McKinney ISD takes great pride in offering a fine arts program that provides excellent music education from the elementary years through 12th grade.

McKinney, Texas – McKinney ISD has been honored with the Best Communities for Music Education designation from The NAMM Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education. Now in its 23rd year, the Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement in efforts to provide music access and education to all students.

To qualify for the Best Communities designation, MISD answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program and community music-making programs. Responses were verified with school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.

“It is a great honor to once again be recognized by the NAMM Foundation as one of the nation’s ‘Best Communities for Music Education,’” said MISD Director of Fine Arts Dr. Dan White. “Receiving this honor for six consecutive years is the direct result of the dedication to excellent instruction from all of our elementary and secondary music teachers.”

Here are a few of the accolades earned by MISD music students and teachers over the past three years:

• The Eddins Elementary Honor Choir was one of only three elementary school choirs invited to perform at the TMEA state conference in 2019, marking the third time the Eddins choir had been chosen for the honor.
• Best in Texas…The Cockrill Middle School Honors Band was named the 2020 TMEA Middle School CCC Honor Band and performed at the Texas Music Educators Association State Convention in San Antonio in February 2020.
• In 2020, both the McKinney Boyd Honors Consortium Orchestra and the McKinney High School Symphony Orchestra earned National Winner status in the String Orchestra and Full Orchestra categories, respectively, in the national 2020 Mark of Excellence competition.
• During the summer of 2021 McKinney North Orchestra Director Lamar Smith earned the Director of Distinction Award from the Texas Orchestra Directors Association.
• The McKinney Boyd High School Percussion Ensemble won first place in the high school division of the Percussion Arts Society’s International Percussion Ensemble Competition this past fall.
• This spring, the Faubion Middle School Cambiata Tenor-Bass Choir earned the rare honor of performing as a TMEA Invited Choir.
• Eight MISD students representing each of the district’s three high schools were chosen as 2022 TMEA All-State musicians.

Research into music education continues to demonstrate educational/cognitive and social skill benefits for children who make music: After two years of music education, researchers found that participants showed more substantial improvements in how the brain processes speech and reading scores than their less-involved peers and that students who are involved in music are not only more likely to graduate high school, but also to attend college as well.

Everyday listening skills are stronger in musically trained children than in those without music training. Significantly, listening skills are closely tied to the ability to: perceive speech in a noisy background, pay attention, and keep sounds in memory. Later in life, individuals who took music lessons as children show stronger neural processing of sound: young adults and even older adults who have not played an instrument for up to 50 years show enhanced neural processing compared to their peers. Not to mention, social benefits include conflict resolution, teamwork skills, and how to give and receive constructive criticism.

About The NAMM Foundation
The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit supported in part by the National Association of Music Merchants and its approximately 10,300 members around the world. The foundation advances active participation in music making across the lifespan by supporting scientific research, philanthropic giving and public service programs. For more information about The NAMM Foundation, please visit www.nammfoundation.org.

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