<p>I was a little surprised when i found out that my county’s high schools require a DMA or equivalent music degree just to teach music. </p>
<p>My S’s former music teacher in high school only had a MM(?) from Yale. She basically only was in charge of the school wind and string orchestras.(probably 60 students total) We went to her retirement party last week. She said her replacement is a nice 30-ish young man who has a DMA degree from SUNY. He said he went to Curtis during college, then MM from USC(?). Apparently the school board changed the hiring rules and now requires a DMA degree. I will be frank and say the school orchestra sucked because any kid who could make a sound on the instrument was allowed in. The job only pays about $40,000 to begin. The retiring music teacher only made $52,000 pre-tax after 25 years.(according to her)</p>
<p>Call me crazy, but isn’t that a waste of talent and time?</p>
<p>Does sound crazy…it sounds to me like the school district figures that there will be so many people with a DMA degree out there that they will easily be able to get someone, and they can brag that their music program is demanding, since it requires a doctorate (having PHd level people on faculty is often bragged about in schools. so that may be their angle. Especially given it doesn’t pay that well (unless living is way cheap there), it sounds like they are counting on there being desperate DMA’s looking for work. Personally, they would be better saying “DMA preferred”, cause they might get clunks that have DMA’s and some good teachers who have MM’s…</p>
<p>Wow, I’ve never heard of this happening anywhere–certainly not in my state. There would not be enough people with doctorates in music to go around I don’t think–it’s quite rare here for teachers to have doctorates for teaching below the college level.</p>
<p>MM makes sense, but a DMA is overkill in my opinion, especially when teachers of academic subjects can begin employment with an undergrad diploma and obtain their masters within the first couple of years on the job.
And since the arts are the first thing to be cut from school budgets, requiring a doctorate should come with a “job safety” guarantee! </p>
<p>At our public high schools, teachers have Music Ed degrees. Rare to have an MM coming in, although a number of them get their advanced degrees while teaching.</p>
<p>Our school system does not require the DMA or PhD. However, the new band director at the HS has a DMA and there were several teachers (sciences, Latin, English) with PhDs from reputable schools. We live in an area with three major PhD granting research universities so the competition factor may play into this. My son is graduating with a BM in May and it seems all of his friends earning the BM are heading to graduate school.</p>
<p>I think that’s the problem… the retiring teacher told me that the school had 11+ applicants for the job. 7 had DMA and the rest had MM/ME degrees. </p>
<p>Wow.
DS has an MM and teaches in nj. Most teachers start with undergrad degree and earn master’s while working, with tuition assistance. Few have doctorates.</p>
<p>I guess all professions are upscaling. Undergrad used to be standard in physical therapy, then master’s.
Now doctorate required in some areas. Most new pharmacy hires have PharmD.</p>
<p>Glad they’ve ‘allowed’ me to work all these years with only my little BS!</p>
<p>My best friend’s daughter had to get a doctorate degree to work as a pharmacist back in 1997(8?). It was in Los Angeles. IIRC, she told me the pharmacy job’s starting pay was about 70,000.(again, 1997 Dollars) I guess it really depends on the local job market. </p>
The job only pays about $40,000 to begin. The retiring music teacher only made $52,000 pre-tax after 25 years.(according to her)</p>
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