Thoughts on Assessment

The word assessment can bring a myriad of thoughts to mind as we consider its context in current affairs in education. Assessment often brings about stressful thoughts regarding testing, grading, and pressures of national standards such as NCLB. On the other hand, as educators, we often obsess with the positives of assessment as it is linked to the evaluation of student learning.

In any case, we can make the assumption that assessment is undoubtedly linked to our instructional practices and planing. In every teaching objective there should ultimately be the goal of evaluating students for their understanding and accomplishment of each objective.

In a presentation by a representative from the Perpich Center for Arts Education, we discussed how the best teachers (and best assessors, mind you) were able to individually assess students performance abilities, by integrating individual performance into the instrumental or choral ensemble classroom. As an aspiring band director, I understand the implications of crunch-time during concert season, but I also know that it is our responsibility as educators to be fully aware of what our students are accomplishing and understanding.

If a parent approaches me at conferences to inquire about their student, I want to be able to provide them with more knowledge and satisfaction than to merely show them a grade book which indicates little more than attendance at concerts and rehearsals. In order to preserve the future of music education in public schools, we need to be able to identify individual learning in the music classroom environment. We have the rich opportunity as educators to be involved in assessing student learning, rather than leaving that responsibility to policy-makers.