A primary difficulty with music performance assessment is managing its subjective nature. To help improve objectivity, rubrics can be used to develop a set of guidelines for clearly assessing student performance. Moreover, rubrics serve as documentation for student achievement that provides music teachers with a written form of accountability.…

For the past century and more, music education in the United States has focused primarily on Western European music traditions. Despite considerable efforts to include music from other regions and peoples in the curriculum, traditional music from world cultures is still not greatly represented. The benefits of a curriculum that incorporates…

The qualities expected of a music critic are discussed. (CK)

It is suggested that the horizons of young people be broadened by exposing them to the jazzier pieces of well-known composers. (CK)

Describes the importance of music as a sensitivity agent in the educational curriculum and the failure of most school curricula to recognize this. (AN)

The value of music in bringing a sense of security to children who have experienced unstable lives is described. (CK)

Described the variety of inventions created by Emil Berliner, who was responsible for beginning the music record industry. (RK)

Article named some foreign countries that issued stamps with a musical motif as well as those designed by Americans. Igor Stravinsky and Louis Armstrong were also evaluated as subjects worthy of being noted on stamps. (RK)

Peter Schickele, whose stage persona is P.D.Q. Bach, discusses such subjects as the musical influences on his childhood, humor, creativity, and what he wants to be when he grows up. (CS)

Over the last forty years, popular music in America has consistently shown great variety, originality, and evolution. While American music has clearly flourished and evolved over the last several decades, it is difficult to say the same for American music education. Although there are important reasons to preserve long-standing traditions of…