Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 5/13/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Anne Rigor Warming up the vocal chords is part of the daily class routine for chamber choir students at Independence High School. Hay Jordana, a fellow California Music Program teacher guides her students during vocal exercises on Monday afternoon.

Each week, Jay Jordana, a senior music education major, spends eight to 10 hours with music teachers and students at Independence High School in East San Jose as part of a program that works to improve the face of music education in California's kindergarten through high school classrooms.

For more than a year now, she has combined her skills in music and teaching to participate in the San Jose Music Project, which started at SJSU in 2006.

"Music education has been going down for many years," said music professor and project creator Diana Hollinger. "We just wanted to improve the general quality of grades K to 12, and we thought that lending aid was the best way to do that."

The California Music Project is a nonprofit organization that has helped fund the San Jose Music Project in the wake of federal and state legislations.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act, which was re-authorized in 2007, directs all its efforts to providing resources for math and science teachers, according to the Department of Education's Web site.

California Proposition 13 shifted more of the burden for funding public educational programs to revenues from property taxes rather than from the state budget, according to the Education Data Partnership, which includes California Department of Education.

"Schools now find it difficult to staff music programs and current teachers are often stretched to cover more than they should," Hollinger said.

Jordana works with beginning and advanced concert choirs at Independence High School, which includes mostly freshmen and sophomores. She said she has also accompanied students on piano and choir performances.

"I work with large groups of students," Jordana said, "but if a student wants to seriously train in music, then I talk to them about that, the audition process and what they can expect in college."

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