290 music teachers from across the country have been announced as in the running for this year’s Music Educator Award.

Commissioned by the GRAMMY Foundation, the Music Educator Award recognizes "current educators (kindergarten through college, public and private schools) who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools.”

In its fourth year, the award recognizes the winning educator during GRAMMY Week 2017 at the annual GRAMMY awards. This finalist will be selected from a list of ten finalists and will receive a $10,000 honorarium.

The other nine finalists will all receive "a $1,000 honorarium, and the schools of all 10 finalists will receive matching grants. Fifteen semifinalists will receive a $500 honorarium with matching school grants."

The GRAMMY Foundation in partnership with several other organizations is using the award to bring attention to the important role that music educators play in not only instructing our entertainment industry- but helping every-day students everywhere succeed.

The Foundation said that high-quality music programs in schools help students achieve higher test scores on standardized exams, reduces attendance rates school-wide, increases graduation rates and even improves reading skills.

"The combined results of 30 studies indicate that music instruction is linked to significantly improved reading skills,” the Foundation said.

Read more about the nominations here.

Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

5/11/2016