Music
Assessment: Why and How
—
and Who Benefits?
by Tony Pietricola
Schools
have dedicated considerable time and resources to developing assessments
of student performance. Many of us in the arts, in an effort to assert
the equity between arts and other subjects, have spent more than a
decade applying the same rigor to arts assessment as those who created
assessments for the other core academic subjects.
In our sharp focus
on creating the assessment tools themselves, however, we have almost
overlooked an obvious larger question: “Why assess music—or any of
the arts—in the first place?”
Why Assess Music?
Accountability
to the Public
Schools clearly need to make sure the public sees that
taxpayer
money is spent wisely. The public is paying for an academic “product” by
investing in education. It only makes sense to have some way to see
if that money is invested well.
Thus the creation of national and state
standardized tests that allow schools, districts, and the state to
demonstrate their students’ progress to the public and to the students
themselves.
For the music and the other arts to survive and
flourish in public education, the public and the arts students themselves
need to see progress against a standard.
Standards for Clarity
Key
to accountability
in music, as in any discipline, is assessment—but assessment of what?
One positive result of our earliest focus on arts assessment was
the realization that we obviously needed to establish standards—the “what”—before
we could assess the quality of the art.
I learned this dramatically
when I participated in a S.C.A.S.S. (States Collaborative on Assessment
of Student Standards) Arts Assessment task force workshop run by
the C.C.S.S.O. (Council of Chief State School Officers). One of
the first
exercises in which we participated required us to form groups of
four, create a work of art from a pile of scrap material, and assess
each
group’s work.
It soon became apparent that we could not assess
the groups’ creations because we had no common ground for comparison.
We clearly needed standards that described what we should know
and be
able to do with our scraps so that we’d end up with something other
than a new scrap heap! The assessment of how well we achieved those
standards would give us—and informed observers—a consistent measure
of our work and our progress should we ever again create art from
scraps or other media.
Measurement for Student Learning
Once we have standards,
we need to measure progress through assessment. While the public
may want assessment for comparison of states, districts, and
schools, assessment
primarily allows teachers of music to do some substantive work
toward really helping each student meet reasonable goals that
lead to a
quality music education.
Sometimes assessment can be used to
measure the effectiveness
of a particular program or teacher. Although this process, if
handled carefully, can be meaningful, assessment against standards
exists
to benefit students. It helps foster the development of students’ brains,
and it gives students a better understanding of themselves and
how to cope with the world around them.
It also helps students,
teachers,
and parents become better partners in the educational process
by giving them a common language for talking about music. Of
highest
importance,
however, is the fact that good assessment practices in music
can help students learn and grow as musicians/people.
How Do
We Assess
Music?
Keeping the goal of helping students to learn in
the forefront, we need to have some essential items in place before we begin
to assess
students’ musical progress on a day-to-day basis.
No Secrets
Any Longer
Some teachers still play this game when it comes
to assessment: “I’ve
got a secret and you have to figure it out to get an A.” Those
students who decipher the teacher’s methods and secret assessment
practices are successful and too bad for those who don’t.
Hopefully, most of us are now committed to the
fact that all children
can learn if we
make clear to them what it is we want them to know and be
able to do, what that looks like, how we’ll assess it, and
how they’ll
proceed in order to learn what they need to learn.
Thus,
you start by clearly
stating what it is you want them to know and be able to do.
For this you may use national, state or local standards.
These are
readily
available and you should post them in your room in a prominent
location.
Explain
orally and in writing, referring to rubrics and other scoring
methods, how students will show that they meet the standards.
This is called “evidence” in
some areas of the country and “achievement standards” in
the National Arts Standards in particular. The evidences
or achievement
standards
should be carefully cross-referenced to the standard to make
sure it measures what you want it to measure.
Play and show
students examples of student work. The work should clearly
exemplify what
it sounds
and
looks like to meet the standard. These examples are known
as “benchmarks.” (The
term “benchmark” has been defined in different ways, but
I am using it to mean examples of student work, which demonstrate
the levels
of proficiency that students need to achieve to meet the
standard.)
Just
as we tied the evidence or achievement standards to the standards,
it is important to connect the assessment directly to what
is
taught and what goals have been declared. This meets the
criteria of “validity.” Does
the assessment really indicate movement toward the standards,
or does it include criteria that were omitted in the teaching
or were
not thoroughly
covered? A quick review of what you want students to know
and be able to do will help your assessment be valid.
An assessment must be “reliable.” Reliability means
the assessment measures progress against the standard no matter who administers
it
and no matter
where or under
what circumstances it is given. We’re particularly fortunate in music
to have a time-tested reliable “authentic assessment,” the same one
used at Lincoln Center, and thousands of other venues around the world:
a
music
performance!
It’s
All for the Students
Standards and assessment benefit
music students. When students can hear and see what’s expected and
are helped to achieve it, their improving assessments will satisfy
them—as
well as the public’s
need for accountability.
As always, the “devil is in the details,” so
look forward to the next article that will spell out some specific
techniques you can use
in order to effectively
use standards and assessment to help you to teach—and your students
to learn—the
craft and art of music.
Tony Pietricola has been
teaching music grades KGraduate School,
since 1969. His present position is at Charlotte Central School in
Charlotte,
VT, where
he teaches grades 5 8. He was voted "Vermont Music Educator of
the Year" for
2003-2004.
Tony has been part of the Vermont Arts Assessment
Project, the Vermont Music
Performance Benchmarking Project, coordinator for revisions in
the arts standards for the Vermont Department of Education, and served
as President
of the Vermont
Music Educators' Association.
Tony performs regularly with the
Vermont Jazz Ensemble.
Copyright © 2004
Neil A. Kjos Music Company. All rights reserved.