Thank you for looking into my publication on Assessment.
It’s a topic that is still discussed a lot these days. We know that music performance classes are dramatically different from other nonperforming subjects.
Our "subject matter" changes each day, Our scheduled time is spent rehearsing group performance. And yet, our students must be assessed individually against a standard that measures individual growth as a musician based on their music maturity, requirements of the music they sing or play within the ensemble, and the standards you've set for your program.
"Assessing Music Performance...A Valid System for Measuring Student Performance and Growth," details what and how we should measure.
Score-Sheet with Insta-Rank, the accompanying online software, provides you the means to assess every student virtually or live and calculates, ranks, grades and profiles each student, section, ensemble and program over time.
Together, the book and software will provide you ample validation for your administration and demonstrate how extensive assessment has always been in our field. Both the text and software program were designed in consultation with numerous band, orchestra and choir directors across the country as well as professional adjudicators and early designers of the judging systems used throughout the country
Forward by Greg Bimm, Director of Bands, Marian Catholic High School, Chicago Heights, Illinois
"I have known Kevin McNulty, Sr for nearly fifty years and have seen him in many roles- band director, orchestra director, businessman, non-profit administrator, performer and adjudicator. He has been successful and inventive in every endeavor. As a marching band director in the early 1980’s Kevin was composing original music for his band long before that was at all common. He has been successful in small school situations as well as in a large more urban school. Throughout his career, Kevin has been a “thinker” always looking for a “better way” and looking to organize and to solve problematic issues."
"In his book, “Assessing Music Performance” Kevin McNulty uses research and his forty-plus years of experience to provide background, insight, information, and a plan for assessing music performance in today’s educational landscape. Using the ideas and methods proposed here can provide a key to finding common ground between administrators’ “one size fits all” landscape and our quest to teach students to make, understand and love great music."