Dear Music Education Advocate,

The National String Project Consortium (NSPC) is a coalition of String Project sites at colleges and universities across the country, supported by an Executive Board and Director. Applied string faculty, music education faculty, and local master teachers guide and support emerging string music teachers and community members engaged in learning how to play string instruments.

A key factor in the success of quality instruction in public school programs is the presence of universities and music schools that are strongly committed to training music educators. There must be cooperative university-and-community public school partnerships to prepare qualified teachers and provide them with the support services they need to be effective. Universities have not always embraced their role in this relationship, and must be strongly encouraged to foster the training of educators as well as competent string teachers and fine performers. Few higher education institutions have the methods and lab courses needed to adequately prepare students to teach. Fewer have string education specialists as full-time faculty. The NSPC Emerging Grant Program aims to address this problem by providing internship and assistantship funding to emerging string educators, who will receive pedagogical training while helping ensure that community members pay a low-cost fee to participate in the program. 

The NSPC is attempting to address this shortage of qualified string teachers with a plan that has established teacher-training internships  at higher education institutions throughout the United States by: 

• preparing highly qualified string music educators by offering long-term mentorship through supervised teaching experiences
• providing financial incentives by offering paid internships to undergraduate and graduate music education majors
• providing the opportunity for children and adults to study string instruments 
• stimulating the growth of new public school orchestra programs nationwide. 
• promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility within all sites.

Prior to receiving our rolling grant application, please provide a letter of interest that includes a purpose statement, explanation of the significance to your institution and community, and a summary of your short- and long-term strategy for the development of the String Project site at your institution. Email the letter to nationalstringproject@gmail.com.

Thank you for your interest in the National String Project Consortium (NSPC) and for your support of String Projects around the country. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Elizabeth A. Reed, Executive Director

FAQs

A. Background & History

The National String Project Consortium (NSPC) is a coalition of String Project sites at universities/colleges, in association with businesses, professional music organizations, and individuals who support our goals. They interact, exchange ideas, and learn from each other, but each String Project operates completely independently. Each institution that is chosen to participate in the Consortium is responsible for its own program. 

Thirty years ago, Kjelland (1996) stated that “the shortage of string teachers is a major topic of concern today, and the long-term solution would be to recruit more string education majors to our colleges” and Wagner (1996) further surmised that “states…could not fill positions they had open…[and that] the population of string teachers is aging…[thus,] the number of string education graduates does not meet current demands.” Fifteen years ago, Alexander and Smith (2010) surmised that there would be 3,000 string teaching positions needing to be filled by 2013, and an updated study in 2018 estimated the same by 2020. Before the pandemic, Smith et al. (2018) reported a persistent string of teacher shortages that could be influenced by the lack of “well-rounded programs” due to instructional quality. 

The Consortium was originally formed in 1998 under the auspices of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA). In 2000, NSPC became an independent non-profit organization comprising 41 universities, working with ASTA and other music organizations to advance string education and development across the United States. Since its inception, the NSPC has been responsible for stringed-instrument education for well over 10,000 public-school-age children at 41 sites across the United States. The NSPC’s teacher training program has reached over 400 string music education students at the sponsoring colleges and universities and has assisted in the education of well over 200 new and public school teachers. 

The original NSPC String Project model at the University of South Carolina involved recruiting third- and fourth-grade children from local public and private schools. Beginning group classes met twice a week. This format continued for the first two years of participation in the program. After two years of group instruction, students began weekly 30-minute private lessons in addition to playing in a group ensemble. See History for more information on the original model and how sites have adapted over the past 20 years. 

B. What is a String Project? 

The String Project is an effective model (Ferguson, 2003) for authentic context learning (ACL) experiences that helps preservice music teachers implement subject matter obtained in coursework, thus harmonizing musicians and teaching pedagogies, and creating a sense of responsibility for student learning which impacts self-efficacy and a decreased sense of anxiety about future teaching (Barnes, 2011, 2013; Ballantyne et al., 2012; Campbell et al., 2012; Chang & Ammerman, 2020; Colborne, 2016; Conkling, 2015; Edinger, 2013; Goldie, 2013; Hamann et al., 2011; Haston & Russell, 2011; Kruse & Hansen, 2020; Lesniak, 2017; MacLeod, 2018; Przygocki, 2009; Reed, 2000; Smith et al., 2018; Veblen, 2022). Preservice teachers found that “factual knowledge was secondary to field experiences,” especially within various environments (Ballantyne et al., 2012, p. 217). Applied string faculty, music education faculty, and local master teachers guide and support emerging string music teachers and community members engaged in learning how to play string instruments. String Projects have a dual legacy within their institution: 

1. To prepare emerging string instrument music educators for success through hands-on teaching experiences, deliberate mentorship, and collaborative professional development while directly addressing the national shortage of highly qualified string teachers.
2. To provide equitable access to inclusive and high-quality string education opportunities for students of all ages in communities of varied backgrounds and needs.

The String Project model is designed both to reflect a standard public school string program and to enrich students’ overall musical development. Each String Project site develops a program structure that best suits its needs and facilities. In their regular schools, students begin in heterogeneous classes and gradually progress to orchestral classes of varying levels. Recognizing that only a limited number of students have access to private lessons, String Project sites offer private instruction at affordable rates. Similarly, students may have access to additional enrichment classes—such as chamber music, music theory, alternative styles, or group guitar/harp instruction—to broaden their musical experience. Beginning group classes meet twice each week. This format continues for the first two years of participation in the program. After two years of group instruction, students begin private lessons and participate in ensembles. Generally, students also receive weekly half-hour lessons at this point.

Equally important is the model’s commitment to accessibility and affordability. Tuition is kept low, and opportunities for scholarships and instrument loans are provided to ensure that participation is possible for all students, regardless of social or economic circumstances. Sites are encouraged to facilitate broad participation to actively reflect this principle.

All participants in the program are required to participate in their own school programs (if any exist) to be in the String Project. This promotes a strong learning environment for the children and camaraderie with local string educators.

A central goal of the model is to provide practical, hands-on training for string majors during their college years. Instruction is delivered by undergraduate and graduate music students—particularly undergraduate music education majors—under the guidance and supervision of university faculty and experienced teacher-mentors, including the String Project Director and Master Teacher (traditional title)/String Specialist.

Additionally, the String Project model encourages action-based research within the field of music education and preservice teacher education which include research studies from the following: Alsayegh, 2019; Davis, 2011; Davis, 2018; King, 2022; Goldie, 2013; MacLeody & McKoy, 2012; Pellegrino, 2019; Pellegrino, 2014; Reed, 2018, 2025; Saccardi, et al., 2021; Schmidt, 2015; Sleator-McNally, 2012; Williams, 2017. The NSPC has also instituted a Rooted in Collaboration Program (2024) that offers grants and a professional learning community to sites interested in driving change and in working with local teaching artists to support culturally responsive curriculum development within each community.