Studio Teacher Assessment Tools.

College faculty, public school teachers, business employees and public officials are continually evaluated. Many college faculty members are evaluated by their students or their colleagues on a yearly or even a course-by-course basis. Supervisors evaluate the employees working under them annually, which becomes the basis for pay raises and promotions. However, the independent music teacher has no outside evaluator. True, if the teacher chooses to enter students into various competitive and noncompetitive events, the students receive evaluations that can help the teacher in the teaching process. The evaluator does not have an opportunity, though, to observe the teacher in his or her actual studio teaching several different students of varying abilities and levels. Sometimes students leave a studio because they are dissatisfied, but the teacher may not know the reason for the dissatisfaction. There are few resources available for studio teaching assessment, so it can be difficult for the independent teacher to know how to even begin to evaluate his or her own teaching.

While reviewing the new MTNA Standards for Certification, in which the individual teacher is asked to assess his or her teaching, it became apparent that MTNA could provide a valuable resource to studio teachers through the development of Teacher Assessment Tools. An individual teacher, either in an independent studio or in a college studio, could utilize them for self-assessment. An individual teacher could ask a colleague to evaluate the teacher and the teachers' students using the MTNA Studio Festival Program (in addition to the students' evaluations, the evaluator could complete a written/oral assessment of the teachers' work--all for an appropriate fee paid to the evaluator). An individual teacher could request that students or parents who are leaving the studio complete a form evaluating the studio.

Thus, there are three possible levels of assessment: Self-Assessment, Peer Assessment and Client Assessment. There are many similarities in content between the self-assessment and the peer assessment. However, the client assessment was kept very brief so the student or parent could complete the form in a few minutes.

The MTNA Board of Directors approved the appointment of a task force to develop assessment tools for studio teachers in the summer of 2003 and approved the final draft at the March 2004 meeting. Chaired by Sylvia Coats, NCTM, Wichita State University and MTNA board member, the task force included: Judy Baker, NCTM, IMT and adjunct college faculty member; Barbara Fast, NCTM, University of Oklahoma; Sara McDaniel, NCTM, IMT and adjunct faculty at University of Colorado/Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak Community College; Scott Price, University of South Carolina; Phyllis Pieffer, NCTM, MTNA president, IMT and adjunct college faculty, ex officio; and Gary Ingle, MTNA executive director, ex officio. This task force is to be congratulated for their careful thought and discussion on the development of assessment tools, for their diligence in preparing comprehensive assessment tools that can be utilized in part or as a whole, and for their time and effort in providing a valuable resource for studio teachers. The task force has our deepest thanks for all their work. It is the hope of the task force and the Board of Directors that each and every teacher will find this to be a useful evaluation tool for their studios.

MTNA President Phyllis Pieffer, NCTM, has been involved in all levels of MTNA for more than thirty years. She holds degrees in piano performance from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, and in music theory from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. A resident of Aberdeen, Washington, Pieffer teaches piano and theory at Grays Harbor College, operates an independent music studio, performs as part of a duo-piano team and a flute-piano ensemble and is a church musician.