Acknowledgements

The Project directors acknowledge the vital support and contributions of many people to this report, including:

• the very dedicated staff of the Educational Assessment Research Unit
• Stephen Porteners and other staff members of the Ministry of Education
• members of the Project’s National Advisory Committee
• members of the Project’s Music Advisory Panel
• Alison Caldwell and students from St Bridgets School, Dunedin
• principals and children of the schools where tasks were trialled
• principals, staff and Board of Trustee members of the 254 schools included in the 2004 sample
• the 2876 children who participated in the assessments and their parents
• the 96 teachers who administered the assessments to the children
• the 48 senior tertiary students who assisted with the marking process
• the 195 teachers who assisted with the marking of tasks early in 2005.

Assessing Music
In 2004, the second year of the third cycle of national monitoring, three areas were assessed: music, aspects of technology, and reading and speaking. This report presents details and results of the assessments in music. Music education represents part of a balanced curriculum for all New Zealand school students. A music education gives learners opportunities to develop their aesthetic appreciation, their capacities for original and imaginative expression, and their abilities to use and interpret musical elements for a variety of purposes and with a range of materials.

A framework for music education and its assessment is presented in Chapter 2. This framework highlights four fundamental processes: creating, performing, responding and understanding music.

Creating Music
Chapter 3 examines achievement involving creating music. Averaged across 18 task components used with both year 4 and year 8 students, 10 percent more year 8 than year 4 students or teams produced good responses. This indicates that, on average, students have made useful but modest progress between year 4 and year 8 in the skills assessed by the tasks. Year 8 students tended to be markedly stronger than year 4 students in the technical aspects of tasks, but weaker in displaying vitality and colour in their performances.

Two trend tasks involving a total of six components were administered to students in both the 2000 and 2004 assessments. Because of the small number of task components involved, and the consequent limitations of the reliability of the trend data, the trends for creating music tasks across the four-year period will not be reported separately but are included in the overall trends reported later in this summary.

Performing Music
Chapter 4 examines achievement in performing music. Averaged across 55 task components used with both year 4 and year 8 students, eight percent more year 8 than year 4 students or teams produced good responses. Year 4 students performed as well or better than year 8 students on most task components involving singing, with year 8 students doing substantially better on the other tasks.

Three trend tasks involving a total of 19 components were administered to year 4 students in both the 2000 and 2004 assessments. Overall, little change was evident. Looking at the number of year 4 students achieving the most positive rating category for each component, there was improvement from 2000 to 2004 on 11 of the 19 components, with, on average, two percent more students gaining the highest rating in 2004. The same analysis for year 8 students showed improvements from 2000 to 2004 on eight of the 19 components, but on average one percent fewer students gained the highest rating in 2004.

Responding to Music
Chapter 5 reports achievement in responding to music. Averaged across 28 task components, nine percent more year 8 than year 4 students (or teams of students) produced good responses. This indicates that, on average, students have made useful but modest progress between year 4 and year 8 in the skills assessed by the tasks. Year 8 students scored higher on all 28 of the task components.

Two trend tasks involving a total of five components were administered to students in both the 2000 and 2004 assessments. Because of the small number of task components involved, and the consequent limitations of the reliability of the trend data, the trends for creating music tasks across the four-year period will not be reported separately, but are included in the overall trends reported later in this summary.

Understanding Music
Chapter 6 examines achievement relating to understanding music. Averaged across 47 task components, 19 percent more year 8 than year 4 students (or teams of students) produced the best or 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. Year 8 students scored higher on all 47 of the task components.

Three trend tasks involving a total of 15 components were administered to students in both the 2000 and 2004 assessments. For year 4 students there was no meaningful change in performance between 2000 and 2004. The percentage of students succeeding increased very slightly from 2000 to 2004, with higher performance in 2004 on eight of the 15 components, and one percent more students, on average, choosing the correct or preferred responses. For year 8 students the picture there was a marginal decline in performance. The percentage of students succeeding decreased very slightly from 2000 to 2004, with lower performance in 2004 on 10 of the 15 components, and two percent fewer students, on average, choosing the correct or preferred responses.

Overall Trends
Overall trends across time were examined by comparing the performance of students in 2000 and 2004 on the 45 components of the 10 trend tasks. Two performance standards were used: students who chose correct answers or achieved a high level of performance; and students who chose correct answers or achieved a high or medium level of performance.
Using the higher standard, on average, two percent more year 4 students succeeded in 2004 than in 2000, with improvement on 26 of the 45 task components. For year 8 students, on average, there was no change in performance between 2000 and 2004, with improvement on 18 of the 45 task components.

Using the lower standard, on average four percent more year 4 students succeeded in 2004 than in 2000, with improvement on 26 of the 45 task components. For year 8 students, on average one percent more students succeeded in 2004 than in 2000, with improvement on 21 of the 45 task components.

In summary, then, there is evidence of slight improvement for year 4 students, with a greater reduction in low performance than an increase in really high performance. There is no meaningful change in the performance of year 8 students.

Music Survey
Chapter 7 presents the results of the music surveys, which sought information from students about their involvement in and enjoyment of music curriculum experiences at school. Students were also asked about their involvement in and enjoyment of music- related activities out of school time.

Year 4 students generally were very positive about doing music at school. Half chose the highest rating to describe how much they liked doing music at school, and more than half warmly anticipated further study of music at school, virtually unchanged from the 2000 results. There appears to have been a modest increase in some music activities in school since 2000, particularly in regard to listening to music, which comfortably exceeds singing as the dominant activity. There continues to be a large gap between the enjoyment of playing instruments and the extent to which this activity is included in school programmes. Opportunities to make up (compose) music seem to be infrequent. Outside of school, the most common activity is listening to music, which is also rated the most enjoyed activity. Twenty-five percent said they learned music or belonged to a music group outside of school, unchanged from 2000.

Compared to year 4 students, year 8 students were less inclined to use the most positive categories. This pattern has been common in national monitoring surveys.

Year 8 students were quite positive about doing music at school, with percentages little changed from 2000. In school music programmes, there appear to have been moderate increases in listening to music, and dancing or moving to music. Enjoyment of the activities has been maintained across the last eight years, except for a small decline in enjoyment of singing. Opportunities to make up (compose) music seem to be infrequent. Outside of school, by far the most common activity is listening to music, which is also very strongly rated the most enjoyed activity. Twenty-eight percent said they learned music or belonged to a music group outside of school, slightly down from 30 percent in 1996.

Performance of Demographic Subgroup
Chapter 8 reports the results of analyses that compared the task performance and survey responses of different demographic subgroups.

School type (full primary or intermediate), school size, community size and geographic zone did not seem to be important factors predicting achievement on the music tasks. The same was true for the 2000 and 1996 assessments. However, there were statistically significant differences in the performance of students from low, medium and high decile schools on 36 percent of the tasks at year 4 level (compared to 57 percent in 2000 and 35 percent in 1996), and 45 percent of the tasks at year 8 level (compared to 27 percent in 2000 and 45 percent in 1996).

For the comparisons of boys with girls, Pakeha with Mäori, Pakeha with Pasifika students, and students for whom the predominant language at home was English with those for whom it was not, effect sizes were used. Effect size is the difference in mean (average) performance of the two groups, divided by the pooled standard deviation of the scores on the particular task. For this summary, these effect sizes were averaged across all tasks.

Girls averaged slightly higher than boys, with mean effect sizes of 0.08 for year 4 students and 0.19 for year 8 students (the corresponding figures in 2000 were 0.15 and 0.10). These are all small differences. As was also true in 2000, the music survey results at both year levels showed that girls were substantially more positive than boys about music activities and more involved in them in their own time.

Pakeha students averaged slightly higher than Mäori students, with mean effect sizes of 0.14 for year 4 students and 0.16 for year 8 students (the corresponding figures in 2000 were 0.20 and 0.17). These are all small differences. The music survey results, however, showed that Mäori students were more involved in and enthusiastic about some aspects of music.

Pakeha students averaged very slightly (negligibly) higher than Pasifika students, with mean effect sizes of 0.02 for year 4 students and 0.07 for year 8 students (distinctly closer than in 2000, when the corresponding figures were 0.18 and 0.24). The music survey results showed that Pasifika students were more involved in and enthusiastic about some aspects of music, notably with 17 percent more Pasifika than Pakeha year 8 students (45 percent versus 28 percent) reporting that they were learning music or involved in a music group outside of school.

Compared to students for whom the predominant language at home was English, students from homes where other languages predominated averaged very slightly (negligibly) higher, with mean effect sizes of 0.01 for year 4 students and 0.02 for year 8 students. Comparative figures are not available from the assessments four-years earlier.