Identifying music achievement for students participating in outstanding instrumental programs

The threefold purposes of this research were to determine: (1) the utility of the concept of musical independence as a standard of musical achievement, (2) the utility of Colwell's Music Achievement Test (MAT 3) as an instrument for measuring student instrumental musical achievement, and (3) the types of musical achievement exhibited by students in Tennessee secondary music programs. In order to identify secondary instrumental programs that were perceived as musically independent, Tennessee's post-secondary school instrumental directors (PSSID) were surveyed.

The 10 nominated secondary instrumental programs that received the most PSSID nominations plus the highest rankings were compared to 7 randomly selected programs. A t-test was used to determine the significance between both the students' and the programs' MAT 3 grand total score and the four subtest scores. The Pearson Product Moment was used to assess the correlation between the PSSIDs nominations and each of the MAT 3 four subtest scores.

The following findings were reported:

1. The nominated secondary instrumental students, using Colwell's MAT 3, scored significantly greater than the randomly selected students from four perspectives: (a) students' grand total score; (b) students' grand total subtests scores; (c) programs' grand total score; and (d) programs' grand total subtests scores.

2. Colwell's MAT 3, a group test in music, could be of value to Tennessee educational administrators in evaluating secondary school instrumental teachers because: (a) it is recognized by many of the leading contemporary music educators as an excellent music achievement test; (b) its directions, answer sheets, grading templates, test standardization information, and album were adequate for a secondary instrumental director or administrator to administer, and (c) it meets the criteria of being of "value to Tennessee educational administrators" since it differentiated high-quality programs, and thus differentiation is substantiated by jury or panel of experts (i.e., the PSSID) who chose the same schools as "outstanding."

The following conclusions for the study were:

1. Involvement and willingness to become involved in additional educational activities reflect superior leadership characteristics.

2. Musical independence, as perceived by Tennessee's PSSIDs, appears to be a holistic concept rather than being identified as a single musical skill.

3. The larger secondary instrumental programs appear to be better instrumental programs for developing musical independence in students.

4. The MAT 3 can be used to differentiate between students and programs which contribute to musical independence and students and programs that do not.

5. Students seem to recognize and enjoy participating in "outstanding" programs.