Status of Orchestra Programs in the Public Schools

The purpose of this study was to monitor the status of string instruction in string programs throughout the United States. Subjects for this study were string teachers from string school programs throughout the United States. From a total of 8,556 public, private, and parochial schools at the elementary, middle school/junior high school, and high school levels, a sample of 2, 139 schools were randomly selected for study participation. A survey was administered to string teachers at these randomly selected sites. From data analyses it was found that: the number of string teachers has declined while string student enrollment has increased, almost one-fourth of the schools in 1999–2000 and over 43% of the schools in 2000–2001 were not able to find qualified teachers for their string programs. While many programs unsuccessfully attempt to find teachers, the need for string teachers increases.