Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has been named a Best Community for Music Education by the NAMM (National Association for Music Merchants) Foundation.  FCPS was recognized for its outstanding commitment to and support of music education, and for its efforts to provide music access and education to all students.

 To qualify for the Best Communities designation, FCPS provided information on funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, and support for the music program and community music-making programs. Responses were reviewed by the Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas. FCPS is one of 686 school divisions nationwide to earn the designation.

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. It also revealed that students 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; listening skills are closely tied to the ability to perceive speech in a noisy background, pay attention, and keep sounds in memory. 

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