Assessment

Learning Through Music Assessment at CLCS
Multiple assessment measures are used to ensure that the Learning Through Music curriculum is accountable to the academic and research-based standards applicable to a Massachusetts Charter School, and to the standards of integrated learning that are being developed by the NEC/CLCS partnership, including:

• Teacher designed Essential Skill Tests for academic subjects and music that measure the baseline skills and knowledge necessary for promotion from one grade level to the next. These tests are based on standardized test formats and academic resources that focus on concepts measured by state criterion-referenced tests (e.g., the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System [MCAS]) or nationally-normed tests (e.g., The Stanford Tests of Academic Achievement)
  
  
• Standardized Tests in academic subjects (MCAS, Stanford) and music (Colwell Test) that can be analyzed for their correlation with Essential Skills Tests across subject areas, and
  
  
• Portfolio Evaluations that rate individual student work on four-level, scaled rubrics in the following categories:

                     -   Engagement (entry point, baseline skill development)

                     -   Improvement (measured by pre-post drafts 
                         or repeated project work)

                     -   Achievement (meets designated criteria for final drafts or 
                         culminating events relevant to project work)

                     -   Listening/Observation/Description Skills

                     -   Questioning/Investigating/Analyzing Skills

                     -   Creating/Inventing/Elaboration Skills

                     -   Performing/Demonstrating/Interpretative Skills

                     -   Reflecting/Connecting/Planning/Self-Assessment Skills.