National String Project Consortium
The NSPC supports the creation and growth of String Projects at universities across the country. These String Projects provide practical hands-on training for undergraduate string education majors during their college years and give children the opportunity to study a stringed instrument.
National String Project Consortium
The NSPC supports the creation and growth of String Projects at universities across the country. These String Projects provide practical hands-on training for undergraduate string education majors during their college years and give children the opportunity to study a stringed instrument.
Impact
The National String Project Consortium launched a virtual orchestra project to celebrate their 20th anniversary. This project showcases children and teachers across the country performing a special multilevel piece as if they were all together in one place. The NSPC was created to address a shortage of string teachers while also providing more music education opportunities for children.
Statistics
One sign of the success of the NSPC is the growth in the total number of students and teachers involved in these String Projects over the years. Currently there are 42 active String Project sites located in 23 states. There are seven sites in Texas, four in California, and three in Georgia and Pennsylvania. The highest number of students at a String Project is 402 at Arizona State University. The average number of students at a site is 91. The figures below show the overall numbers of students in NSPC programs.
NSPC Funding
The NSPC is actively involved in seeking grants and gifts to assist the current String Project sites in continuing to provide high-quality education and training, and also help provide start-up assistance to those institutions seeking to create new sites. Since 1999, the NSPC has received grants totaling approximately $2.3 million from FIPSE (US Department of Education), the NEA, Knight Foundation, Psaras Foundation, Heller Foundation, D’Addario Foundation, NABIM, NAMM, Strings Magazine, the Dana Foundation, and Yamaha.
Currently, we have five emerging sites in California, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. Two approved sites are awaiting funding and we have another application round due at the end of every year.
The Success of the NSPC String Projects
Another sign of the success of the NSPC is that 81% of the String Projects in the NSPC had success in increasing the number of music education majors at their school.
80% of college graduating String Project student teachers are still teaching (2015 site survey). This percentage is highly positive, as research shows that 40–50% of teachers leave the profession within their first five years (Kinsey, Riley, others)
The University of South Carolina String Project, now in its 44thyear, has won national recognition, including the Verner Award and a documentary on South Carolina ETV celebrating the 20th anniversary of the program. When the University of South Carolina String Project was founded in 1974 there was just one small string program in the Columbia metropolitan area. Now all five school districts in the Columbia area have large and active string programs, with orchestras in every high school and six regional youth orchestras.