Program Design

Harmony Project Bay Area (HPBA) provides high-intensity after-school music education at no cost to families or the school. With a focus on community building, our program strives to improve students' skills for academic and life success, such as problem solving, creative thinking, focus, collaboration, and non-verbal communication. These benefits are achieved through the experiences of belonging to a positive community (the orchestra), working towards shared goals (performances), and striving for excellence.

Our programming includes:

  • At least 3 hours of music instruction per child each week (2–3 days a week after school, depending on the class level)

  • Classes in violin, cello, chamber, orchestra, creative composition/improvisation, mentorship/leadership

We recruit students in grades 2, 3, and 4 who attend either Woodrow Wilson or Susan B. Anthony elementary schools, in an under-served area of Daly City where no other music instruction is offered. We commit to serve these students until they graduate high school -  dozens of these secondary school youth from 8 different schools return to our sites in the afternoons and Saturdays for music class. We plan to add new students every August.

Photo of our string orchestra in rehearsal

At these schools:

  • Approximately 70% of students qualify for the federal Free or Reduced Price Meal Program.

  • A majority of students are English language learners.

  • Only 30% of students meet state standards in language arts and math, with many being more than one grade level behind state averages.

  • Very little music instruction and few after-school opportunities are accessible to students.

Evaluation:

We performed an analysis of the California Standardized Test scores for our students compared to a matched control group (an identical number of students from the same school teachers’ classrooms as HPBA's students). Compared to the control group, after 4 years HPBA students outperformed their peers by 13% in math and 20% in reading on state-standardized test scores!

For more evidence of our impact, including student interviews and interesting performance highlights, please view this page: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bi7Ka_CGG8VGuLXhoOR0tJfJEu-6M6Af/view?usp=sharing.