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Assessment in Music Classrooms
In the last few decades, the ever-increasing pressure on schools to up the ante in their
academic performance has led to a greater emphasis on testing and assessment. Standardized
tests are the norm in most subjects, where performance can be easily measure with a
paper/pencil test. However, the music classroom presents a challenge when it comes to
assessment as music is not easily quantifiable or data-driven. It is a performance and creative
art, and even now the most common grading criteria is simply attendance and attitude. There is
a push to change this, though, as music teachers are realizing that the types of grades they
award can impact the public’s perception of music’s value. There are many types of
assessments that can take place in the music classroom, even if they are not done on paper.
Before the evaluation strategies themselves can be discussed, the topic of assessment
itself must be explored and defined. Assessment generally comes in two types—formative and
summative. The formative assessment is usually informal, and occurs while the student is still
forming an understanding of the subject. It helps the teacher discover how well the student is
comprehending material and whether or not they need to change instruction strategies.
Summative assessment comes at the end of instruction (such as after a unit) and is measure of
what the students have learned. Assessment should be a continuous process, with the teacher
always observing students and adapting.
While evaluating, teachers are observing overt behaviors. These are the evidences of
learning that are observable to others, such as reading, singing, playing, moving, critiquing, and
so on. These types of behaviors are more easily assessed, since they can be seen. The opposite
side of this—covert behaviors—are more difficult to assess since they are those processes that
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are internalized and private. They include listening, conceptualizing, feeling, evaluating,
recognizing, imagining, and the like. Teachers must develop strategies to evaluate both of these
types of behaviors.
Overt behaviors can be graded traditionally using quizzes, worksheets, and exams,
especially if the understanding being assessed has to do with terms and theory and other
written aspects of music. Rubrics are especially useful in judging the performance side of overt
behavior. A good rubric provides a set of scoring criteria that helps determine the value of the
students’ performances. They can be specified to a task—such as composing a short piece—or
stated in terms of benchmarks to see where the student stands overall. To be helpful, a rubric
must clearly state what the student should be able to do and provide a depth of details to make
it specific. When used correctly, rubrics not only help to establish performance standards but
also provide feedback to the student.
When dealing with the covert, teachers may find that asking questions of their students
is the simplest and best form of assessment for evaluating student thinking. They must be
careful, though, as poorly worded or irrelevant questions will be a useless waste of time.
Teachers should avoid questions that are just a measure of knowledge such as true/false and
yes/no questions. Instead, questions must be carefully thought out to be stimulating or
personal and relevant. If phrased correctly, they can demonstrate what students know, and
when given a question with the appropriate level of scaffolding, students can be stretched to
further their knowledge and comprehension.
Though the government is concerned primarily with teacher assessment of students, it
is not the only kind that should be going on in an effective music classroom. Student self-
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assessment can be greatly beneficial, as students learn from reflection on their learning and
make decisions about their own performance. This can be done by questioning, journals,
reflections, and portfolios. Students can also be doing peer assessment throughout the school
year. As long as it is done in a positive light (encouraging students to focus on at least one
positive aspect of their peers’ performances and offer helpful suggestions for improvement
rather than just bashing one another), this can be helpful to both the students who are
critiquing and the ones who are being critiqued. Teachers should also be engaging in selfassessment and reflection, keeping journals and assessing their own performance and
strategies and making changes where necessary to improve their instruction.
On the opposite side of the assessment is record keeping. This can be done in a myriad
of ways, as complex or simple as the teacher desires. The main idea is to identify key behaviors
or markers and keep track of them. One option is to keep file cards or folders on each student
with relevant information. In this almost paper-free age, many teachers use databases or even
iPad apps to help track data. Students can also keep track of their progress through the use of
portfolios. These can either be a culminating project or a means of showing how far they have
come throughout the year. In music, portfolios often consist of visual and audio recordings,
tests, journals, rubrics, and compositions.
The last aspect of assessment that falls on teachers’ shoulders is reporting students’
progress to their parents. This is most often done by way of parent-teacher meetings
throughout the school year or in end-of-semester concerts. There are many other ways,
though, that teachers can report back to parents. They can host open houses to have parents
come and survey their children’s work, or hold informal programs that allow students to
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perform throughout the year. Parents should be invited to come in and observe the classroom
to see how it is run when not on display. Teachers can also provide updates and notices
through school newsletters or bulletins.
As schools push for more and more standardized testing, it is inevitable that music
teachers will also feel the pressure to provide some quantifiable measure and record of their
instruction and students’ progress. This makes it imperative that music educators be proactive
about assessment and evaluation in their classrooms. Not only does it communicate to the
public that music is indeed valuable as a subject, but it also makes the instruction more
effective and enhances student learning. There can be no excuses anymore that music cannot
be assessed. For the creative and successful music teacher, assessment will just be a part of
everyday instruction.
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Works Cited
Campbell, Patricia Shehen and Scott Kassner, Carol. Music in Childhood. Stamford, CT: Schirmer,
Cengage Learning, 2014.
Moore, Patience. “Assessment in Elementary Music.” Teaching Music 21.5 (2014): 57.
Russel, Joshua A., and James R. Austin. “Assessment Practices of Secondary Music Teachers.”
Journal of Research in Music Education 58.1 (2010): 37-54.