Part One

Get involved when the time comes to form an assessment plan. You want to avoid merely satisfying an administrative directive; that can lead to less time with your students. Develop your assessment activities around student improvement.

In the MENC forum, mentor Dennis Granlie says, "If assessments serve instruction, they can actually save teaching time by helping you focus on weak areas/sections."

Taking another look at MENC's Position Statement on Assessment In Music Education, we find it states that:

"Music program assessment should include a variety of sources of data, at least some of which should be derived from common assessments to permit consistent evaluation of program progress and quality across schools and even districts. No one formula for assessment is likely to be appropriate in all circumstances."

That last sentence is key. For example, technology will often enter the picture as a means to record and playback student performances for assessment. There are a lot of options for what to use and how, even the question of using it at all.

For some programs, Smart Music will be worth every penny, while for others it won't work at all—they'll have better results using a cassette recorder or non-technical solution involving "band karate."

As you build your own assessment guidelines consider the Assessment In the Music Performance Class Teaching Tip for a multitude of variables to consider.

Need more examples? Chat with your colleagues on the band forum.

—Paul Fergus, March 18, 2010. © MENC: The National Association for Music Education