Reclaiming the Value of Assessment
Introduction
Even mentioning “assessment” to educational colleagues in any subject area can result in a spirited and usually negative discussion about how high stakes testing has taken over K-12 classrooms to the detriment of student learning. Many teachers feel as if they are being forced to “teach to the test” rather than focusing on helping students learn how to think and problem solve (Shaw, 2013). In this educational climate, assessment seems to be the “tail wagging the dog,” having been given unprecedented impor- tance in the lives of teachers.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 provided the impetus for the shift from student- centered assessment to high-stakes testing (National Research Council, 2001), and, since its passing, assessment has become a burden to many teachers rather than an integral part of the curricular and instructional process. States’ zeal to seek Race to the Top funding has exac- erbated the focus on high stakes testing and has resulted in legislation at the state levels that ties teacher evaluation to test results. Specifically, Michigan’s law PA 102 requires that data on student growth be used as one of the catego- ries in evaluating a teacher’s job performance (State of Michigan Legislature, 2011). With this legislation, the stakes became even higher, as student test results were tied to job security and teacher pay. This has created tremendous stress in the lives of teachers (Shaw, 2013), as Peppers (2010) found that many Michigan music teach- ers do not feel qualified or prepared to assess the learning of their students.
All of this is unfortunate for many reasons, including that it has resulted in assessment being demonized rather than valued for the integral role that it can and should play in the educational process. Assessment can improve teaching and learning in that it helps teachers become aware of the individual differences and learning characteristics of their students. With this knowledge, teachers can adapt their instruc- tion to meet their students’ specific learning needs, challenging those who need to be pushed and providing the appropriate scaffolding for
Cynthia Crump Taggart
those who are struggling. Assessment of student learning allows teachers to know “what comes next” in terms of providing appropriate instruc- tional sequencing. The bottom line is that, without assessment, teachers do not know what their individual students know and can do, and, without this information, they cannot create optimal instructional environments.
Fortunately, Michigan legislation appears as if it will place the responsibility for developing assessment programs for the non-tested sub- jects, including music, in the hands of individual school districts (Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness, 2013). With this in mind, how can elementary general music teachers develop assessment protocols in their classrooms that are manageable, can inform and improve their teaching, and at the same time demonstrate individual student growth to administrators and legislators?
Steps to Making Assessment
Meaningful and Manageable Although elementary general music teachers have contact with many students and their con- tact time is limited, they still must find ways to document individual student learning. However, if teachers make their assessment naturalistic, meaning that it is a part of what would occur in the classroom anyway as a natural part of instruction, and if they collect some student data as a part of every class period, measuring student learning can yield useful information and can be manageable. There are several steps to implementing such an assessment program.
1) Identify core curricular goals. First, teachers should identify which curricu- lar goals are most central to music learning at each grade level. It is not possible to measure each individual student’s achievement of every Michigan Standard, Benchmark, and Grade Level Content Expectation accurately, even if each of them is included in instruction through- out the course of a year. Rather, teachers should focus on measuring the three or four goals that are the most important and should plan on mea- suring each student’s achievement of those goals
16
General Music
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40