Spotsylvania County Schools has been honored with the NAMM Foundation's Best Communities for Music Education designation for its outstanding commitment to music education.

Now in its 20th 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, SCPS answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, and support for the music programs; responses were verified with school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas. 

This award recognizes that SCPS is leading the way with learning opportunities outlined in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The legislation guides implementation in the states and replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), often criticized for overemphasizing testing while leaving behind subjects such as music. ESSA recommends music and the arts as important elements of a well-rounded education for all children.

Research into music education continues to demonstrate educational/cognitive and social skill benefits for children who make music. After two years of music education, the research 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. 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.