Musical Instruments

The 2000 music assessments included ten assessment tasks related to understanding music.

All ten tasks were identical for year 4 and year 8 students. Three are trend tasks (fully described with data for both 1996 and 2000), four are released tasks (fully described with data for 2000 only), and three are link tasks (to be used again in 2004, so only partially described here).

The task details and results for the trend tasks are presented in the first section, followed by the task details and results for the released tasks.The third section contains some task information and the results for the link tasks.

Comparing results for year 4 and year 8 students
Averaged across 66 task components, 20 percent more year 8 than year 4 students (or teams of students) produced correct responses. This indicates that, on average, students have made very substantial progress between year 4 and year 8 in the skills assessed by the tasks. The differences were greatest on High to Low and Music in Style.

Trend results: Comparing 1996 and 2000 results
Three trend tasks involving a total of 22 components were administered to students in both the 1996 and 2000 assessments.

For year 4 students there was a very slight decline in performance between 1996 and 2000. The percentage of students succeeding decreased from 1996 to 2000, with lower performance in 2000 on 13 of the 22 components, and three percent fewer students, on average, in choosing the correct or preferred responses.

For year 8 students the picture was similar. The percentage of students succeeding decreased very slightly from 1996 to 2000, with lower performance in 2000 on 14 of the 22 components, and two percent fewer students, on average, in choosing the correct or preferred responses.