Integrating Elementary Music with a Standardized Tested Subject to Influence Achievement Measure Scores on Teacher Evaluations

Music teachers in Tennessee are evaluated based in part on subjects they do not teach, nor are they certified to teach. Yet, their effectiveness as an educator is determined in part by how well students perform on standardized tests in these subjects. Evaluation scores in Tennessee are partially calculated by using value-added measures, a formula that measures student growth in a particular subject and determines a teacher’s contribution to that growth. Each year in Tennessee, music teachers are required to choose a value-added achievement measure from a list of standardized tested subjects to comprise 15% of their evaluations. Since music teachers do not teach these subjects directly, they must make this choice based on conjecture. This project sought to reverse this scenario by developing an integrated curriculum resource that combined a standardized tested subject with elementary music, and evaluate whether the results of that resource are an indication of positive achievement measure score outcomes on music teacher evaluations. This project also documented the effectiveness of subject integration in the music classroom in terms of student engagement and motivation. To test the effectiveness of the resource, a pre-test and post-test consisting of twenty science questions was administered to nineteen third grade students before and after the integrated curriculum was implemented. The average score on the pre-test was 42%. After the curriculum was implemented however, the average score on the post-test rose to 70%, an increase of 28%. Such gains demonstrated that the curriculum was effective. The implication for teacher evaluations is that the curriculum could positively affect future achievement measure score outcomes. The results also showed subject integration to be an effective curricular strategy to engage and motivate student learning