About the Survey

The eighth annual Best 100 Communities for Music Education national survey will be conducted by a partnership of leading organizations devoted to education and music. The American Music Conference (AMC), The Metropolitan Opera Guild, The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, The Music for All Foundation, Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), NAMM, the International Music Products Association, the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, the National School Boards Association (NSBA), VH1 Save the Music Foundation and Yamaha Corporation of America have devoted their expertise and resources to find the best communities in America for music education.

The sponsoring organizations conducted the survey on the World Wide Web with the technical assistance of Giles Communications LLC of Purchase, N.Y., a public relations firm specializing in music, technology and education, and Perseus Development Corporation of Braintree, Mass., the market leader in developing and implementing web-based market research surveys. Founded in 1994 by professionals in the software development and market research fields, Perseus survey software products are used within the general business, healthcare, social science, education, government and professional research markets.

In designing the survey instrument, the participants took care to cast questions in a way that would best illustrate the comparative strengths of local school music programs. In order to ensure that the answers would be applicable, questions were posed that could be answered by different types of respondents: parents, teachers, school officials and community leaders. Those answering the survey were asked to identify which role they occupied.

To guarantee the highest possible participation, the survey instrument was also designed to work well in a variety of computer environments, across different platforms and browser applications. The form was kept brief and easy to answer, so that participation would not be inconvenient. It consisted of "one-click" multiple-choice questions, with a space-unlimited opportunity to submit a long-form prose entry at the end if the respondent desired to add any information.

Data collection was automated through the Web, with results stored simultaneously on the survey host Web server and on a second site via e-mail link for security against data loss. The data was received into a Microsoft® Access database and subjected to correlation and regression analysis using Microsoft® Excel and Survey Solutions for the Web, a proprietary software product of Perseus Development Corporation.

An overall score for each community was calculated based upon the answers to each of the questions in the survey. The respondents' data was averaged in accordance with response levels and population demographics to ensure that all locales, regardless of level of representation, were afforded an equal basis of measurement and fair representation in the overall educational quality ranking.

The circumstance that resulted in this year's inclusion of 100 communities arose when two school districts shared the same aggregate score, tying them precisely on the threshold of inclusion. The survey organizers decided that the spirit of the program made it appropriate simply to honor them both. The annual results are presented alphabetically, without ranking the "Best 100" communities among each other, and the two districts in question will not be identified.