Vol. 3 No. 2 August 1998

NAEP and Music: Framework, Field Test, and Assessment

Abstract: NAEP has developed a new generation of assessment

tasks for assessing student achievement in music. These tasks

draw on the musical traditions of many cultures and historical

periods, and use both paper-and-pencil and performance formats.

In 1992, the Arts Education Consensus Project, sponsored by

the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), began an

18-month effort to establish objectives for assessing arts instruction in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools.

The National Endowment for the Arts, in collaboration with

the Getty Center for Education in the Arts, funded the Arts

Education Consensus Project, designed to develop the NAEP

Arts Education Assessment Framework.

The Consensus Project1

 identified objectives for arts education

in general and individually for dance, music, theatre, and the

visual arts in the fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades. It also developed Assessment Specifications for each of the four arts,

setting forth requirements for the content of the assessments in

more detail. NAEP field-tested the music assessment for the

fourth and eighth grades in 1995 and for the twelfth grade in

1997. In the spring of 1999, NAEP will publish a Field Test

Process Report, on the development, administration, and

scoring of arts tasks for the three grades. The report will cover

all four arts, including music.

In 1997, NAEP conducted an assessment of eighth-grade students’ achievement in the arts. NAEP assessed students in music and the visual arts using a nationally representative sample

of all students, regardless of their background in music or the

visual arts. The sample for the music assessment was about

2,000 students, both public and private, enough to obtain statistically valid results. The theatre assessment was a targeted

assessment, limited to students who would have completed at

least 30 class hours in theatre instruction by the end of the

199697 school year. NAEP did not conduct a dance assessment, because there were too few dance programs in schools to

allow for an adequate sampling of students. Results of the

three assessments, together with samples of arts tasks for all

four arts, will appear in the NAEP 1997 Arts Report Card,

which will be published in the fall of 1998. NAEP had earlier

assessed students in music in 1972 and 1978, using a different

framework.2

 The next two sections of this Focus on NAEP

summarize the current music framework as set forth in the

NAEP 1997 Arts Education Assessment Framework. Following these sections will be a discussion of the field test.

The NAEP Music Framework, Field Test, and Assessment

break new ground in the assessment of the musical

achievement of students, particularly student performance.

NOTE: For reasons of confidentiality, the student shown in this

picture is not a NAEP participant.

PHOTO BY CLAIRE FLANDERS, courtesy Levine School of Music, Washington, DC
2

The Importance of Music

Young people frequently define themselves to an extraordinary

degree by the kind of music they prefer. But too often their

involvement with music is only passive, or limited to listening

to music of a single genre. This short-changes students’ experience, which should include creating (composing and improvising) and performing (playing, singing, and conducting),

as well as responding (listening, moving, analyzing, and critiquing) to a wide variety of music. Students also need to understand music's relationship to the other arts, and to other

disciplines outside the arts.

The NAEP Arts Education Framework is founded on a vision

of a society that believes the arts are essential for every child’s

complete development and education. To be fully educated,

students must be able to draw on artistic experiences and

knowledge as a means of understanding both themselves and

the world around them. They must be able to use the arts as an

important vehicle for communicating ideas in our increasingly

multimedia society.

Contemporary popular music is both a reflection and an exemplar of this society. It draws on the most “natural” of instrumentsthe human voiceand on the most recent advances in

electronics. It seeks out influences from cultures around the

globe. Music education should allow children to understand

and participate actively in their entire musical heritage, from

past and present, and from all nations.

The expectation is not that all children will become professional musicians, although some will. What is expected is that

they will have experienced the discipline, the challenge, and

the joy of musical creation and will understand intimately the

human significance of all the arts (see table 1 for assessment

guidelines).

The Music Assessment

Framework: Content and

Processes

Music requires students to understand a unique set of musical

symbols, the western system of notation. Performance demands the integrated development of intellectual/cognitive,

feeling/affective, and psychomotor skills.

The music assessment covers both content and processes.

Content includes (1) knowledge and understanding of music

and (2) perceptual, technical, expressive, and intellectual/reflective skills. Processes include (1) creating, (2) performing, and (3) responding. While much of what students

know, as well as what they can do, will be demonstrated

through performance, the music assessment framework includes a written portion as well. Table 2 sets forth the music

assessment framework in brief.

Content

Music knowledge includes the contexts of music, the form and

structure of music, and the musical procedures. Knowing musical context includes understanding the historical period,

style, and culture within which a work is created; the performance traditions of that time or place; and the appropriate aesthetic criteria for judging the quality of the work and its performance.

Knowing form and structure includes understanding the

building blocks of music: the materials, notations, elements,

and forms of musical works. Knowing musical procedures

includes understanding the sequence and criteria for judgments

involved in developing a new work, performing an existing

work, or developing an opinion about a work or performance

heard.

Music skills enable individuals to apply what they know by

creating, performing, or responding to music. Technique is

students’ physical ability to transform their musical ideas

into new creations or performances that accurately convey

those ideas. Although technique is important to the processes

of creating and performing, there are other skills of equal importance. Perceptual skills enable students to hear and interpret

the details that comprise music. These skills allow students to

recall music in the mind’s ear even when it is not physically

present. Expressive skills give the work the meaning and feeling that moves the listener. Such skills also provide the basis

for recognizing and responding to expression when it is present in a work or performance.

Table 1.NAEP Guidelines for Music Assessment

Music assessment shall

 Affirm music as a way of knowing with a unique capacity to integrate

the intellect, emotions, and physical skills.

 Honor music as a discrete art form, but also encourage students to

see the artistic experience as a unified whole.

 Examine and report on developing abilities of students.

 Connect with students’ real-life experiences of music.

 Evaluate students through performance.

 Go beyond quantification to include critical judgment.

 Use background variables to recognize differences in school resources (large-scale assessments only).

 Address both the processes and products of music, and expand the

public’s awareness of the importance of each.

 Produce information useful to a variety of audiencesstudents,

parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, artists, and other

community members.

 Reflect a pluralistic view of music education, both in terms of

individual products and the cultural bases of the music.

Source: NAEP 1997 Arts Education Assessment Framework, National Assessment Governing Board
3

Processes

Creating For purposes of this assessment framework, creating

refers specifically to improvising and composing new music.

When improvising, musicians spontaneously create an original

work or variation within certain limits or guidelines established by the particular style in which they are performing. For

example, a person improvising the blues operates creatively

within the limits of the blues style. When composing music,

students usually have the freedom to create what their imagination dictates, including the choice of any style or genre. Students should also evaluate and revise their work before presenting it to the public.

Performing/Interpreting All students should be able to sing

and to perform on instruments. For purposes of the national

assessment, performing refers to the process of singing and

playing existing musical works (“repertoire”). The performing

process involves a wide variety of critical judgments and sophisticated understandings of musical syntax to develop an

interpretation and a performance of that interpretation. As with

all the arts, students are constantly applying and exercising

higher order thinking, such as analyzing, synthesizing, and

evaluating, while creating and performing music.

Responding Although composers and performers respond to

the music they are creating and performing, for purposes of

NAEP the response process focuses on the role of the audience. Students must learn to understand and respond to music.

Individuals respond to music in three general ways: physically,

intellectually, and emotionally. Physical responses to music

involve movement, such as dance or other rhythmic movement. Intellectual responses to music include activities such as

labeling, analyzing, classifying, placing a work within a particular context, and making critical judgments about a work or

performance. Emotional responses include the entire range of

personal and intuitive responses to music. All three types of

response play an essential role in making individual judgments

about music.

NAEP assessed students’ ability to carry out the processescreating, performing, and respondingeach of which

consists of several essential components or steps. For example,

Table 2.Music Assessment Framework

Processes

Creating Performing Responding

When improvising, composing, or arranging music, students:

apply historical, cultural, and aesthetic

understanding by creating stylistically

appropriate alterations, variations, and

improvisations;

use standard and/or non-standard notation to express original ideas;

evaluate, refine, and revise successive

versions of original work;

demonstrate skill and expressiveness in

the choice and use of musical elements;

and

present the created work for others.

When singing or playing music with

musical instruments, students:

select appropriate repertoire;

apply skill by performing with technical accuracy;

read musical notation accurately;

evaluate, refine, and revise the performance;

develop an appropriate and expressive interpretation by applying understanding of structure and cultural

and historical contexts of music; and

present the performance for others.

When perceiving, analyzing, interpreting,

critiquing, and judging music, students:

select repertoire for listening;

analyze the elements and structure of music;

compare and contrast various musical

styles;

identify formal and expressive qualities

that distinguish a particular style of music;

place music within its cultural and historical context;

make critical judgments about technical

and expressive qualities of musical performance and compositions; and

use movement or words to interpret and

describe personal responses to music.

Content

Knowledge Skills

Applying knowledge of:

Context

personal

social

cultural

historical

Aesthetics

Form and structure

Processes

Applying cognitive, affective, and motor skills, including:

Perceptual

Intellectual/Reflective

Expressive

Technical

SOURCE: NAEP 1997 Arts Education Assessment Framework, National Assessment Governing Board
4

all three processes involve analyzing and evaluating. These

three processes also require students to understand the syntax

of music as well as cultural and historical contexts.

The Field Test Samples

The field test of the NAEP music assessment tasks for grades

four and eight were conducted in 1995, while the twelfth-grade

tasks were tested in 1997. A general population of students

participated in the fourth- and eighth-grade field tests. Students

in these field tests were not required to have taken any music

instruction. In the twelfth-grade field test, students were sampled from school music band, orchestra, choir, or general music classrooms. In all, about 1,500 fourth-grade students, 1,500

eighth-grade students, and 1,200 twelfth-grade students participated in the field tests. The twelfth-grade field tests were

held to evaluate the validity of the music tasks, even though

NAEP had determined that it would not conduct an assessment

for twelfth-grade students.

Music Tasks

NAEP used two types of assessment tasks in the field tests:

paper-and-pencil tasks and performance tasks. Assessment

tasks were prepared by the Educational Testing Service, under

the guidance of a committee of experts in music education.

The fourth-grade field test devoted 40–50 minutes to the paper-and-pencil tasks and 15–25 minutes to the performance

task. The eighth-grade field test devoted 40–50 minutes and

15–20 minutes, respectively, while the twelfth-grade field test

devoted 45–60 minutes and 20–30 minutes. In all cases, times

are approximate only, depending on the specific tasks involved.

The performance tasks assessed creating or performing, while

the paper-and-pencil tasks assessed students’ abilities to respond to music. To ensure coverage of all aspects of musical

knowledge, and to lighten the burden on a given student,

NAEP developed a number of different task “blocks,” for both

the paper-and-pencil and performance tasks. Students in the

sample were assigned at random to several paper-and-pencil

blocks and one performance block.

The musical subject matter included compositions by longrecognized composers like Bach and Mozart, as well as contemporary composers regarded as working in the classical tradition, like Aaron Copland. Students also responded to folk

music, drawn from both western and non-western sources, as

well as American jazz and contemporary popular music. (See

table 3 for a breakdown of the kinds of music used in the field

tests, taken from the Consensus Project’s Assessment Specifications.) NAEP plans to make available to the public all tasks,

both paper-and-pencil and performance, that are not covered

by copyright.

NAEP performance tasks are designed to be as authentic as

time and resources permit. However, the assessment tasks also

must offer the same opportunities and the same challenges, in

the same circumstances, for all the students assessed. No comparison across students is possible without such standardization.

1. Paper-and-Pencil Tasks

Paper-and-pencil tasks required students to respond to recordings and musical notation, as well as other stimuli. The

questions students answered were multiple choice,

short constructed-response, and extended constructedresponse. Students could receive partial credit on both short

and extended constructed-response questions (see table 4).

Some tasks required students to write musical notation themselves.

The knowledge asked of students could be quite formalthe

proper use of musical terminology such as ostinato, legato,

and staccatoor informal. For example, one question asked

students “What kinds of emotion do you think the composer

was trying to convey?” In some cases, students listened to specially recorded performances that contained intentional faults,

and were asked to identify and comment on errors in areas

such as pitch, dynamics, rhythm, tempo, and tone quality.

Table 3.Guidelines for Stimulus Materials for Music Tasks

Grade 4 Grade 8 Grade 12

Western

Art Music

25%

Baroque through contemporary

40%

Renaissance through contemporary

40%

Medieval through contemporary

American

Folk and

Popular

Music

50%

 Traditional songs

 Instrumental music, including

dance music, ragtime, and

jazz

 Contemporary pop

35%

Include grade 4 categories and add

 Blues

 Gospel

 Jazz

 Country

 Broadway musicals

35%

Include grade 8 categories and add

 Hybrid or fusion rock

 Historical songs (from e.g., the

Civil War or Great Depression)

 Reggae

 Jazz subcategories

Music Outside the

Western

Tradition

25%

 Native American Indian

 Sub-Sahara African

 Latin American

 Asian

25%

Include grade 4 categories and add

greater country-specific content

25%

Include grade 8 categories and add

greater country-specific content
5

2. Performance Tasks

The field test performance tasks covered both creating and

performing music. Some tasks involved creating only, or performing only, while some involved both. For example, students might be asked first to sing a song and then improvise on

the melody. Some tasks also required students to respond to

their own performances by listening to a tape made as they

sang or played and then evaluating their performances on the

tape.

Performance tasks had to be appropriate for students both with

and without formal musical training. Often, students performed

on MIDI electronic keyboards. Some performance tasks expected students who had received musical training to bring

their instruments and perform on them. Students without instruments sang the exercises.

Scoring guides for the performance tasks provided four possible levels of performance: inadequate, limited, adequate, and

developed (see table 5). This reflected the intent of the framework to assess the abilities of exceptional students as well as

average ones.

Field Test Issues

The NAEP field tests in music provided several challenges in

item development and test administration. Training materials

and procedures had to be developed to ensure that all of the

field tests were conducted in a standardized fashion. Scripts

and stimuli used with performance tasks had to include alternate versions of music selections and repertoire in order to

accommodate a wide variety of student instruments and voices.

Test developers and field test administrators worked together

to create assessment scripts and task formats that encouraged

less experienced students to attempt to engage in the full range

of musical activities that were assessed.

Scoring of field test items proved challenging as well. Among

other things, the field tests required scoring rubrics that would

accommodate the widely diverse types of student responses to

creating/performing items. The scoring guides also had to be

able to describe the full range of student responses generated

during the field tests.

Creating and administering a national assessment was very

challenging. The NAEP Music Framework, Field Test and

Assessment provide useful models for future assessments, at

the state and local level, as well as nationally. Several important problems were confronted during the development and

scoring of the assessment. Among these were how to create

tasks suitable for a variety of students with a variety of educational backgrounds, while also making distinctions among levels of student proficiency. These issues, among others, will be

explored in the upcoming arts reports.

Footnotes

1. For details on the Arts Education Consensus Project, see the

Arts Education Assessment Framework for the 1997 National

Assessment of Educational Progress (1994), the National Assessment Governing Board.

2. For the 1972 music assessment, see The First National Assessment of Musical Performance (1974), Report 03-MU-01,

Education Commission of the States, Denver, CO, ERIC #

ED155126.

For the 1978 music assessment, see Music 1971-1979: Results

from the Second National Music Assessment (1981), National

Center for Education, National Institute of Education, Washington, DC, ERIC # ED210226.

For Further Information

Arts Education Assessment Framework for the 1997

National Assessment of Educational Progress. Single

copies available free from the National Assessment

Governing Board, 800 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite

825, Washington, DC 20002–4233. Copies may also be

obtained on the World Wide Web at

http://www.nagb.org/pub.html.

National Standards for Arts Education. Copies are

available for $20 from the Music Educators National

Conference, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston VA

20191, 8003363768.

Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary

Schools, NCES 95082, provides data obtained from

questionnaires sent to the principals of nationally representative samples of public schools. It is not in print, but

is available over the NAEP web site at

http://nces.ed.gov/NAEP/.

Table 4.Twelfth-Grade Music Field Test Scoring

Guide for Paper-and-Pencil Task

Both short and extended constructed-response questions in

the NAEP music field test allowed for partial credit. The

scoring guide for a question requiring students to provide

musical notation would set a standard similar to the following:

Inadequate: Student’s notation does not indicate the correct

number of notes in the measure.

Limited: Student’s notation does indicate the correct number of notes, but contains inaccurate note values, or contains

only one rhythmic note value that is accurate.

Adequate: Student’s notation gives the correct rhythmic

values for all the notes, using standard musical notation.
6

The following Focus on NAEP publications are also available

free from the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S.

Department of Education, Washington, DC 202085653.

Copies may also be accessed over the World Wide Web at

http://nces.ed.gov/NAEP/.

The NAEP Arts Education Framework, Field Test, and Assessment, NCES 98527

NAEP and Dance: Framework, Field Test, and Survey, NCES

98459

NAEP and Theatre: Framework, Field Test, and Assessment,

NCES 98528

NAEP and the Visual Arts: Framework, Field Test, and Assessment, NCES 98526

The Focus on NAEP series briefly summarizes information on

the ongoing development and implementation of the National

Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The series is a

product of the National Center for Education Statistics

(NCES), Pascal D. Forgione, Jr., Commissioner, and Gary W.

Phillips, Associate Commissioner for Education Assessment.

This Focus on NAEP was written by Alan Vanneman, of the

Education Statistics Services Institute, in support of NCES,

Scott Shuler of the Connecticut Department of Education, and

Brent Sandene of the Educational Testing Service. To order

other NAEP publications, call Bob Clemons at 202–219–1690,

or e–mail bob_clemons@ed.gov.

The NCES World Wide Web Home Page is

http://nces.ed.gov/naep/.

Table 5.Twelfth-Grade Music Field Test Scoring Guide for a Performance Task

The four levels of the scoring guides for the performance tasks

on the NAEP music field test covered the full range of possible

student performance. The guide for students’ ability to sing

with appropriate pitch/intonation set levels similar to the following:

Inadequate: The student sings in a monotone, or an unstable or

unclear tonality during more than half of the performance (or

the student sings in an incorrect key throughout the performance.)

Limited: The student follows the general contour or shape of the

melody, although many pitches are inaccurate. The overall intonation of the performance is inaccurate in many places.

Adequate: The student sings almost all of the notes correctly, in

the correct key with a stable tonal center throughout most of the

performance. There are some execution flaws in the performance.

Developed: The student sings all notes correctly, in the correct

key with a stable tonal center throughout the performance. There

are few if any execution flaws in the performance.