Multivariate Analysis of Degree Persistence of Undergraduate Music Education Majors

Two hundred one freshmen and transfer students entering the school of music at a major Southeastern state university in the fall terms of 1978 and 1979 and declaring music education as a major served in the study. Data were calculated at the end of the fall term 1981 and included enrollment status, college grade point average (GPA), high school GPA, jury grade at the end of one year of applied study on the principal instrument, score on Aliferis-Stecklein Music Achievement Test, evaluation of a verbal report concerning desire to become a music educator, levels of teaching competence in the first semester of study evaluated by videotaped analysis, and extent of participation in music organizations grouped by type of ensemble. Four stepwise multiple regression analyses grouped according to subjects' year of entry and class revealed college GPA to be consistently ranked as the highest simple correlation across all groups.