Student demonstrate learning of the Music TEKS in multiple ways, including paper/pen format, presentations, and video or audio logs of works-in-progress. Though educators often think the primary purpose of assessment is grading, a thorough assessment plan, consisting of a variety of evidence on student acquisition of the TEKS, facilitates learning in many ways:

• Aiding in planning, indicating when to reteach and when to move ahead
• Developing a base of evidence documenting student achievement
• Providing tools for student self-assessment
• Providing tools for evaluating overall teaching performance.

The following table shows performance assessment formats appropriate for documenting achievement of the Music TEKS. The first column is appropriate for grades K–-6, while the formats in both columns are appropriate for grades 7–12. Multiple assessments provide more complete information on student achievement than any one type of assessment alone.

Music teachers should align their assessment practices with the following principles:

• Assessments provide information on a variety of dimensions of student music processes and use multiple sources of information
• Teachers continually monitor students' creative processes, providing formative evaluations so students learn self-assessment and to explain their thinking processes in the creation and performance of music
• Students are assessed only on content or skills that they have had an opportunity to learn
• Criteria for satisfactory performance are made explicit before students begin a new task, and students themselves often participate in generating the criteria
• The teacher communicates student achievement clearly to students, parents, and other professionals
• Targeted feedback is more helpful in improving music performance than non-specific praise
• Evaluation is more than the grading of a finished product; it also includes student self-evaluation
• Music teachers provide descriptive evaluation, supplementing numerical or alphabetical grading systems when possible.

Rubrics

A rubric is a tool for helping teachers implement effective assessment of the Music TEKS. Rubrics communicate a clear continuum of performance levels in music and help students learn to critique their knowledge and skills and to assess their growth. Rubrics are often shown in a table. See the example in art.

The first step in developing a rubric is to determine the critical dimensions of the performance that will be assessed. These dimensions are placed in the far left-hand column of a table. Next, decide on the number of performance levels to be delineated. This number determines the total number of remaining columns in the table.

Now, describe the differences among performances along each continuum. This is easiest if samples of performances are available. Samples can be grouped by level of knowledge and skill demonstrated. Without samples, teachers make their best predictions. Involving students in this process can create a great deal of "buy-in" on the part of learners. Students can provide descriptions of successful and unsuccessful performances. Once a rubric has been used, it should be revised for future use. Teachers should also retain representations of sample performances that illustrate desirable demonstrations of knowledge and skill. Using multiple samples of strong performances shows learners that there are numerous ways to demonstrate high standards.

Some characteristics of effective scoring rubrics include:

• A scale based on criteria that reflects the knowledge and skills assessed by the task
• Specific information about learning that helps the teacher make instructional decisions and communicates to students what they have learned and what they still need to learn
• Clear and easy to understand descriptors
• Ease of use
• Examples of student performances
• Reliable scores (i.e., ratings of various scorers are fairly consistent).

Teachers who have not used a rubric before will experience a learning curve. The development and use of rubrics will become more efficient and effective over time. Here are some cautions for first-time users:

• Don’t expect to get the rubric exactly right the first time. Like all assessment tools, a rubric must be field tested and adjusted based on actual use.
• The rubric is not a checklist. The rubric provides a guide to analyzing the total performance or project.
• A student performance or project may not fall neatly into one level. In this model of scoring, the score assigned should be the one that most closely resembles the performance.