When Sarah Jerome, a Wisconsin school superintendent, and her colleagues read about a brain-research study connecting keyboard music lessons to improved skills in spatial and abstract reasoning in preschoolers, they didn't wax philosophic about the potential benefits of such research. They put the new information into practice—and fast.

In 1996-97, Jerome and company added keyboard lessons to the elementary music curriculum in the 4,200-student Kettle Moraine school district in Wales, WI. When kindergartners showed better puzzle-solving and block-building skills, Jerome plowed about $40,000—most of it donated—into buying 120 electronic keyboards for all grade levels in the district's four elementary schools. Today, teachers say the students who take keyboard lessons have better concentration and discipline in the classroom.

Are Jerome and others like her reading too much into early results from brain research, a science still in its infancy? "I'd be reluctant to invest substantial resources in a curriculum based on a single study," says John Bruer, president of the James S. McDonnell Foundation in St. Louis, which funds research in neuroscience and psychology.