Showing posts with label Musi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Musi. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Standardized Testing in the Arts. No. Please No.

by Nancy Flanagan from EDUCATION WEEK on June 19, 2012 4:26 PM

When it comes to assessing music students, and their learning, I can say with confidence that I am a bona fide expert.

I did this work for thirty years--by my count, evaluating well over 5000 music students, giving them grades and feedback. Which only means I had lots of practice--not necessarily proficiency--but depth of experience matters here. Over three decades, I developed and continuously adjusted a conceptual framework for evaluating the most important skills and knowledge of student musicians, using (and often rejecting) multiple models and metrics. I did it wrong before I did it right. Once I understood that I finally had it right, I kept fine-tuning.