OVERVIEW

We started with a workable rubric for measuring group performance; it appears toward the end of this document and shows what a musical group should know and be able to do when it performs. Then, we sought out aural examples of the rubric in action.

Twelve music educators from across Vermont carried out this project. Half were vocal/general music teachers and half taught instrumental music. Each participant brought tapes and CD’s of performances that could illustrate the benchmarks. Using a rubric largely developed by Steve Rice from Brattleboro High School, participants reached consensus on performances that demonstrated the benchmarks based on the rubric.

Their work carries forth the work begun by the Vermont Arts Assessment Music Design team, the aim of which is to provide valid and reliable assessments of musical performances by Vermont students.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This project extends the significant work begun by the Vermont Arts Assessment Project (VAAP), 1993-96. VAAP’s goal: develop a statewide assessment process based on commonly shared goals and good classroom practice.

Funding for that project came from the Jesse B. Cox Charitable Trust, Vermont Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Vermont Department of Education, and the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation.

The Jesse B. Cox Charitable Trust characterized this project as one the most successful projects it had ever funded.

In its 1996 report, the VAAP concluded:

The work begun by the Design Team members of the [Vermont] Arts Assessment Project does not end the conversation about arts assessment in Vermont, rather it begins it. The Vermont Common Core Framework for Curriculum and Assessment gives the arts a solid place in the curriculum.

To know whether or not the standards in the Framework are being met, however, requires assessment at the local and state levels. The Arts Assessment Project has provided a foundation for those assessments, and Design Team members serve as local resources. In order to survive and thrive, the conversation we have begun and the shared notions we hold need to be extended.

Extending “the conversation” begun by the VAAP, participants in this project used their collective experience and resources--including video and audio tapes of students performing in classrooms, school concerts, and District and All-State Festivals.

The result? Examples of what certain stages of musical development actually sound like. These examples make it possible for music educators to improve their own instruction, and for student musicians to progress more readily in their performance and appreciation of music--thus meeting the challenge for excellence posed by the Vermont Framework.

How well do students “use the elements of vocal and instrumental music, including rhythm, pitch, timbre, and articulation” (Vermont Framework, article 5.31)?

The benchmarks developed for this project help answer that question by providing a valid and reliable assessment tool based on the rubric: the benchmarked examples of performances given by students.

Since the rubric relates well to national music standards, educators in other states will find the rubric and the benchmark exemplars useful.

THE PROCESS

The following outline describes the process used to complete this project.

I - Professional Development: The participants:
A - Read “A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment,” by Joan Herman, Pamela Aschbacher and Lynn Winters
B - Discussed the background of the Vermont Arts Assessment Project (VAAP)
C - Discussed the MENC (Music Educators National Conference) Composition Benchmarking Project process
D - Reviewed rubrics / scoring guides
E - Reviewed Vermont Framework and National Music Standards and aligned one with the other.
F - Practiced scoring, using samples of students work and existing scoring guides
G - Discussed common terms

II -Tasks Assigned to Participants
A - Devise a scoring guide which best describes student musical performance using one of the following:
1 - rework VAAP music rubric
2 - create a new rubric based on national standards
3 - develop performance tasks as was done in MENC’s Composition Benchmarking Project
B - Collect student work from:
1 - Vermont schools
2 - Vermont State District festivals
3 - Vermont All-state Festivals
4 - schools outside Vermont
C - Devise the following total package including:
1 - a statement containing the National Standards to be met
2 - a list of evidence or achievement standards showing what criteria (e.g., tone, technique, rhythm)
are to be demonstrated by the students
3 - examples of student performance by instrumental or vocal groups
4 - a scoring guide or rubric showing how one would determine how well these examples meet the standards by assessing the criteria delineated in #2. (This may be a new scoring guide devised by the participating teacher or one previously presented.)

III - Results
A - A rubric (see RUBRIC / TABLE OF CONTENTS) with descriptors defining the criteria and measuring achievement
B - MP3 examples of student work showing how students sound when they meet and exceed the standards at the novice, basic, proficient and advanced levels

BENCHMARK EXAMPLES AND DESCRIPTIONS

The following describes what you will hear when you click on the tracks of student work below.
Novice pertains to work of students who are within a year or two of musical study.
Basic is applied to work of students to the eighth grade level.
Proficient represents what a high school group should sound like.

Each example has two levels
The first is an example of what is sounds like to meet the standard.
The second, what it sounds like when students exceed the standard for that developmental level based on the rubric we used to determine these levels (see table of contents).