In today's high-stakes testing and assessment driven teaching environment, teachers are required to document their students' ongoing progress. Both the Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) require that students with disabilities participate in assessments with accommodations and alternative assessments if necessary (Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, 2004; No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 2002). Music teachers see many students everyday, often for short periods of time, making documenting progress and assessing students individually inherently difficult. For those teachers who work with students with disabilities, additional adaptations to assessments may be necessary. There are some examples of assessments throughout texts and in on- line resources; however, every district, school, and classroom is different and teachers will need to create their own assessments. How can we make assessment in inclusive classrooms seamless and approachable?

What Are We Assessing?

As we examine how to assess students in inclusive music classrooms, we must also consider what skills we are assessing—what do we want our students to be able to do? Our students will leave our classrooms, and eventually leave school—what musical skills do they need to live a musical adult life? To develop a vision of our students as musical adults, one must establish clear descriptions of what skills students can demonstrate, and these skills must be closely related to activities they will participate in as a student and as an adult. After we answer these questions, we can ask, "How do I know they've learned?" and begin to develop appropriate assessments for our classrooms.

Special education teachers regularly plan and develop long-term life-long goals; in fact, IDEA requires that the transition from school to adulthood be planned for in students' individual education programs, or IEPs. In the 1980s, special educators began using the term 'functional curriculum' to refer to a curriculum based on tasks that are age appropriate, community referenced, with functional outcomes. Students with disabilities often require more time and additional opportunities to learn new skills; so we must choose what skills we are teaching carefully and strategically to ensure future success. In a functional curriculum, students are learning skills for their whole life that facilitate their transition from school to adulthood.

When considering our music curriculum, we can use the idea of a 'functional curriculum' to determine what skills are important and will facilitate our students' transition from school to adulthood. If students are going to later participate in community music ensembles, what skills do they need? If our long-term goal is for students to attend local concerts and be thoughtful consumers of music—what skills do they need? The skills needed to lead an active musical adult life should be the same skills we teach in our classrooms.

Creating Opportunities for Assessment

Two sets of principles rooted in special education can guide our decisions designing and implementing opportunities for students to show what they know and can do. First authentic assessment, also known as performance, alternative, or direct assessments, are "a form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful appreciation of essential knowledge or skills" (Mueller, 2014). Ideally, in authentic assessment, we replicate the context in which the skill we are assessing would actually occur outside of the classroom.

Many teachers may already use authentic assessment; but as we look at assessment along with our short- and long-term curricular goals, we can make purposeful decisions about how we can teach and assess these skills in authentic contexts. For example, rather than giving a quiz on audience behavior after a discussion, assess students' actual audience behavior across contexts—when listening to a peer, a recording, a guest artist, and on a field trip to the symphony. Similarly, with skills related to performance—assess the performance itself, rather than naming notes or key signatures. Ideally, assessment should be informal as well as formal, on-going, and a performance measure of skills.

To do this, we need to acknowledge that we are not going to be able to assess all students individually everyday on all of the skills covered in class; as a result, opportunities for assessments need to be deliberately planned a priori, based on the needs of each of our students. As we plan these opportunities on a daily basis, how do we ensure all of our students are able to access the opportunities for assessment and are able to complete the assessments in our classrooms?

The second set of principles, called universal design, is based in architecture and product design for the flexibility of use for all people. Developed by Ron Mace at North Carolina State University, educators have adapted his principles of architecture and product design for teachers, called Universal Design for Learning, or UDL. UDL encourages teachers to design their physical classrooms, instructional strategies, and assessment in ways that all students can be successful (CAST, 2011). This guards against the overuse and overspecialization of individual adaptations, particularly the unnecessary separation from classmates.

UDL includes three principles: multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement (CAST, 2011). As we design assessments for use in our music classrooms, the principle of multiple means of action and expression can guide our decisions.

CAST, one of the organizations promoting UDL in schools, includes three guidelines for teachers to implement the principle of multiple means of action and expression: provide options for physical action, provide options for expression and communication, and provide options for executive functions (CAST, 2011). Some students require changes in how they physically complete a task. This can be aided by providing options for physical action that include the use of additional materials to allow students to respond, such as a switch or other assistive technology device. To provide options of expressive skills and fluency, allow students to respond in a variety of ways through a variety of materials. Some students may be able to present what they know and can do using a movement rather than a verbal communication skill.

Finally, we can provide options for executive functioning that support students in the process of short- and long-term goal setting and planning to complete tasks. Some teachers use a singular strategy for each learning activity; however, critical to the philosophy of UDL is providing varied opportunities in all classroom activities and assignments.

Implementing UDL in music assessment includes four principles of a functional curriculum with authentic assessment. First, ask yourself, "what should the students be able to do after instruction?" To answer this question use verbs, rather than words such as understand and know; by using action verbs, you are focusing on skills that students are doing. Second, establish the context of each of these skills—where are students doing this skill? With whom are they performing? What is the repertoire? Third, determine the assessment prior to instruction, being sure to include a variety of ways students can respond. And finally, the process of assessment should be on going—across many weeks continuing to inform the instructional process as you evaluate your students' progress.

To successfully implement authentic assessment with principles of UDL on a day-to-day basis, some teachers use small groups so they are able to monitor students performing skills to and/or with their peers. Other teachers only call on students rather than asking for volunteers allowing them to control the exact questions and skills students are asked to demonstrate in class. For example, when asking students to demonstrate an appropriate way to shape a phrase, allow them to respond verbally, non-verbally, by demonstrating on an instrument, by singing, and any other way the students can express themselves.

Conclusion

By observing students frequently in many contexts, teachers are able to record data about their students' progress. For students with disabilities, it is important to share this information with others. Often students with disabilities have many individuals working with them on their educational goals; collaborating with others allows us to revise instructional strategies and adaptations. As we continue to observe students making music alone and with others, we can continue to examine the relationship between assessment, curriculum, and instruction to provide the highest quality music education to all of our students.

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