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ASSESSMENT IN THE COLLEGIATE CHORAL CLASSROOM

Knowing how to assess and especially grade in an out that much is made about assessment in K-12 en-
artistic discipline can be difficult. Professor of Music vironments, but not post-secondary education. This
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Education Janet Barrett points out that “Grades are a is not to say assessment ends after high school. More
consistent conundrum for music teachers.” Although generally, McConnell argues that assessment affects
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grading is a responsibility of educators, assessment is every academic institution, not just K-12. Certainly,
a larger and more holistic process. The differences be- academic freedom is a luxury of college teaching, but
tween assessment and grading as presented in this ar- we should still be pursuing best practices in assessment
ticle suggest that assessment is the process of measur- with the goal of facilitating stronger connections be-
ing student learning and providing quality feedback, tween theory and practice, as well as enabling more
whereas “grading” involves a process of reducing artistic performances.
the rich evidence of learning into a single value (i.e., In his 2022 dissertation, Joshua Chism, associate
letter grade). In most other academic courses (even professor at Whitworth University, focused on the as-
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music-related courses such as music theory or music sessment beliefs of collegiate choral directors. Chism
history) assessment and grading are solely focused on designed and conducted a survey of fifty current col-
the individual’s work for the class. Music ensembles legiate choral directors in states from the Southwest
are distinctive because they involve a relationship be- ACDA region from institutions holding a National
tween the conductor assessing the ensemble while also Association of School of Music (NASM) certification.
providing opportunities for individual growth. Chism’s research indicates that most grading is done
While there are objective realities (correct and in- by non-musical criteria (attendance, participation,
correct notes and rhythms), other subjective issues etc). He found that “informal group verbal feedback
such as vocal quality can be potentially simple to as- and small group/sectional singing tests on choral rep-
sess but challenging to grade. Assessment takes time; ertoire were musical assessment methods used most
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something we are all short on. Because of this, it can frequently.” Most of the respondents relied on infor-
be tempting to overlook formalized assessment and mal collective assessment (non-graded) and non-musi-
only provide verbal feedback to the ensemble rather cal assessment criteria (graded). Consequently, Chism
than maximizing the growth of individual singers. noted a gap between assessment beliefs and practices
Much of the literature about assessment in the mu- by collegiate choral directors. He concluded: “It is im-
sic classroom is geared towards K-12 educators, such perative that collegiate choral directors more consis-
as Brian Shaw’s Music Assessment for Better Ensembles. tently employ assessment best practices based on indi-
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Obviously providing such information to pre-service vidual musical criteria to both meet the needs of their
music teachers is essential. Music education courses choristers as well as model appropriate assessment
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generally review and critique multiple models of as- methodology for future music educators.” These
sessment. Likely some of those models are witnessed findings demonstrate the need for congruence in the-
in the collegiate ensembles in which those pre-service ory and practice from methods courses to ensembles.
teachers participate. The point is that everyone (pre-ser- In desiring to expand on Chism’s work, I identi-
vice music teachers, prospective conductors, and any- fied three conductors to interview about their assess-
one else in the ensemble) learns about practices and ment beliefs and practices. The interviews focused on
principles of choral music education by what is being how these high-ranking academic choral conductors
modeled. Ideally, students would experience congru- approach the conundrum of assessing the growth of
ence of theory and practice in their methods courses the ensemble while also gauging the progress of indi-
and ensemble experiences. vidual singers. Following this focused conversation, we
When compared to K-12 literature on assessment, moved our discussion to more practical matters of how
similar resources for collegiate choral conductors are they determine a grade for individual students. Finally,
limited in number. William McConnell, former ACDA we ended with general comments on assessment. Re-
National Chair for College & University Choirs, points sponses are in alphabetical order by last name.

34 CHORAL JOURNAL February 2024 Volume 64 Number 6