This article presents a three-pronged strategy for teaching collective improvisation in the general music classroom through structured surround soundscapes. This strategy consists of developing socio-interactive skills, shared understanding, and personal music vocabulary in collective improvisation. In the music classroom, these concepts should be…

A unique partnership between public charter schools, a civic chamber orchestra, and university school of music has brought music instruction to middle school students in central Ohio. This collaborative endeavor can serve as a model for charter schools administrators wishing to expand their curricular offerings to include music and other arts…

Music teacher evaluations traditionally examine how teachers develop student music-learning objectives, assess cognitive and performance skills, and direct classroom learning experiences and behavior. A convergence of past and current educational ideas and directives is changing how teachers are evaluated on their use of student-centered…

School-university partnerships continue to be of growing interest across the United States, especially in music education. This article examines a specific case of how engagement theory was used as a framework for establishing a musical collaboration in a current school-university partnership. As a result of this collaboration, the school, the…

In music education, current assessment trends emphasize student reflection, tracking progress over time, and formative as well as summative measures. This view of assessment requires instrumental music educators to modernize their approaches without interfering with methods that have proven to be successful. To this end, the Longitudinal Scales…

Any evaluation plan designed to evaluate arts in general education programs must reflect a reconsideration of the whole process of education evaluation. The evaluation plan proposed here has been used effectively to evaluate either arts education or music education programs. (Author/RK)

Music programs can provide children with positive experiences with senior citizens. Described is a program in which fifth graders sang in a chorus with senior citizens at the latters' monthly luncheon meeting. (RM)

The training program of the San Francisco Opera was described. This glimpse at the behind-the-scenes demands of opera life was a good account of education at the professional level. (Editor/RK)

Eclecticism by itself is meaningless. "Anything goes" must go. Here's a flexible approach in which the improviser can assimilate various music traditions and from them develop a style that is both comportable and personal. (Editor)

Discusses a variety of ways in which the small ensemble may be developed into a highly successful organization within the school. Highlights the importance of student input into performances and advocates the planning of concerts in conjunction with professional performers. Describes several of the author's experiences with small ensembles. (GEA)

What a sampling of different schools are doing to celebrate Music in Our Schools Week 1984 is described. (RM)

Classroom scrip emblazoned with a picture of Johann Sebastian Bach is used to motivate junior high school students. Students are paid for cooperation and performance. Two auctions are held during the school year, at which students can spend the scrip on musical items. (CS)

In Anchorage, Alaska, resource teachers in the Classroom Music Program trained 450 elementary teachers to handle music in their own classrooms by means of packet-type lesson formats, a Music Jamboree cycle, and an assembly that reinforces previous teaching. (AM)

Author described the use of contracts in a general music class. As well, she provided a lengthy list of suggested contract activities that readers might wish to try in their own classroom. (Editor/RK)

The Music Performance Trust Funds (MPTF) is a national agency that sponsors live musical performances in schools, hospitals, clinics, senior citizen centers, penal institutions, and the like. In this interview a trustee for MPTF talks about the group's history and its commitment to quality performances in the schools. (RM)