Assessment of student learning is at the heart of effective teaching.

Understanding student
performance, diagnosing what was done well, what has yet to be improved, and providing
specific feedback to students has the potential to significantly improve your music program in
very real and meaningful ways. Assessment data can become an integral component of
improving any music program if it addresses learning outcomes that are clear and focuses on
the aspects of student performance that are most important.

they most need to work on to improve

Students become proud of their work and strive to accomplish the next task.
Diagnostic Assessment

It is important to find out what the students know. At the beginning of each year or unit, examine
what musical skills and concepts the students have already learned. Diagnostic assessment is
important because it establishes a baseline against which future learning is compared. It is easy
for teachers to overestimate what students have previously learned. Diagnostic assessment is
especially useful in situations where students are new to the school either due to matriculation
or transfer. Music teachers often use activities such as auditions or sight reading as a form of
diagnostic assessment. Checklists and rating scales are useful measures for assessing music
performance at this stage.

Determine What to Assess

After assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your students you can begin to make
decisions about what musical skills or concepts your students most need to improve. Teachers
should focus on the most important goal or standard achievable during the time frame available
for instruction.

It usually helps to begin with the end in mind. Develop a clear mental image of what you want to
achieve through your instruction. After you have developed both short- and long-term goals,
work to establish more specific and measurable learning objectives. A learning objective is an
observable outcome that can be measured to provide evidence of what a student can do or
know. After establishing the learning objectives ensure that your instruction and class activities
are developed to achieve those objectives.

An example of a goal or standard might be “the student will be able to perform a phrase with
technical accuracy.” The learning objective might then be “the phrase will be played or sung
using accurate notes, rhythms, and articulations.” The learning objective is measurable and
operationalizes the goal or standard. Teachers are most effective and students most successful
when clear goals have been established and learning objectives shared with students.

How Will You Assess?

After you have chosen your educational focus for a particular group of students, you can begin
to make decisions about how and when you will evaluate student progress. Assessment must
involve the collection of concrete information about musical skills and concepts accurately and
objectively.

Two important elements of educational measures are reliability and validity. Reliability means
that scores are a true representation of students’ knowledge or skill level. You can trust the
scores the students receive. Validity is the extent to which an assessment accurately measures
what it is intended to measure. For example, if your goal is to measure students’ ability to sing a
passage using solfege, having them write in the solfege on the notation would not yield useful
information.

Item Alignment and Development

It is important when designing measures of achievement that you align your assessment
methods, items, and tasks to match your learning objectives. The learning objectives will dictate
the type of assessment you use. You also want to develop assessment measures that are going
to be simple enough to be readily used in the classroom and which will provide data that is
useful and can be easily analyzed.
Rubrics
There are many different measures and item types that can be developed and used in the
classroom. As many teachers have music performance as a primary learning goal for students,
rubrics become an important tool for assessing progress. A rubric is a set of scoring criteria
used to measure a student’s performance on an assigned task.

Rubrics are useful because they add a level of objectivity to the assessment process. One of
the most beneficial aspects of rubrics is that they provide a written description of what a
performance at each of the different achievement levels should look like. This helps students to
explore the various achievement levels and what is expected to become proficient at each one.
Rubrics also serve as written documentation of student achievement that can be used for
accountability purposes. Figure 1 is an example of a rubric that might be used to measure solo
music performance.

As you become more comfortable with rubric development, an almost endless number of
adaptations can be created to accommodate any number of situations.

As an activity, you might work to define the levels of proficiency with the students. Be sure to
create the descriptions of each achievement level using terminology that your students can
easily understand. In this way, they will be able to use the information to improve their
performance. Rubrics also allow students to more fully grasp and internalize the learning
objectives. Permit and encourage students to use the rubrics to assess their own performance
and that of others.

Other Measure and Item Types

In addition to rubrics, there are many other assessment tools that could be used to assess
music students. These could include portfolios, multiple-choice questions, true/false questions,
matching, short answer, reflective writing, exit slips, reports and projects, and more. Many
musical concepts can be assessed more easily using one of these item types. This includes
information such as historical context, form, notation and terminology, theory, ear training,
critical analysis, and pedagogy. The options are almost unlimited.

Assessments can be used as bell work and don’t have to be long or interfere with instructional
time. Sometimes only a few questions will provide you with a wealth of useful information on the
progress of your students. Written assessments can provide valuable information and should
not be neglected. They can be created to reinforce the established goals and objectives and
strengthen what students are learning in class.

Formative Assessment

The assessments you have created are then used to monitor student progress during instruction
and to provide ongoing feedback to the students. This is referred to as formative assessment
and is an essential step in the assessment cycle (and is contrasted with summative assessment
which happens at the end of the unit). The feedback from formative assessment should provide
concrete information on how to make improvements toward achieving the learning objectives.
Avoid general feedback such as “good job” or “keep practicing.” This provides little guidance to
students. Students require information that is specific and individual. They need to know what
they have done well and what they have yet to achieve. Formative assessment is best when it is
embedded in instruction and is ongoing.

Music teachers often assume that as ensemble performance improves, students are learning.
However, we often have little formal evidence to know for sure. Additionally, if learning
objectives and specific goals for each rehearsal are not clearly communicated to students, they
have no real way of knowing how to measure their progress. Using the assessment tools you
have created will allow you to measure that progress in a tangible way. Remember also that
students can be helpful in assisting you to gather data and track progress. During the formative
assessment phase, rubrics are an effective assessment tool and are great for providing useful
feedback to students.

Practical Assessment Strategies

One way to decrease the amount of class time required to assess students is to evaluate them
individually as they are rehearsing in class. As they are performing, walk amongst the
ensemble, rating the students as you pass by. Students are performing authentically within the
context of the group. Other ideas might be to have individual sections play alone, hear students
by stand, sing/play one or two on a part, or any other method you can think of to isolate
students. Pick a different group of students each day limiting the amount of time on any given
day taken by assessment. You can also sample from the music being performed. You don’t
need to have students play an entire work. Make comments using an assessment tool and then
provide feedback individually to the students.

At least a few times during each assessment cycle you will want to use a more formal mode of
assessment to collect formative assessment data. Using a recording system that minimizes
disruption to the ongoing class activities would be helpful in this case. Students record and
submit their performances to the teacher. For this, teachers have multiple options. Recordings
can be made during class. For example, you could send students one by one to have one
opportunity to record their performance. Another option is to have students record their
performance tests outside of class. In this way, students could have multiple opportunities to
record and submit their best performance. You can choose whichever method best meets your
needs.

Portfolios

Portfolios are another great assessment tool. Rubrics and other assessments you administer
become artifacts in the student’s portfolio. The options for artifacts are limitless. Students should
participate in the construction of the portfolio and have opportunities to include self-reflections
and assessments of their progress.

Students become invested and are proud of their work and the portfolio’s construction provides
students new insights into their growth and musical understanding.

Self-Assessment

Provide students the opportunity to self-assess. This can be done at the group or individual
level. Self-assessment provides students with guided opportunities to measure their own
learning in relation to the learning outcomes. Another benefit is that students are able to more
clearly articulate course goals and requirements. Peer assessment can also be helpful when
you structure the feedback to be positive and constructive.

Have students complete a one minute paper or an exit slip that has them reflect on their
learning. Students answer questions such as:
What was the most important thing you learned today?
What questions do you have?
What was the one thing that helped you learn the most this week?
What is the one thing in class that is least helpful to your learning?
Which musical passage do you struggle with most?

It is important, however, to report back to the students what you have learned from this
feedback and how that information can be used to improve student learning. Reflective writing
develops critical thinking and reveals the thoughts of the students, which would otherwise be
unknown.

Summative Assessment

Summative assessment occurs at the conclusion of the learning process to evaluate student
achievement on the learning objectives. Data gained from summative assessment is a way to
summarize student learning and is usually formal. It also frequently serves as a baseline to set
future goals. Assessment tools that work well for the summative assessment of music
performance are checklists and rating scales.

Uses for Assessment Data

Assessment data has many uses. Providing information that students can use to improve their
learning and giving teachers the ability to make decisions on their teaching are big ones.
Assigning grades is also a primary use. Develop your grading procedures using the
assessments you have created and administered throughout the learning process.

Other uses for the data might include ensemble placement, chair placement, to place students
together who are at similar achievement levels or to place students with tutors, to communicate
progress to parents, and to track student improvement. Assessment data has many uses all of
which could be extremely helpful in improving your program.

Conclusions

Assessing students in a way that truly reflects their learning in the classroom is key to improving
your music program. Assessment should provide information to students on an individual level
that will provide them with clear direction toward improvement. A good assessment system
provides accountability and helps to place the responsibility for learning on the student.

Do not reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of the expertise of those around you and be open to
sharing your ideas with others. If you need help or want feedback about something you are
doing, don’t be afraid to ask. In addition, as you create or find assessments that have worked for
you, keep them.
While increasing systematic assessment initially may seem to be an activity that requires more
of a teacher’s time, it may eventually save you time as learning will become more targeted and
students will be provided the tools necessary to help themselves. Don’t give up: experiment to
find a system that works best for you.