Presented at the NAfME Research Conference in March 2018.

Abstract

What if the future of your career was based on a single test, and someone else took that test for you? This has happened across the country. Teachers in non-tested subjects such as music have often been evaluated based on student test scores in subjects such as reading and math.In 2011, a group of fine arts teachers responded to these policies by creating the Tennessee Fine Arts Growth Measures, an anonymous peer-reviewed, multiple-measures portfolio evaluation system. Teachers submitted evidence-based measures of student growth in content-specific subjects based on two points in time. In other words, music teachers were evaluating music teachers based on student growth in music. After a few years, the state of Tennessee applied the system to additional subjects including physical education, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, grade 1, world languages, and career technical education.

My research has focused on how this portfolio movement is going—do teachers feel empowered? How does this type of project amplify teacher voices? What has changed since 2011 and why?

For a complete synopsis in less than three minutes, take a look at this video from the Council of Graduate Students’ Three Minute Thesis Competition.