Farmingdale School District 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 25th year, the Best Communities for Music Education designation is awarded to school districts that demonstrate outstanding achievement to provide music access and education to all students.
To qualify for the Best Communities designation, Farmingdale School District answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, and support for the music program and community music-making programs. Responses were verified by school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas.
“The Farmingdale music program is a source of immense pride for our community,” said Greg Warnokowski, Farmingdale School District’s Director of Fine and Performing Arts. “Winning this award for the eleventh consecutive year underscores the strong bond between the district and the community, emphasizing their shared appreciation for music education. The program’s success and growth can be credited to our educators’ dedication, expertise, and commitment. We are truly thankful to our community, parents, school leaders, and Board of Education for their steadfast support of music education.”
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 involved in music are more likely to graduate high school and attend college. In addition, everyday listening skills are stronger in musically trained children than those without music training. Listening skills are closely tied to perceiving speech in a noisy background, paying attention, and keeping 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. Social benefits include conflict resolution, teamwork skills, and giving and receiving constructive criticism.
For more information about the Farmingdale Union Free School District, please visit the district’s website at https://www.farmingdaleschools.org and like our Facebook page: @FarmingdaleSchoolDistrict.
The NAMM Foundation is a nonprofit organization supported in part by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and its 15,000 global member companies and individual professionals worldwide. Our mission is to advance 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 nammfoundation.org.