Behind the Scenes: Mount Pleasant High School CTE Music Pathways Program
Once in a while, we’ll use this space to intentionally step away from the music itself and shine a little light “backstage” at RIWE. If you ever played in your school band, you know that what the audience sees on stage is just a fraction of what actually goes on. Public performances that make it onto our YouTube channel (shameless plug here: please subscribe to @rhodeislandwindensemble) don’t tell the full story of who we are – it’s just one very visible and rewarding part, and it’s often connected with something bigger.
For example, our January 19th concert at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence has an important back story that deserves its time in the spotlight, and like many stories in public education it involves funding. And an acronym.
Mount Pleasant High School is the only high school in the Providence Public School District to offer a Music CTE (Career and Technical Education) Pathway. You could think of it as a college major only in high school, but its main focus isn’t purely academic. According to the Rhode Island Department of Education website,
“Career and Technical Education (CTE) is a component of PrepareRI, an initiative intended to support programs that will prepare all Rhode Island youth with the skills they need for the jobs that pay. Career and Technical Education programs consist of three or more courses which will help students earn an industry credential and prepare them to enter the workforce. Rhode Island’s CTE programs … are rigorously equipped to prepare youths and adults for a range of high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers.”
So, you might wonder, how does playing music fit into these “high-wage, high-skill, and high-demand careers”? When did it become possible to earn an “industry credential” in the saxophone?
It’s not, actually. Fine arts programs, as well as most traditional liberal arts like literature, math, and history, don’t really fit naturally into the CTE model, which includes programs such as Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, Architecture & Construction, Finance, Information Technology, and Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). But music teachers, knowing that money makes the world go ‘round, and knowing that CTE program approval could translate into much-needed funding for their underfunded music programs, jumped onto the bandwagon with two feet. But just where does that funding come from?
It follows the student, when they choose to attend a particular high school because the CTE program looks good. Students can attend ANY high school in the state, and schools are thus incentivized to compete for students and the tax dollars that follow them. It’s a business/free market approach to structuring public education that assumes competition between schools will make them better, and it’s all the rage. (Personally, I do not believe it raises the quality of education for all students; I feel it magnifies the existing inequities between schools. But that’s not today’s topic!)
RIWE is partnering with the Music CTE Pathway at Mount Pleasant High School to provide the “real-world” (i.e., outside of school) context that’s at the heart of CTE programs. Whereas a student in a carpentry CTE program might serve an internship with a local carpenter as part of the program, Music CTE students from Mount Pleasant High School will interact with RIWE members is a number of ways:
1. Music CTE students seeking a mentor on their instrument can partner with a RIWE member who volunteers to teach the student in one-on-one lessons on a regular basis.
2. Some CTE students will serve a full-time internship in RIWE, attending all our rehearsals and performing in all our concerts throughout the year. These internships are open to all CTE students by audition.
3. All Music CTE students will join RIWE on stage for a side-by-side performance as part of the concert at Mount Pleasant High School on Thursday, January 19th.
RIWE is proud to partner with Mount Pleasant High School and the Providence Public School District, but the real story belongs to the music teacher who’s responsible for it all. Here’s your introduction to an amazing young music educator, Mrs. Danielle Trial Lucini. Her bio reads:
A native of New Bedford, MA, Danielle Trial Lucini is a graduate of Rhode Island College with a Bachelor of Science in Music Education, a Bachelor of Arts in Musical Theatre and a Minor in Dance. She has been a music educator since graduating in 2012, and the Music Director at Mount Pleasant High School since 2014. Trial Lucini is the Music Director for the Concert Band, Choral and Piano programs as well as the Career and Technical Education Pathway for Music Performance and Education. She is also the Unified Arts Teacher Leader, New Teacher Ambassador and Building Delegate, and was nominated for Providence Teacher of the Year during the 2021-2022 school year. She is currently pursuing National Board Certification in Early Adolescent and Young Adult Band. Danielle is married to a fellow RIC Music Education Alum and is a mother of three.
RIWE: When did the Music CTE program start? What were your first steps?
DTL: I was hired at Mount Pleasant in 2014 and tasked with building a Pathway Program dedicated to music. It took about five years to fully establish the program and structure the sequence of courses. In 2019, I attended a number of professional development workshops regarding the RIDE CTE process. I began to align our pathway to the CTE guidelines. While 2020 brought a lot of programs to a halt, it allowed me time to work with our CTE department at the district level, which makes Mount Pleasant Music Education and Performance Pathway an official part of Providence Public Schools CTE offerings at our school choice fair. Students and parents attend an event and make their high school selections based on the programming offered there. The Music Pathway was not part of that school choice until the 2020-2021 school year. We now have 10-15 eighth grade students and families applying to the program each year, and an additional dozen that sign up once the school year begins.
I began writing the curriculum and programming during my second year at Mount Pleasant, the 2015-2016 school year. The 2018-2019 school year was the first year that we had students enrolled in four levels of concert band or chorus that had followed the program from freshman year through senior year. The 2020-2021 school year was the first that we began following the CTE work based learning and credential process set forth by RIDE - which includes a minimum 80 hours of work based learning/contact with professionals, internship or industry placements (part of which is satisfied by our partnership with RIWE), as well as a music theory course aligned to curriculum taught at the college level.
RIWE: Who did you turn to for advice and support?
DTL: The various Professional Development sessions that were hosted by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA), the Rhode Island Music Education Association (RIMEA), and the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) in 2018-2019 were very helpful. During the 2020-2021 school year, Providence hired a new CTE coordinator named Brett Dickenson. I reached out to her, introduced myself, and filled her in on all the work I had done at Mount Pleasant over the years without being affiliated with the CTE department. She immediately supported my program and began the work of establishing our program as part of the district CTE department instead of a stand-alone program at Mount Pleasant.
RIWE: Why did you start the CTE program?
DTL: The principal of the school at my time of hiring was a big supporter of the arts. His intention was to create a strong program to draw students and families to the school, and to improve community perception of our school and students. This has always included a lot of community performances - opportunities to get our students out into the world in a positive light.
The program now provides those opportunities to students who want to participate in music recreationally, as an elective in band or chorus. However, the CTE Pathway designation allows students who are interested to participate in a much more in-depth level of study. The program also prepares them to enter college as a music major. While not every student chooses to pursue a music degree, they have had the more advanced coursework and performance opportunities to prepare them to do so.
RIWE: What's RIWE's role in it?
DTL: RIWE joint performances have served as part of our work-based learning opportunities for students during the last two years. This year, we will also expand that to include an audition/interview and opportunity for students to become members of RIWE. This satisfies the internship/workforce placement component for those students. This partnership also allows a unique opportunity for students to perform for members of the community and perform alongside musicians playing at a higher, professional level. We look forward to continuing to expand the partnership and these opportunities.
RIWE: Is there anything else that you think people should know about the CTE program?
DTL: The Mount Pleasant CTE Music program is currently written to include both Music Education and Performance. While some students may choose to work with groups such as RIWE for performance, others are interested in working with students at local elementary schools, another partnership currently in development. Our program has primarily included students in band and chorus. In the 2020-2021 school year, we expanded to include students interested in piano performance. Next year, we intend to include guitar performance and music production courses as well!