This document is a conference presentation on the use of portfolios as an evaluation tool for middle school music students. All of the pages are suitable for use with an overhead projector. Areas covered include reasons for teaching the arts as both an intellectual discipline and vocational education; Illinois state goals for musical learning for…

A study was designed to assist elementary music teachers to create and/or improve methods of assessment for fifth-grade beginning band students. It was conducted from August to December 2002 and included 13 volunteer participants from a rapidly growing student population at an Illinois elementary school. As part of the research process, surveys,…

This report describes an intervention to aid students in demonstrating their comprehension of reading material through an alternative instrument. The target population consisted of fifth grade students in a middle class community in central Illinois. Problems in comprehension were revealed through declining district test scores and teacher…