An assessment profile of quality secondary band programs in Illinois

An Assessment Profile of Quality Band Programs in Illinois establishes an evaluation system of high school band programs of quality based upon the study of three such programs. Bands were chosen for a selection list based upon their performance at one of three invitational concert band contests during the past six years. A committee of expert band directors and music association officers was asked to vote for three bands in each class with the researcher selecting for study the bands receiving the most votes. Schools were contacted for permission to do the research and the bands with the highest vote totals agreed to participate in the study.The researcher devised an Evaluation Checklist for observation and records research. This checklist used external and internal factors in an effort to find common and unique factors in all three schools. An Interview Checklist was developed from the Evaluation Checklist. Parents, administrators, students, and staff in each district were interviewed with results reported by school, by group, and by school classification. Based upon the observations, records research, and interviews a profile of each band program was developed and unique factors and common factors were noted.Conclusions were that many common factors existed between quality programs, regardless of school size. One notable conclusion was the finding that in the larger schools, students felt the reason for success of the program was the socialization need or "family" they had developed in the band program at their respective school. Positive teacher traits, teacher team work, adequate financing, private lessons, the community arts environment, and parental and administrative support were all found to be integral parts of each successful band program.Both the Evaluation and Interview Checklists should serve as a point of departure of further research into the qualitative aspects of successful band programs. Further study of the factors inherent in programs of quality is merited with increased emphasis upon the total climate of such success, including teacher, administration, students, administration, and community.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio