Administrative Duties of the Music Teacher (2024)

Anyone who has taught an undergraduate course that covers nonteaching responsibilities—or administrative duties—has most likely encountered students with attitudes similar to the preceding one concerning the course content. These students often have yet to realize that music teachers must manage many nonmusical responsibilities in order to create a classroom atmosphere that is conducive to music-making activities. Administrative duties are numerous but often include tasks such as managing a budget, fundraising, maintaining inventory, communicating with parents, organizing student field trips and travel, recruiting, advocacy, hiring of private lesson teachers and coaches, fostering booster organizations, writing student learning objectives, and completing teacher evaluation paperwork, along with many additional items.

Exacerbating the complexity of learning how to effectively navigate the administrative duties of a music program are extra demands placed on music teachers. For instance, music teachers often teach multiple grade levels while traveling between schools as part of their daily routines. Music teachers are also often tasked with managing relatively large budgets, organizing an expensive and diverse inventory, and planning student travel. Accordingly, learning the organizational skills needed to successfully manage the administrative duties associated with being a successful music teacher can be daunting and difficult for both preservice and young in-service teachers. Providing a conceptual framework for and specific examples of various nonteaching duties can draw attention to the additional responsibilities that will be encountered in the profession while hopefully easing the anxiety related to dealing with them.

This chapter presents research and practical ideas for preparing preservice music teachers for various administrative duties that they will encounter in the schools. It begins with a review of literature for administrative duties, followed by suggestions for developing preservice teacher conceptual frameworks of selected administrative duties that are commonly associated with music teaching. While the term administrative duties encompasses many topics, the applied portion of this chapter will focus on only five areas due to practical considerations and impact: budgeting, fundraising, inventory, communicating with parents, and organizing student travel.

Review of Literature for Administrative Duties

A small body of research literature exists concerning administrative duties associated with music teaching. Budgeting concerns are most commonly referenced in the literature (Conway, 2003a; DeLorenzo, 1992; Haack, 2003; Krueger, 1996; Montague, 2000; Peterson, 2011), but generally all other nonteaching aspects of running a music program (e.g., maintaining a music library and organizing student travel) appear to be referenced with the terms administrative duties or nonteaching responsibilities. The following terms will be used to designate various stages of a teacher’s development:

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Administrative Duties

Few investigators have reported preservice teacher concerns with administrative duties. In an open-ended survey, Kelly (2000) asked 62 pre-internship undergraduate music education majors to list their top three fears and concerns of being an intern teacher as well as a 1st-year in-service teacher. Reported concerns were grouped into 18 categories, which generally aligned with a previous study of similar scope (Madsen & Kaiser, 1999); however, Kelly found the additional concern of administrative nonteaching duties. While this was not a top five fear or concern of being an intern teacher, participants overwhelmingly listed “non-teaching duties (budget, recruiting, scheduling, etc.)” as their number one fear or concern of being an initial in-service teacher.

In a similar study, Killian, Dye, and Wayman (2013) polled 159 preservice music teachers about their concerns regarding teaching. Participants completed an open-ended survey both prior to and upon completion of their internship experiences, and responses were organized into 25 categories. Pre-internship survey results ranked administrative duties concerns as number 12. Post-internship survey results showed a higher concern for administrative duties, which were ranked as number 6.

Neither study provided information about whether participants in these surveys had taken courses addressing administrative duties or if cooperating teachers had involved the participants in various administrative tasks while completing their intern experiences. Presumably curricula and delivery of content vary according to institution and internship locales, which most likely would have an impact on preservice teachers’ perceptions of the nonteaching responsibilities associated with music teaching. Regardless, these studies indicate the concerns that undergraduate music education majors have regarding administrative duties associated with the teaching profession.

In-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of and Experiences With Administrative Duties

Studies of in-service teachers also indicate concerns about administrative duties. This is most likely due to context: Once teachers have been responsible for the administrative duties of a classroom, they understand the relation of nonteaching responsibilities in comparison to more overt teaching skills and duties. Perhaps the earliest and most commonly cited study indicating administrative duties as a concern for in-service teachers is authored by Lisa DeLorenzo (1992). She aimed to identify the perceived problems of beginning music teachers by sending a 55-item questionnaire to new teachers (N = 221) in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Results indicated that most participants felt comfortable with the majority of their teaching duties, but one of the few exceptions was budget preparation.

Several other investigators also studied new teachers and their perceived problems. Krueger (1996) asked 16 young teachers to rank 10 items according to the problems they presented during their 1st year of teaching. Budget concerns had an average rank of 6 out of 10. Roulston, Legette, and Sarah (2005) completed a qualitative study of 9 1st- and 2nd-year teachers concerning their perceptions and experiences transitioning from being an intern teacher to an in-service teacher. Respondents commonly discussed the need to become better organized in all aspects of their teaching.

Peterson (2011) set up a “New Teacher Story Booth” at two separate music education conferences and actively recruited young teachers to share stories of their 1st year of teaching. The majority of the 50-plus participants had less than 6 years of teaching experience. Peterson transcribed portions of the conversations that took place into a book meant to highlight individual tales and experiences, administrative duties such as budgeting, parent communication, and organizational skills were mentioned by several participants. One participant even proclaimed: “The administration of the program is 95% of the job. … I feel like I wasn’t really fully prepared for that aspect of [teaching]” (Peterson, 2011, p. 111).

Targeting a broader range of experience in the teaching profession, Conway (2003b) surveyed more than 40 music teachers with varying years of experience, including 1st-year through recently retired teachers. Using a mixture of email questionnaires, individual interviews, and phone interviews, Conway investigated perceived challenges of the job and types of professional development that participants considered most meaningful. Analysis indicated that “administrative organization (preparing a budget, etc.)” is an item that becomes easier with time and experience. In the discussion, “managing funds” is recommended as a topic that needs to be addressed as general professional development.

Mentoring and Administrative Duties

Navigating various aspects of the administrative duties associated with music teaching is a common component of mentoring young teachers. Montague (2000) followed four mentor/mentee pairs to document the themes that were discussed. Pairs included young and experienced teachers. The specific administrative duties addressed included budgeting, equipment inventory, storage facilities, parent communication, and administrative planning. Mentees requested specific advice or were actively being led to avoid potential tripping points for young teachers.

In a summary of literature on mentoring beginning music teachers, Conway (2001) stated that in her own experiences she has found administrative responsibilities to be problematic for young teachers. In later research, Conway (2003a) documented the practices of 13 mid-Michigan school districts and found that conversations between mentors and mentees commonly focused on the administrative duties of teaching music.

In a book on mentoring and supporting new teachers edited by Conway, Haack (2003) reported an unpublished study that he and Michael Smith completed on mentoring practices over a 13-year time span. Haack cautions that this was “at best a pilot study” (p. 20); nonetheless, the results are noteworthy given it is the only study that used a common assessment instrument to compare data over an extended period. Haack and Smith targeted teachers in a large metropolitan area of the upper Midwest as project coordinators of the mentoring portion of the Yamaha Project 2000. They created a list of 25 items to be ranked by young teachers with a Likert scale instrument. Between the years 1990 and 1993, 56 music teachers ranked “music program administration” as their 5th-greatest concert/discomfort. The highest-ranked concern/discomfort was “computer skills.” In 2003, 24 new participants ranked “music program administration” as their 12th-greatest concern/discomfort, whereas “improvisation skills” were ranked 1st. While these results suggest that administrative duties are less of a concern than in the previous decade, the sample sizes are small and limited.

Literature Conclusions

Little research has been completed on the administrative duties and nonteaching responsibilities faced by music teachers. Most of the limited amount of literature has focused on the preservice and early years of in-service teaching, which suggests that the skills associated with administrative duties are acquired after the initial few years of in-service experience. Budgeting is the most frequently discussed administrative duty, suggesting that more instruction and direction on this topic may be warranted during the preservice years of study.

Future researchers may consider designing studies to specifically assess subcategories of the nonteaching responsibilities associated with the music classroom to add to the body of research. Additionally, longitudinal studies may help to illuminate the changing perceptions of difficulties in learning to cope with the nonteaching responsibilities of music teaching. For instance, technology has drastically altered teacher-parent communication over the past few decades, and there may be similar changes in other administrative duties such as maintaining inventories and organizing music libraries that have also morphed due to developing technological aids.

Addressing Administrative Duties

This section includes suggestions for developing preservice teacher conceptual frameworks of the various administrative duties associated with music teaching. Although budgeting was specifically mentioned in the literature, I have chosen five areas of focus: (a) budgeting, (b) fundraising, (c) inventory, (d) communicating with parents, and (e) organizing student travel. Key concepts and general principles for discussion and preservice teacher involvement will be provided for each of the five selected topics.

Budgeting

As noted previously, the most commonly referenced administrative duty in research literature is budgeting. Budgeting includes a myriad of tasks, including making immediate purchases, planning expensive purchases that require years of acquiring funds, balancing accounts, projecting future budgetary needs, and so forth. Researchers have provided data showing that the topic of budgeting creates anxiety for preservice teachers, but no data have been gathered on the factors that cause the anxiety. Perhaps fears arise because preservice teachers are used to hearing about budget cuts and money shortfalls that seem to pervade local and national news. Perhaps preservice teachers are under the impression that they cannot effectively deliver music curricula without a discretionary budget. Perhaps the possibility of being disciplined or fired over mismanagement of funds drives fear. Whatever the case, I have found that most preservice teachers simply do not understand the processes of managing and spending allocated funds, and once these processes are unraveled, fear of the unknown seems to ease.

When an understanding of common budgeting practices is lacking, these questions can be difficult to answer. These questions may even be points of misguided frustration for some individuals due to a lack of procedural understanding. Whether a person agrees with common budgeting processes or not, there often are simple possible answers to these questions:

Generally, “small/inexpensive” purchases can be completed with relatively little foresight in comparison with larger purchases. While school districts have varying procedures, Table 21.2 provides a sample process for making a “small/inexpensive” purchase such as ordering a piece of music or replacing a broken mallet. The budget line for these types of purchases is typically more discretionary in nature and might have a name such as “music” or “instructional materials” or “classroom supplies.” The entire process for making these types of purchases may potentially be completed in only a few days. Some schools may also allow teachers to open a purchase order with a specified vendor for the entire academic year so the teacher can make ongoing “small/inexpensive” purchases. For instance, a teacher may receive permission to open a $200 purchase order at a specified vendor to buy supplies throughout the fiscal year as long as the teacher does not spend more than the $200 limit. These purchase orders are closed when the funds are depleted or at the end of the fiscal year.

Conversely, “large/expensive” purchases will require considerably more foresight and long-term planning. Table 21.3 provides a sample process for making a “large/expensive” purchase such as ordering a new marimba or updating software in a computer lab. Many times, these types of purchases are considered capital purchases, and they will have their own budget line(s). A capital purchase will entail a lengthier process and often requires rationales, detailed descriptions, and a specific time frame for the bidding process to take place. Often, rationales and proposals for “large/expensive” purchase requests are due in the fiscal year that precedes the year in which the items will be purchased. The procedure for instigating a “large/expensive” purchase may involve years of amassing funds and months for completing the acquisition process.

Throughout discussions of purchasing procedures, visual samples will provide context. For instance, showing sample purchase requests and rationales followed by bid requests that include detailed item descriptions allows preservice teachers to formulate ideas of scope and specificity. Professors who have maintained files from their own public school teaching experiences may use personal examples. More general examples can be found in various textbooks that cover budgeting (e.g., see Feldman & Contzius, 2016, chap. 20). Providing visual examples will also often spur further questions that can lead to more discussion.

Fundraising

Music programs commonly use fundraising activities to enhance budgets for extracurricular activities such as travel and competition. Preservice teachers may have memories of walking door to door selling cookie dough or poinsettias, playing “for-hire” concerts at malls and other locations, and donating items for a “silent auction” that takes place during the intermission of a formal concert. Few preservice teachers, though, likely participated in the organization of these events or fully comprehend the many details that need to be addressed to ensure the success of the various fundraising activities. Focusing class discussion on the following points will help to unravel various aspects of organizing successful activities.

An important factor in scheduling any fundraising activity is to determine what the profit margin and administrative costs will be for each event. On one end, a high profit margin means that there is relatively little overhead cost and most of the raised money goes to the fundraising fund. For example, collecting cash donations at a concert may not have any associated overhead costs and 100% of the money goes to the fundraising fund. At the other end, a low profit margin means that a relatively small percentage of the raised money goes to the fundraising fund. For example, selling items door to door through an agency specializing in fundraising activities may only net 20% of the total sales, since the goods, shipping costs, and company fees account for the other 80% of the total sales. These profit margins are set by the vendor and are generally nonnegotiable. Accordingly, it is recommended that teachers contact several vendors to compare products, services, shipping costs, and profit margins before making a commitment.

Another way to reduce potential issues with handling money is for young in-service teachers to recuse themselves from money handling. These duties may be delegated to parent volunteers, booster organization members, or other school employees such as the fine arts coordinator or the school budget manager. Typically, anyone handling money needs to receive approval from the school district to do so.

An important aspect of money handling is properly crediting funds. Placing money into one general music program account is typically easier than tracking multiple individual student accounts. There are many online software programs that can aid in the tracking of fundraising money, including the technological aids mentioned in the section of this chapter that discusses inventory.

Inventory

Organizing inventory can be a daunting task for new in-service teachers, particularly if they inherit a program that lacks a clear organizational structure. Images of spending time perfecting lesson plans and decorating announcement boards can quickly be dashed when new in-service teachers realize the potential chaos created by not having an organizational structure in place for distributing, collecting, and maintaining the many items used in the music classroom. Additionally, even if a new in-service teacher has inherited a well-organized music program, he or she may initially underestimate the time and effort required to maintain the structures already in place. Without context it may be difficult for preservice teachers to understand the time and attention to detail that are required to maintain inventory. Providing a broad survey of useful tools for organizing the various aspects of the music program (such as the music library and instrument inventory) will create a foundation for preservice teachers to reference when they begin their first music teaching position.

The main point of these conversations is to guide attention toward the need for teachers to know what is in their inventory, how to access items quickly, how to assign items to students, how to schedule routine maintenance and repair, how to track the repair history and costs of instruments, and how to ensure items are properly stored for future use.

Even though intern teachers will most likely inherit a system different from the one used at their intern teaching location, awareness of various methods and styles can help new in-service teachers with the initial learning curve of organizing their music classroom.

While it is often fairly easy to add new items to an inventory, there are several more difficult situations that are worth discussing with preservice teachers. These include accepting donations, discarding or selling unused items, and lending items to other schools within and outside the school district. In all of these circ*mstances, school and district administrators should be contacted and appropriate procedures followed.

Properly maintaining a music library is another important discussion topic. Cataloging, sorting, and replacing sheet music are useful topics for preservice teachers to cover; however, I find that the most critical conversations typically focus on copyright laws. While that topic is beyond the scope of this chapter, it is critical for preservice teachers to enter the profession with a clear understanding of appropriate and lawful sheet music usage practices.

Communicating With Parents

In a world more “connected” than ever before, it almost seems silly that communication skills need to be addressed. However, it is important for preservice teachers to learn how to properly and efficiently communicate with parents. Parent communication can take many forms; but some of the more common methods are emails, written letters, social media, and informational flyers.

Many people have stories of emails that were misinterpreted—whether the tone was misunderstood, an important word was accidentally left out, or the timing of the email was unfortunate. There will always be a few preservice teachers who are willing to share a quick story about their situations, which are typically humorous. After some sharing, you may choose to move the conversation from a lighthearted conversation about misinterpretation to improper usage of informal emails. This will help to underscore the severity of improper email etiquette.

Discussing improper email exchanges is one way to move conversation toward the construction of formal emails. When doing so, it is important to describe or show the exchange, followed by a quick explanation of the context and the probable intent of the author versus the function it served when received. Framing conversation from the intent-function angle will hopefully allow the conversation to pivot toward the proper construction of formal emails, including salutations and signatures, punctuation, voice, and etiquette.

Organizing Student Travel

Travel is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to enhance the learning experiences of their students. Several of the most common reasons to travel are for performance opportunities and concert attendance, which may take place during a single day or over multiple days. These experiences often create long-lasting memories for students.

Planning travel is not easy, and preservice teachers may be surprised to learn of the logistics required to create a successful event. When planning travel, many important factors need to be addressed, with some of the most important being student safety and budget/general organization.

This list represents only some of the considerations and planning that go into creating a successful trip experience. Enlisting the help of mentors and school administrators is highly recommended for young intern teachers.

Conclusions

Addressing administrative duties of the music teacher will help to prepare preservice teachers for the nonmusical responsibilities of a job. Establishing healthy classroom discussions with aptly seeded content and examples will raise awareness of the varied policies and procedures that preservice teachers may encounter. The nonteaching responsibilities discussed in this chapter do not represent all administrative expectations preservice teachers may inherent with future jobs, but covering the topics discussed here will provide preservice teachers with a better grasp on the skills and expectations needed to ensure their music programs operate smoothly.

Further Reading