Documenting Student Learning in Music Performance

Abstract

A fundamental aim of the Race to the Top agenda is to assess the effectiveness of teachers based on value-added growth measurement models of student achievement. However, in nontested grades and subject areas, such as music, alternative assessment types are being considered, including district-, school-, or teacher-developed measures. This article explores the relationship between assessment for accountability and assessment for instructional improvement and offers a framework for documenting student growth and achievement in the music performance classroom.

Evaluating the Psychometric Qualities of a Rating Scale to Assess Pre-Service Teachers’ Lesson Plan Development in the Context of a Secondary-Level Music Performance Classroom

“…There are four widely used teacher effectiveness frameworks that are pervasive in today's educational landscape: (a) Danielson (Wesolowski, 2014). Danielson's Framework for Teaching: Evaluation Instrument documents aspects of teaching through data-driven analysis while concurrently promoting student learning.…”

“…Although these frameworks have a practical application toward the traditional classroom, concerns of validity have been raised in the context of music teaching (Wesolowski, 2014(Wesolowski, , 2015. A disparity can potentially occur in the observation process when administrators evaluate teachers of the arts.…”

The psychometric evaluation of a wind band performance rubric using the Multifaceted Rasch Partial Credit Measurement Model

“…Empirical evidence of student achievement is often at the foundation of policy-based decisions (O'Neal, 2012) and is traditionally derived from standardized testing results and stakeholders' contextualization of the results within specified content and performance standards (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). In the context of performance-based practices such as music and related performing arts, teachers are now held accountable for their role in student learning by providing evidence of student achievement using Student Learning Objective (SLOs) frameworks and other similar methods (Wesolowski, 2014;Wesolowski, Wind, & Engelhard, 2015). Many of these systems are created by either groups of local teachers without adequate training in measuring development processes or district leaders that do not have expertise in the content under evaluation (Wesolowski, 2012).…”

The Development of a Secondary-Level Solo Wind Instrument Performance Rubric Using the Multifaceted Rasch Partial Credit Measurement Model

“…In music, the call to move toward assessment systems that demand standardized measurement instruments with clear benchmarking/illustrative exemplar systems is evidenced nationally through the ongoing work of the National Association for Music Education's (NAfME) Core Arts Standards and Model Cornerstone Assessment committees (Shuler, Norgaard, & Blakeslee, 2014) and internationally through the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music's (ABRSM) and Australian Music Examinations Board's (AMEB) implementations of multiple exam systems. Furthermore, music educators are now subjected to teacher and curriculum effectiveness frameworks where individual student achievement data are an important evaluative component of such evaluations (Wesolowski, 2014(Wesolowski, , 2015. For teachers to be effectively evaluated, inferences drawn from student achievement measures must be valid and reliable.…”