Standardized Testing in the Arts? No. Please, No.
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.
I also served on the 16-member national team that created the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certificate for music teachers, under the guidance of Educational Testing Service (ETS), pretty much the gold standard in educational assessment. I was a benchmarker for hundreds of NB portfolio cases and written exams, setting performance standards, observing the thinking and work of National Board
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.
I also served on the 16-member national team that created the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certificate for music teachers, under the guidance of Educational Testing Service (ETS), pretty much the gold standard in educational assessment. I was a benchmarker for hundreds of NB portfolio cases and written exams, setting performance standards, observing the thinking and work of National Board
