Assessment Article Response

The article I found on assessment is titled “Music Education for Life: Music Assessment, Part 1: What and Why” by, Scott C. Schuler. I chose this article because it is directly applicable to my content area and offers a multitude of useful information on the topic, including the role of assessment in the music classroom.

The article begins with a section called “Roots of Assessment Phobia.” Schuler states that many of us have had some sort of bad experience with testing. Throughout my secondary years all of my grades were based on a test score. Most often these test were multiple-choice exams. To my knowledge I haven’t retained much from those types of assessments.

Even in college most of my general education classes were lecture-style and had two assessments that determined the final grade, a midterm and final. It wasn’t until I got further into my major that I began to see first hand that there are more ways of assessment other than test. I cannot remember the last time I have taken a multiple-choice exam. Most of my assessments are now dominated by projects that require research and creating and reflecting on my own original thoughts. Assignments like these require more thought as opposed to memorization of one “correct” answer. In my opinion you learn more by answering questions that don’t have one simple answer but a variety of all equally valid options. As a result of this active thinking and learning, I have retained and learned so much more.

As a teacher we can take away testing but there must be some other kind of assessment to take its place. I remember my first experience with a professor who said he didn’t believe in testing, so we never had any. We also didn’t have any other type of assessment that effected out grades. I’m not saying we didn’t have any assessments; we have plenty of assessments, just none that affected our grades. At the end of the quarter the professor asked each of us individually what we thought our grade should be and that was the grade he gave us. Even students who did terribly in the class and never did any work were passed. There might be some good ideas behind this type of class but it wasn’t effectively put into practice.

One of the more important ideas I pulled from this article is that “the best and, ultimately, most important measurement in any classroom is self-assessment” (Schuler par. 16). According to Schuler, we, as music teachers, must set the standards for the development of self-assessment by providing students with examples of quality playing and musicianship coupled with providing accurate feedback.

Schuler goes on a rant in his article about how kids these days receive too much praise. This has been a popular issue for some time and many people feel the same way Schuler does.

Being too nice or over-complimentary in a performing art could kill all drive/motivation for improvement; what’s the point of getting better if you’re already being told you’re good? Imagine Picasso was a child taking an art class, painting what is supposed to be a friend’s face. The teacher comes by and praises him, “OH! How darling, very well done.” This painting does not look like his friend at all – it’s a bunch of shapes oddly placed. Picasso is pleased with the praise and moves on from painting. But… He never becomes the widely known artist because no one was there to tell him that his painting was shit and he should never pick up a brush again! He never built up resentment and vowed to become a great painter (obviously success blossoms from pent up emotions…).

Obviously this whole story is totally false, but the point is that if there is no one to hold students to a
higher standard then the world will be full of happily mediocre humans who don't thrive for anything because they are never pushed.