Rebuilding the Secondary School Choral Program after the COVID-19 Pandemic: Tools for Teachers and Administrators and Implications for Future Disruptions to Education

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many secondary choral music programs suffered in terms of student involvement, performances, the ability to rehearse, and the overall impact on students’ social and emotional health. Choral music educators have been tasked with implementing strategies to rebuild their programs as schools resumed in-person learning. Utilizing explanatory sequential mixed methods, this study considered surveys of choral music educators and disaggregated student perception data, analyzing the specific needs of students, as well as utilized research surrounding the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the social and emotional health of students. Guided by student perception surveys, this mixed methods research study identified the strategies needed to rebuild secondary choral programs after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the social and emotional needs of secondary choral music students. Although this research is explicitly geared toward the secondary choral music classroom and the COVID-19 pandemic, the implication of this study also aids in the overall improvement of the morale and culture of any school faced with a major disruption to the educational environment, in addition to the surrounding communities associated with each school