TeachRock and Milwaukee Public Schools Announce District-Wide Collaboration

Steven Van Zandtâ€s Rock and Roll Forever Foundationâ€s TeachRock and Milwaukee Public Schools are proud to announce their new partnership to help bring arts-integration and culturally-rich music curricula into each classroom in the district. The project aspires to create cultural context through popular music in all content areas. 

The Rock and Roll Forever Foundationâ€s TeachRock curriculum empowers teachers and engages students by using popular music to create interdisciplinary, culturally responsive education materials for all 21st-century classrooms. The free curriculum is used by 40,000 teachers nationwide. 

The Milwaukee partnership has recently begun with three elementary schools, Brown Street Academy, Elm Creative Arts School, and Kluge Elementary. After this initial pilot, the partnership will expand each school year until it reaches all Milwaukee Public Schools.  

In 2019, the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation launched its Partner Districts and Schools program in Southern California, and it has since expanded to include schools in New Mexico, New York City, and its first partner district in Hopatcong, NJ. Milwaukee Public Schools is the Foundationâ€s first such partnership in the Midwest and is the largest district to date to participate in the program.

“The first time I visited a TeachRock Partner School, it felt like the culmination of my lifeâ€s work,” says TeachRock founder, the musician and actor Steven Van Zandt. 

Van Zandt continues, “I saw nearly a dozen different classrooms full of teachers and students connecting with each other and their subjects through music. Everyone was smiling. The spirit of music filled the rooms, but the students were learning science, social studies, visual arts, and more. We're going to share this success with all of the schools in Milwaukee over the next several years--and then the entire world!”

Read the Milwaukee Public Schoolâ€s official press release about the TeachRock partnership.