ABSTRACT
Reading skills of secondary students are perceived as a critical problem in education. Many students entering high school read below a proficient level (Daggett & Hasselbring, 2007). Poor reading leads to lower achievement across the curriculum as course objectives become more discipline specific, especially in the use of language for teaching and testing. The result is that students are not college or career ready by the time they graduate. Most reading requirements for entry-level jobs are higher than the reading ability of about 75% of high school juniors (Daggett & Hasselbring, 2007). Recent education reform initiatives have attempted to address this problem. In the process, reforms have impacted the future of music education in both content and process. This chapter suggests that, in order to remain relevant in the current school context, music educators must consider a redefinition of literacy for the music classroom. Based on the Common Core Standards and the new Core Arts Standards, we suggest an expansion of the concept of music literacy to describe a balance between decoding and comprehension of musical elements coupled with authentic artistic processes.
