are anxious to find the right school and search the internet for music school rankings. All I can tell about this list is that it was put together by a young guy named “Bill”. Oh, and he happens to have an E-book for sale.
Why start a music school search based on this sort of thing? Just my .02</p>
<p>Despite the limitations, musicamerica illuminated in the the above post, I do like the points he makes in the article. Many have already been mentioned these points on this forum and the list is another reference to add to the anecdotal information available from CC.<br>
- Chose a school in the state you want teach so you will be more easily certified.
- Chose a school with good teacher placement networks.
Son went to a job placement seminar at a local school district and learned that the district generally hires only from 4 schools. Networking does help.
Teacher certification is getting harder so it is important to attend a music ed school that will help you make it through your state’s requirements. Son’s school has coordinators off campus to work with their student teachers who meet with the students regularly to review the certification requirements and to help with any problems that might arise during the student teaching semester. Even though the pass rate for teacher certification has dropped below 50% in our state, his area coordinators’ students have a 100% pass rate on the certification requirements. It would be much more difficult to navigate this on his own.</p>
<p>All top ten lists of any sort have dubious merits - but, in the grander scheme of things can be helpful. I think the young man running the website is trying hard to be thorough and thoughtful about his posts, whatever their limitations may be. The criteria for the music ed list seems pretty valid to me (and useful when in evaluating a program) - whether or not he truly investigated every option out there to compile his top ten.</p>
<p>He seems well-intentioned (esp. about marketing his ebook) but there is no methodology to his rankings. He uses hearsay (like the rest of us) and his might be as good as yours or mine, and is likely better than something a general ranking site could come up with. But don’t place too much trust in any ranking. Do your own research.</p>
<p>As with most lists the methodology is is suspect, but he does have some good points for choosing a music ed program. The points he made about choosing a school are helpful. Plus, most of the schools would be on a music ed major’s list anyway depending on the state of residence.</p>