Situating Elementary General Music: Workforce Patterns in Demographics, Salary, and Itinerancy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the demographics, position classification, and salary of elementary general music teachers in U.S. noncharter public schools. I analyzed data from the 2017–2018 National Teacher and Principal Survey, using general elementary teachers as a comparison group, and investigated how school characteristics—including region, locale, size, poverty level, and racial/ethnic composition—related to salary and position classification (part time, full time, and itinerant). Results indicated that elementary general music (EGM) teachers were predominantly White and female, with slightly more experience than the national average. After adjusting for experience and school characteristics, EGM teachers earned significantly less than their general elementary peers. Nearly one fifth of EGM teachers were employed part time or itinerantly. Employment classification was shaped primarily by school-level factors such as region and enrollment size, not by teacher demographics. These findings provide an empirical foundation for positioning EGM as a distinct and often structurally marginalized role within elementary education and raise implications for how schools of music prepare future teachers for the realities of EGM work.