Abstract
For many years, schools have used data to separate “good” students from “bad” students, “good” teachers from “bad” teachers, and “good” music programs from “bad” music programs. Furthermore, many of these practices have been racially discriminatory (Fuligni, 2007). White students are disproportionately placed in higher tracked classes than Black students (Fuligni, 2007; Warikoo & Carter, 2009, Hargrove & Seay, 2011) and are often placed with more experienced teachers than Black students (Mickelson, 2003). Consequently, African American students disproportionately have less access to high quality music education programs, and instead are subjected to more time in the classroom focusing almost exclusively on reading and math (Kelley, 2014). The emphasis placed on standardized test scores affects music teachers too. At best, they have to test students on musical skills, and at worst they are being required to assist students in reading and math in lieu of teaching due to having to take the reading and math scores of their school to measure their own effectiveness (West, 2012). Yet, even if the best-case scenario is that students are in a music program being tested by the music teacher, what music standards are being tested, and how?
Scholars of critical race theory (CRT) posit that our society is fundamentally racist, and that the only way to combat racism is to acknowledge racist constructs that have been established in society, and seek to disrupt them. Ladson-Billings argues that individuals from both sides of politics have perpetuated racism, both through “color-blindness,” and the notion that the United States is “post-racial” since the election of president Obama (Ladson-Billings, 2015). She explains that the terms “color-blindness” and “postracial” often become euphemisms for “sameness,” or as Delgado & Stefancic (2001) put it, the second theme of CRT, “white over color ascendancy” (p. 7). “Sameness” becomes an excuse to not discuss race. Nakkula and Toshalis (2006) explain Blacks are stuck until race is discussed, and Whites are stuck if race is discussed (p. 125). The easiest way for White supremacy to continue is to silence both the issues of race and those who would speak out about race.
Delgado (2001) describes the final tenet of CRT as the importance of the voice-of-color, as such voices have the power to bring perspectives unknown and challenging to those in power. Gay (2000) asserts that culturally responsive teaching is the key to releasing these voices and power into the classroom (p. 20). Gay describes culturally responsive teaching as a context where, “Culture counts…conventional reform is inadequate…intention without action is insufficient…(encourages) strength and vitality of cultural diversity…(and) test scores and grades are symptoms, not causes of achievement problems” (pp. 8-16).
While there are many resources that focus on CRT and culturally responsive teaching, management, and curriculum (Awokoya, 2012; Castagno & Brayboy, 2008; Fuligni, 2007; Gay, 2015; Fordham, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2015; Love, 2017; Nakkula, 2008; Tindongan, 2011; Warikoo & Carter, 2009), there is less discussion pertaining to advocacy for culturally responsive/critical standards. With so much change in standards and standardization in the new millennium, it is important for the education community to examine the standards in each subject with vigilance.
Music education, like the education community as a whole, has largely been silent on the issue of race (Hess, 2017, p. 17). As a result, Black schools continue to be marginalized (Ladson-Billings, 2015). With respect to music assessment, Ruggles (2017) found that students in schools with a lower socio-economic status spent more time test preparation, and ESL students were reported to struggle with the language (pp. 20-21). Elliott (1995) found that when videotaped and scored by university professors, Black students performing on the trumpet and flute scored significantly lower than White students (p. 53). In the context of festival ensemble scoring, Platt (2003) recommended training against racial bias or even scoring the group aurally and not visually (p. 351). Furthermore, in light of the 2016 NAEP music scores which showed Black students performing significantly lower than White students on average (Grise, 2016), NAfME is seeking research to better understand these results and advocate for high-quality music education programs for all students (NAfME, 2017).
Student and teacher assessment in music are continually changing at the national, state, and local level. One recent example is the Tennessee Fine Arts Portfolio (TNFAP), designed to measure student growth based on teacher-selected standards (Parkes, Rohwer, & Davison, 2015). The TNFAP has been in use since 2011, and few studies have looked at TNFAP in relation to standards usage, and critical race theory. Some researchers have praised the Tennessee models, like the TNFAP, as an effective model to demonstrate student growth (Foust, 2017; Sterling & Carter, 2014; TN, 2017), while others have found Tennessee models that are connected to TNFAP, such as the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS), to expose inequities such as Black students being disproportionately placed with ineffective teachers (Sanders & Horn, 254). No studies have examined music standards usage in the TNFAP, and the implications with respect to CRT.
TNFAP is based on the National Core Arts Standards (NCAS). Fine arts teachers are asked to submit a minimum of four artifacts to demonstrate student growth from two points in time. In addition, teachers are required to submit artifacts that align with at least three of the four domains. Those domains are perform, create, respond, and connect. Therefore, a teacher can choose all four domains, or can choose three domains electing to choose one domain twice, and omit one of the other domains.
In terms of assessment, the arts in Tennessee (especially music and visual art) are clearly performance driven. Of the 5696 artifacts submitted by fine arts teachers across the state, 44.7% of all artifacts submitted for review fall into the perform domain. While the rate of perform submissions by counties were as high as 66%, at least one county’s rate of create, respond, and connect submissions were 0%. In addition, only 9.7% of artifacts submitted statewide in music were connect, a domain praised by Hess (2017) for its potential to connect music to social justice.
When cross-referencing the portfolio data with the U.S. Census Bureau (2016), I found that large counties in Tennessee submitted perform artifacts less than the state average in every arts discipline. On the other hand, small counties submitted perform artifacts greater than the state average in one or more fine arts disciplines, except for one county, which we will call, “County A.” This county is also the only majority-Black county on this list of smaller counties.
County A has the highest poverty rate of any county that participated in the portfolio. However, the school website is a juxtaposition to the poverty statistics as it features a rich culture of mostly Black students in professional concert attire, playing traditional instruments, and singing on risers. There were also images of these students performing coordinated dances during the concert, and descriptions of repertoire by Black and White composers. The site described the students performing locally at board of education meetings, and across the country in California in what are called, “heritage festivals” (Worldstrides, 2017). Considering County A is both an outlier in the perform submission data and the racial data, it would be interesting to learn more about the district, the schools, and the music programs.
In order to further the tenants of critical race theory in music education assessment, the purpose of this narrative study is to examine a teacher’s account of the role of race in music teacher assessment (test scores, teacher observations and TNFAP) at a majority-Black school district in Tennessee. Research questions include: (1) How would you describe the music education community in County A? (2) How have assessment standards impacted the music education community in County A? The participant in the study was selected purposefully based on their experience with the county school and their participation in TNFAP. The participant will be interviewed using questions related to the research questions. Evidence will be triangulated by peer review and member checks of the transcripts of their interviews. I will code the data and analyze for emergent themes.
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References
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