High school instrumental students can become more conscientious by learning to assess their own performances. n instrumental music instruction, enhancement of the assessment of students' musical understanding and progress is usually an ongoing process. In my eighteen years of teaching, I have observed that instrumental music programs in American schools show strength in the development of performance skills, technical proficiency, and performance experiences. Learning objectives usually focus on performance skill development and are often subjectively assessed by the instructor. When asked for evidence of music learning, instrumental music teachers often turn to the attendance record, the sound of the concert, the variety and range of music presented, and the frequency with which students perform. Bennett Reimer has observed: Performance directors are driven to present fine concerts; that is how their success is judged. ... [This is] further intensified in the community of school music teachers, whose values, shaped by all the [surrounding] forces center strongly on producing the best possible Frederick Burrack is an instrumental music teacher at Carroll High School in Carroll, Iowa.

Videoconferencing technology can create opportunities to offer music teachers specific feedback that is crucial to satisfying their developmental needs by providing direct impact on instruction through online ensemble clinics.

Programmatic and institutional assessment initiatives have emerged and continuously evolved across higher education institutions through the early part of the twenty-first century. These initiatives have stemmed from a growing emphasis on assessing the quality of learning that occurs throughout the collegiate education. An assessment process that involves faculty and staff collecting, analyzing and discussing the data over time to guide improvement decisions sounds like a reasonable pursuit. Unfortunately, such a process sometimes results in apathy and dissention.  Technology has provided solutions that can remove the tedium and time-consumption from student learning assessment. The purpose of this article is to provide a thorough understanding of the assessment capabilities and data-collecting automaticity processes of Canvas. Provided are examples of ways to extract and disseminate Canvas data to be used for decisions making. The article includes (a) the structure of Canvas, (b) steps for how to set up Canvas for collecting student achievement data directly from coursework and sortable by outcomes and associated criteria, (c) strategies to export data from Canvas, and (d) ideas for visualizing outcome data.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the existence and impact of budgetary cutbacks to music teaching positions and district funding in three Midwestern states, namely Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri. The results revealed cuts to staffing and district funding of music programs without a reduction in student enrollments in 2011-2012 following a downward trend the previous 3 to 4 years. Increases in teaching responsibilities and student fees were also trends. Based on collected data, staffing and budgetary reductions will continue to increase teacher workloads. Recommendations are provided for music education advocates, music teacher education programs, and state music education organizations to adapt to changing fiscal realities and needs of schools.

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes, communication, and opportunities provided by music teachers to encourage consideration of the music teaching profession. Survey participants (N = 436) were music educators from the Southeast (235), Midwest (51), and Southwest (149) National Association for Music Education regions of the United States. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported encouraging students to explore the music teaching profession, one third reported uncertainty about their encouragement of a music education career, and 21% indicated active discouragement. Personal job satisfaction, student music abilities, and constraints/forces outside the profession were factors for respondents who discourage students from the profession. A majority reported providing opportunities to explore the profession as a viable career option and those experiences reflected the authentic practices of the teaching profession. Professional development opportunities for in-service teachers in the encouragement of students toward music teaching should be strongly considered.