Kristine Sharpe – Advanced Choral Studies – 11/21/20 – Evaluating the Choral Program

Evaluating the Choral Program

1. Discuss the challenges of assessment in choral classrooms, why continuous ratings

scales are recommended and how they can be improved, according to the MEJ article.
Consider how to implement them with efficiency, drawing on your experience in your
own classrooms.

According to According to Miceli (2008), “One benefit of rating scales… is that students
are given more information about the degree to which they succeeded in demonstrating a list of
specific skills” (p. 49). Miceli went on to write that, “…including a section for comments in
which a teacher or peer can give input about how to improve can make a rating scale all the more
useful” (p. 49).
I have found that rating scales prove to be extremely beneficial in assessing my own
classes because they do not take up a lot of class time, while at the same time providing
invaluable information to both the student and myself. The only major time-sink that is involved
in this form of assessment is the actual creation of a good rating scale. However, once you have
created it, you are able to use it over and over, with minimal tweaks here and there, for the rest of
your career. Jordan (2007) noted that, “Once written, the rating scales should be presented to the
choir so they understand exactly what they are being evaluated on and how they will be
evaluated” (p. 343). Additionally, the internet has a vast source of already created rubrics that
teachers have shared from all over the world.
Jordan (2007) expressed, “I think we can all admit that individual accountability is key to
achievable musical goals” (p. 342). While I do agree that individual assessment is important, it is
also much easier said than done. Of course, individual assessments take more time (even despite
the use of rubrics and rating scales) and there are some standards (such as singing) that many
younger students do not feel comfortable doing individually. It takes time and building rapport
and community before these assessments can accurately be given.

2. What is your reaction to the results of the study quoted in the article that grades were
“determined by a combination of achievement and nonachievement criteria the
nonachievement criteria receiving greater weight (60%)?” In an era where a high overall
GPA is important to secondary students, how do music teachers manage the dilemma of
objective assessment, the assigning of grades, and motivating students?
Kristine Sharpe – Advanced Choral Studies – 11/21/20 – Evaluating the Choral Program

That quote also stood out to me when I was reading it and I had thought to myself that
60% seemed high, but the more I thought about it the more I determined that it was indeed
accurate. I think that choral educators, especially at the middle and high school level, certainly
myself included, can struggle with finding a balance between making choir a fun class that
students enjoy and a rigorous class that challenges them. Especially because our jobs depend on
how many students are enrolled in the class. Unlike the “core” teachers, if the number of students
in choir decreases, so does my FTE.
Additionally, and especially at the high school level, where students are more focused on
getting higher grades, they will take a class like choir because they think of it as an easy A. I
think though that once we get students “hooked” into choir, one of the things that does keep them
there is the high rigor and the amazing feeling a student will have when they have accomplished
a performance in a piece that was difficult for them at the start. Assessments don’t always need
to be thought of as stressful or time consuming, there are ways to make them seem more fun and
interactive. Assessments are critical in providing teachers the opportunity to improve instruction,
while also giving the student valuable information that will help them to become a better
musician. According to Miceli (2008), “Although we understand that teachers face many
challenges, such as concerns about class enrollments… addressing curricular and extracurricular
concerns, and viewing music as an artistic endeavor with subjective elements, we hope that the
challenges will not outweigh the benefits that we have provided” (p. 53).

3. Discuss the “usability” of the sample Assessment Activities and Tools in Chapter
Twelve in the typical choral classroom. Using your school district policy as an example,
in what ways could they be modified to your classroom?

I personally do not find the sample assessments in this chapter to be very usable at all.
There are a lot of great ideas within them and they provide great content and categories for
assessment, but I would need to completely re-write them and put them into a more usable
format for my own teaching. For example, in Fig. 1b. Eighth-Grade Vocal Performance Likert-
Style Rating Scale (see below), I do like that it includes some background information about the
student, including how long they have been in choir and whether they have an IEP, all of which
are important things to consider when assessing students individually. I also like that in the scale
itself the lowest rating of a 1 is titled “not yet” which really demonstrates growth mindset,
Kristine Sharpe – Advanced Choral Studies – 11/21/20 – Evaluating the Choral Program

something that I use in my day to day teaching. However, I really do not like the layout of the
form and that it does not express to the teacher or the student what they need to do in order to get
a rating in each one of those categories. This makes it seem more subjective and less helpful for
the student to learn how to achieve a higher score. What I found to be very helpful in this chapter
was the websites listed at the end with descriptions about which each one provides.

4. Since you graduated from high school, discuss the evolution of individual and group
performance assessments. With all of the tasks music teachers have in their day, how can
regular assessment be more ‘doable’? How has the profession answered the call to
provide teachers with valid and reliable tools and in what ways can we do better?

Thinking back to my high school years, we hardly ever had any actual assessments in
choir. There was rigor and challenges for sure, all of which were performance and participation-
based, and I absolutely loved my choir class. However, thinking back there was no individual
assessments, no rubrics, and the only time we had any sort of written assessment was during my
Senior year the school decided that we were required to take a written final exam. This was at the
height of No Child Left Behind. We were aghast at the mere thought of having to do a written
final in choir, my choir director included. She even expressed to us that it was only worth 10% of
our grade and even if we failed, we would all still get A’s anyways. Even at that time, it seemed
like a tipping point for elective classes to be held more accountable by student assessments and
certainly within the past 20 years the idea of assessing music has become much more
mainstream.
Without getting into too much detail (because the next question goes into this) advances
in technology have made assessing students on an individual level much more doable and less
time consuming. I can assign my students a SmartMusic sight singing assessment that the
Kristine Sharpe – Advanced Choral Studies – 11/21/20 – Evaluating the Choral Program

program itself will grade and provide instant feedback to students showing them exactly what
notes they sang wrong.

5. How has advanced music technology resources contributed to the process of

assessment? In what ways have you or your colleagues leveraged various software and
hardware to streamline assessment?

According to Miceli (2008), “Technology (e.g., SmartMusic) can be a wonderful tool to

use to help evaluate student learning, improve instruction, and store documentation and results
(i.e. recordings, spread-sheets) (p. 53). Advances in music technology have saved me, especially
this year. I must admit that this week’s discussion of assessment was difficult for me to find
motivation to complete simply because of the struggles that everyone is currently going through
this year with COVID-19. I know that it will not always be like this, but in a year where
administrators are reminding us “kids over content” and to make sure that all of our students pass
our classes, even if they don’t do anything throughout the semester, it is challenging to try to
break out of my current mindset and respond to these questions thinking about when things were
‘normal.’
Obviously though, technology has saved me this year. I see my students over Zoom every
day. SmartMusic is a program that I have never used before this year but is something that I had
always been interested in trying. This year did give me the opportunity to test it out. My school
purchased accounts for all my students, and we have been slowly starting to get more used to it.
The biggest challenge has been getting students signed up and comfortable with the program.
Since I have been a teacher, all my students have been provided individual electronic devices
(chrome books), something that I imagine has been relatively new within the past 10 years in
education. This allows my students to complete individual assessments, such as recording
themselves singing, much more easily. Every week, my students have a new sight singing
assignment on SmartMusic where they will record themselves singing and SmartMusic will
provide them with automatic feedback (though not always the best or most correct feedback) as
to which notes they missed. Because we cannot sing all together as an ensemble currently, this
has been the only way that I have been able to hear my individual singers this year and it is a joy
to hear their voices, even for just a moment during a sight singing example.
Kristine Sharpe – Advanced Choral Studies – 11/21/20 – Evaluating the Choral Program

References

Jordan, J. (2007). Using continuous rating scales to evaluate performance. In Evoking sound -

the choral rehearsal: techniques and procedures: (7128th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 341–345). GIA

Pubns.

Miceli, J. (2008). Measuring and evaluating the school choral program: standards-based

benchmark assessment in the school choral program. In The school choral program:

philosophy, planning, organizing, and teaching (Har/Com ed.). GIA Pubns.

Pellegrino, K., Conway, C. M., & Russell, J. A. (2015). Assessment in performance-based

secondary music classes. Music Educators Journal, 102(1), 48–55.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432115590183