Welcome to my web page! For links to my blog, please click here: Keep Talking.

I also blog on education policy and politics at Eclectablog, a Michigan progressive news and commentary website.

You may also use the links above to find resources on graduate study and advising at Michigan State University as well as information on our current doctoral students and graduates in music education.

There is also a link to a page devoted to the distribution of clinic and workshop materials, handouts, research presentations, and other music education resources. All materials are offered free of charge and may be duplicated as needed, with proper citations and acknowledgements.

My essay on teacher evaluation was published on Eclectablog...click on the link above to see it.

My piece on my hopes for education policy in the New Year was published on Diane Ravitch's blog.

My article on the appointment of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education was published on Diane Ravitch's blog.

This article was also shared by the Daily Kos on their website.

My piece on the appointment of Michigan's Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education was shared on Diane Ravitch's blog: https://dianeravitch.net/2016/11/23/mitchell-robinson-from-michigan-this-is-the-real-betsy-devos/comment-page-1/

Honored to have my piece on Matt Lauer's deceptive "scholarship donations" to Detroit's kids on Diane Ravitch's blog, here. And here is the post on my blog.

A number of my essays on education policy have appeared on Eclectablog; click on the titles below to take a look...

The Today Show’s Matt Lauer deceptively pitches Shinola partnership as providing scholarships to needy Detroit kids

The 2 biggest losers in this campaign: Respect and tolerance

It’s not about you: More adventures in institutional privilege, music education edition

The charter school debate is over

The paradoxical world of education reform

Sorry, when it comes to education policy, this IS personal

I am pleased to announce that I have been invited to join the editorial team at Eclectablog! I will be focusing on education policy, particularly as it relates to public education and the corrosive impact of for-profit charter schools on our public school system, and am thrilled to contribute to my favorite political website in Michigan.

Click here for a brief interview with Chris Savage, the founder of Eclectablog.

My essay on charter schools has been reposted on Eclectablog, here.

My post on the similarities between private prisons and charter schools was reposted on Diane Ravitch's blog here. The original blog post can be found here.

My essay on the fallacies of school choice policy was published on "Eclectablog," a Michigan political blog. 

I'm very excited to have my first publication in the LA Progressive! I’ve admired this publication for a long time, and am thrilled to have one of my articles appear on their website.

My post on recent changes to teacher evaluation in Michigan, and their negative impact on music teachers, was reposted on Diane Ravitch's blog here.

A big thank you to Mandy Mikita Scott for her inspiration and contributions to this post!

Click here to listen to my radio interview with fellow education activist Denisha Jones on the Education Town Hall: BUS (Badass Teachers Association, United Opt Out, Save our Schools):

Death Knell for “Ed Reform”?

Mitchell Robinson, of Michigan State University, and Denisha Jones, of Howard University — both active in BadAss Teachers Association — discuss the disappointment of teachers and teacher educators, nationwide, as unions and others jump on the “teachers are the problem” bandwagon of #TeachStrong.

Jones explains how the new effort fails to include many experienced schools of education, possibly in recognition of the fact that previous attempts to privatize and control schools has been thwarted by teachers and teacher educators.

Robinson also argues, however, that recent changes of tack for ed reformers, including Gates Foundation teacher prep funding, suggest reformers’ frustration because “they have not done one thing” and consequent flailing. Signaling, perhaps, a death knell for combative and unsuccessful strategies. 

I'm thrilled to share my recent guest post on one of my very favorite political websites, Eclectablog! Chris Savage does a great job of keeping Michigan's citizens informed about what's happening in the state's political scene, and it's an honor to have my essay shared on this venue.

My essay on the main characters in what is referred to as "the education wars" was reposted by Diane Ravitch on her blog. To read the essay, click here...

An article of mine on music teacher evaluation, Can it get more absurd? Now music teachers are being tested based on math and reading scores, was published on The Conversation—a new media platform designed to "Inform public debate with knowledge-based journalism that is responsible, ethical and supported by evidence.”

My goal with this effort is to share my scholarship with a wider audience, and try to influence the narrative around the issues that are important to the profession. This can be difficult with traditional academic venues, like research journals, that have a limited circulation, target only other music educators, and often require a paid subscription in order to access. I believe that we have an obligation as “public academics” to spread our scholarship in these ways.

The Conversation is an open access platform with online editions in the US, Australia, Africa, France and the UK, and has a monthly audience of 2.6 million users, and a reach of 23 million.

My blog post, "Imagine," was picked up by Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post on October 13, 2015. To read the essay, click here:  

Click on the link below to hear my interview on the problems with Teach for America on the Rick Smith Radio Show.

https://thericksmithshow.com/2017/03/07/tuesday-march-7-2017-waited-7-years-gop-replacement-plan/

Robinson: Young creatives not good for art education

—Mitchell Robinson is associate professor and chair of the music education area in the College of Music at Michigan State University. 6:04 a.m. EDT September 27, 2015

As a former public school music teacher, music teacher educator, arts education advocate and chair of the music education area at Michigan State University, I am writing to express my profound disappointment with the recent announcement from the Arts Council of Greater Lansing of the “Young Creatives Project,” an initiative designed to “support funding of teaching artists in Lansing School District elementary classrooms”. To be clear, “teaching artists” are not certified arts teachers, and are not licensed to provide instruction in schools.

I was deeply involved with the Arts Council’s early efforts to advocate for restoration of the nearly 20 music, art and physical education teaching positions eliminated by the district two years ago, and a central component of our community arts task force’s approach at the time was the recognition that it was the responsibility of the district to provide certified, qualified arts and physical education teachers to deliver instruction to Lansing’s children.

When the cuts were first announced, the Arts Council served as the “convener” of the Lansing area’s community arts providers and agencies, arts educators and other community organizations, and organized the local arts community in a forceful and principled response to the District’s actions. We understood that it was beyond the scope and mission of these organizations to provide sequential, curricular arts education to the children of Lansing, and that agreeing to consider this move would effectively relieve the District of its responsibility to provide instruction.

While the Arts Council’s new “Young Creatives Program” promises to partner with the LSD to provide “teaching artists” in the schools, this initiative will actually result in a greatly diminished arts education experience for Lansing’s children, and all but guarantee that the District will never reinstate art, music or physical education for the city’s youngest children. So while children in Holt, Grand Ledge and Waverly have faced similar budgetary challenges, but still offer and support strong, vibrant art, music and physical education offerings, their peers in Lansing will be deprived of these experiences. And the achievement gap between Lansing and other school systems will continue to grow wider.

If the Arts Council truly wants to do what is best for Lansing’s children, they will reconsider this shameless attempt to profit off of the LSD’s decision to eliminate elementary arts education in the city, and work with the District’s leadership to restore these programs to the schools. Lansing’s children deserve the same quality of education as their peers in other area schools, which includes music, art and physical education instruction delivered by certified, qualified teachers.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/contributors/viewpoints/2015/09/27/robinson-young-creatives-good-art-education/72728306/

— Mitchell Robinson is associate professor and chair of the music education area in the College of Music at Michigan State University.

Diane Ravitch recently reposted a blog post of mine on how the reform strategy of "creative destruction" has wreaked havoc in the public schools of many major American cities, including New Orleans and Detroit.

However, one of the more subtle, yet damaging, weapons in the reformers' playbook is simultaneously less visible to the uninformed eye and more insidious in its ability to accomplish the reformers' ultimate goal: the destabilization of public education by an intentional, purposeful strategy of near-constant turnover and turmoil in the leadership and teaching force in the schools.

The business world has a name for this practice: creative destruction. It's a term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, and "refers to the incessant product and process innovation mechanism by which new production units replace outdated ones." Also referred to as "churn," this business-centered approach to school reform considers students and teachers as "raw materials," and schools as "factories." The goal is maximizing profits, and significant "collateral damage" (i.e., school closings, teacher terminations, student expulsions) is not only acceptable, but expected, in the single-minded pursuit of the reformers' goals.

"Creative destruction" comes in numerous forms in public education, from the year-to-year involuntary reassignment of teachers from one grade level to another, to the practice of having elementary teachers with "all subjects" certifications teach subjects (i.e., music, art, PE) they are unqualified to teach, to moving principals back and forth between schools as though they are pawns in a game of administrative Pong.

For more, go to "If You Can't Beat 'Em, Destabilize 'Em!"

I'm excited to share that my recent blog post on Achievement School Districts has been picked up by Diane Ravitch, perhaps our most influential education blogger and historian.

Click below to read the article: 

There is the Recovery School District in New Orleans; the Education Achievement Authority in Michigan; the Achievement School District in Tennessee; and more on the way in other states.

The main thing you need to know about these experimental districts is that they promise rapid improvement in the state’s lowest performing schools, and all of them have failed.

http://dianeravitch.net/2015/07/25/mitchell-robinson-what-you-need-to-know-about-achievement-school-districts/

I'm happy to share that my chapter, “A Tale of Two Institutions or... Myths and Musings on Work/Life Balance,” appears in the new book, “On the High Wire: Education Professors Walk Between Work and Parenting” from Information Age Publishing.

The purpose of the work/life balance series is to highlight particular challenges that higher education faculty face as they participate in the demands of the academy and try to prevent those demands from invading their personal lives. On The High Wire looks at a specific subset of university faculty, education faculty with school-aged children, and the specific professional/personal balance these faculty need to find. The title On the High Wire suggests the precarious nature of the “walk” for education faculty who are parents of school-aged children. We know that our identities are central to how we experience the world and how the world reacts to us. This reality is clearly visible in this book. These multiple identities and roles come into conflict at multiple points and in different ways. This book explores these identities and roles through autoethnographic accounts written by varied education faculty in order to make these tensions visible for the field to address.

When we talk about building an education system that prepares children for the creative thinking and collaboration skills necessary in today’s -- and tomorrow’s --  job market, there’s an amazing resource here in Michigan that, like most places, gets almost criminally overlooked: music educators.

My job allows me to travel quite a bit, so I’ve had the opportunity to see some of the finest music programs and teachers across the country, and I believe that Michigan has some of the best school music programs in the nation. There are a few reasons why:

• The quality of music teachers here is outstanding. They are talented, smart and well-informed.

• Michigan's teachers also tend to be well-connected to their professional organizations and seek out professional development. Research tells us that teachers who attend professional development events tend to remain active members of the profession, while those who don’t often wind up leaving the classroom.

• Music programs in Michigan are grounded in solid pedagogical foundations, with comprehensive, sequential general music programs in the elementary schools; and strong band, orchestra and chorus programs at the secondary level.

While we are fortunate to be in a state with excellent music programs, sadly this is not the case in every school. Recently, the Lansing School District made the decision to lay-off nearly all of its certified teachers in elementary music, art and physical education. This creates an enormous equity issue for children and families in this region — those who live in Lansing’s suburbs enjoy rich, meaningful offerings in the arts, while their peers in the city have little-to-no access to these same opportunities. This must change.

So, too, must the way we evaluate music teachers. If studies already show that measuring teacher effectiveness through test score improvements is simplistic and naïve, it is then especially troubling for music teachers that part of their annual effectiveness rating is often based on test scores in subjects that they don’t teach, like math or reading, and on test scores for children that are not even in their classes. That doesn’t seem right or fair.

We often hear the saying, “We test what we value.” I would respectfully suggest that exactly the opposite is true. In fact, the things that we value and care about the most are those things that are precisely the most resistant to measurement. For many students, music is one of those things they care about the most; it brings meaning to their lives. It’s one of the most powerful ways they have to make sense of their world.

I would also like to challenge the notion that the main purpose of schools is to produce the nation’s workforce. This stance represents a re-conceptualization of the true purpose of education, from one that is about the development of meaningful relationships between teachers and learners, and among learners, to one that is simply a transfer of information from teacher to learner -- a sort of educational “banking transaction”, if you will.

To be clear, I am not against the development of students who are capable of moving on to college or the workforce, but that is not the purpose of education and never has been. That’s a byproduct of schooling, not a purpose. Just as the reason for teaching music is not to help children get good ratings at competitions, but rather to help them learn the musical skills and knowledge in order to become lifelong music makers and supporters of the arts.

So what’s the Next Idea?

I remain very optimistic about the future for music educators in Michigan because never before has what we have to offer been more desperately needed -- by our students, our schools and our society. I know that music, when taught well, provides the “antidote” to today’s “teach-to-the-test,” assessment-driven culture because music study offers the very things that employers say they are looking for in the workforce, and for what school leaders emphasize in mission and vision statements: critical thinking, teamwork, problem-solving skills, and creativity. Or, in the words of Dr. Elliott Eisner, renowned arts educator: “Our schools, teachers, and students might be a lot better off if schools embraced the idea that education means learning what to do when you don’t know what to do.”

As the father of two school-age boys, I see firsthand the impact of a fine school music program on my children. They understand that there is often more than one “right” way to answer a question, especially when the question is a difficult one. They are comfortable with what psychologists call “divergent” thinking, which is the ability to see multiple solutions to a problem. Children who study music know how to work together collaboratively in groups, to value the efforts of all team members, and that every person has the ability to make a worthwhile contribution to the group’s work.

In order to help move Michigan toward a future in which all students have access to a strong and vibrant music education, there are two policy initiatives that the Partnership for Music Education Policy Development, a Michigan think-tank dedicated to promoting music education, says will help:

1.      To amend the School Code to require elementary schools to provide a comprehensive, sequential music education, delivered by a certified, qualified music teacher, for every student in grades kindergarten to five. Currently, Michigan is one of only a handful of states that does not mandate music instruction for elementary school students.

2.      To modify the current teacher evaluation system for music teachers to insure a more fair and more equitable process is followed.

It’s time that music teachers stop apologizing for their role in helping our students to become more comfortable with their feelings and their emotions. This is not a weakness in what we do, it’s a great strength. By ensuring that access to a full and complete education is guaranteed for all of Michigan’s children, we move closer to realizing the great power and promise of music in our schools, because, when taught well, music can provide the means for our students to figure out what to do when they don’t know what to do. And that should be what we want for all of our children. 


Share Your Ideas:

•  How has studying music affected your life? 
• In your view, what is the purpose of education and where does music fit in? 

Join the conversation in the comments section below, on Twitter or Facebook, or let us know your Next Idea here. 

Mitchell Robinson is an associate professor of music education and chair of the music education area at Michigan State University.

Click on this link to hear an interview with Cynthia Canty of Michigan Radio about the essay...http://michiganradio.org/post/focus-stem-overshadows-importance-music-education

The following post appeared on the Badass Teachers Association blog (http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-12-04T09:29:00-08:00&max-results=7) on December 4, 2014

When we want to improve something--a product, a process, a project--in the business world, we devote more time, money and resources into research and development; we recruit talented people and pay them a competitive wage; we make sure we surround those persons with excellent facilities, equipment, materials, working conditions, benefits, and retirement packages; we treat those employees with dignity, respect and compassion.

When we want to improve something--teacher quality, student learning--in public education, we establish invalid and unreliable accountability measures that have been proven not to work; we eliminate teacher tenure, teacher unions, and minimum salary requirements; we make it easier for unqualified people to enter the profession, taking away jobs from more experienced (read = more expensive) teachers; we deregulate charter schools as we impose unreasonable demands and expectations on our public schools, teachers and students.

And then we blame teachers and students for the problems created by this mismanagement, and label them as "whiners" and "complainers" when they have the nerve to voice their concerns about the damage being done to public education.
Why?

Qualitative research has become increasingly popular in music education over the last decade, yet there is no source that explains the terms, approaches and issues associated with this approach. In The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education, editor Colleen Conway and the contributing music educators provide that clarification, as well as models of qualitative studies within various music education disciplines. The handbook outlines the history of qualitative research in American music education and explores the contemporary use of qualitative approaches in examining issues related to music teaching and learning. It includes 32 chapters that address a range of topics, from ways of approaching qualitative research and ways of collecting and analyzing data, to the various music teaching and learning contexts that have been studied using qualitative approaches. 

My two chapters are: 

6 ‐ Changing the Conversation: Considering Quality in Music Education Qualitative Research.

31 ‐ The Politics of Publication: Voices, Venues and Ethics.

To browse an online version of the Handbook, please go to: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199844272.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199844272

Last spring, in response to a budget deficit, the Lansing Public School District laid off 87 teachers who were certified to teach art, music and physical education in its elementary schools.

Now more than a month into the school year, we thought it would be a good time to check-in on how this is playing out and find out what options are on the table to educate Lansing students in these crucial subjects.

In the coming weeks here on Current State, we plan to have a series of conversations with all of the stakeholders – parents, teachers, and district officials. Today, we start off with community arts providers.

Click here to listen to the interview: http://wkar.org/post/local-arts-orgs-seek-return-certified-teachers-lansing-schools

Barb Whitney is a program manager and interim director of the Arts Council of Greater Lansing. And Mitchell Robinson is an associate professor and chair of the Music Education department in Michigan State University’s College of  Music.

Music Education Advocacy

Experts at MSU take action and provide perspective

School districts across the nation are faced with challenging economic times. When tough decisions need to be made, arts funding is one of the first things some districts put under the microscope. Music Education at MSU looks at this through a different lens and plays a strong advocacy role for the arts in its community, across the state and nation.

In March of 2013, the Lansing School District announced it would cut more than 80 elementary art, music, and physical education teacher positions beginning in the fall of 2013. Faced with some tough budgetary issues and new State of Michigan Right-to-Work legislation, the school board and teachers union made the decision to eliminate teacher positions and supplement their programing by placing additional demands on existing teachers and seeking non-binding external subject matter resources and personnel.

Dr. Mitch Robinson, associate professor and chair of music education, and Rhonda Buckley, associate dean for outreach and engagement and executive director of the MSU Community Music School, took prompt action. They reached out to local and national arts organizations, teachers, parents, the MSU College of Education, and various associations to advocate for the centrality and importance of arts education in the general curriculum. New dialogues have evolved and relationships have developed as the College of Music continues to provide leadership on this issue.

Click here to read more on the College of Music’s perspective on this issue and listen to a radio interview with Mitch Robinson.

The 2013 Michigan Music Conference will feature an impressive roster of presenters with MSU affiliations--just click to see a full size version of the poster!

We should all be proud of our friends and colleagues who will be sharing their knowledge and expertise with their colleagues in our schools at this event. See below for a listing of these sessions. 

I'd also like to point out three events for your special attention:

• Dr. Cindy Taggart will be presenting an all day (8:00am-4:00pm) pre-conference workshop, titled "Illuminating the Mystery: Music Learning Theory in Action. Cindy will be joined by two Spartan alums, Jennifer Bailey and Heather Shouldice, who will be co-presenters. This promises to be a terrific workshop!

• Dr. Kevin Sedatole, MSU's Director of Bands, will be conducting the Michigan All-State High School Band on Saturday. It will be great to have Dr. Sedatole share his musicianship and artistry with our state's young musicians. Congratulations Kevin!

• Dr. John Kratus will be receiving the MMEA "Award of Merit" for his contributions to the state's music education community, especially for his founding of the annual MMEA Honors Composition Concert, which will be held on Saturday, January 19. Congratulations to John for this well deserved honor!

Also, if you are planning to attend the MMC, please remember to join us for the MSU Reception on Friday. The reception will be held from 5:00-6:30pm in the Governors Room, and is a great way to catch up with old friends and touch base with the faculty and current students. We hope to see you there!

Congratulations to all of our presenters and clinicians, and thank you for sharing your expertise and ideas with your colleagues!

Click on the picture to the left to go to the Teachers College Press web page on our new book, What Every Principal Needs to Know to Create Equitable and Excellent Schools, edited by George Theoharis (Syracuse University) and Jeff Brooks (Iowa State University). My chapter is titled, "Music Teaching and Learning in a Time of Reform."