Brian Wesolowski

University of Georgia | UGA · Hugh Hodgson School of Music

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a scale to measure the quality of pre-service music teachers' formative, verbal feedback in the context of secondary-level instrumental ensemble rehearsals. The questions that guided this study include: (a) What are the psychometric qualities (e.g., validity, reliability, and precision) of the P...

From Data to Decisions in Music Education Research provides a structured and hands-on approach to working with empirical data in the context of music education research. Using step-by-step tutorials with in-depth examples of music education data, this book draws upon concepts in data science and statistics to provide a comprehensive framework for w...

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable assessment tool to measure music educators’ participation in and perceptions of their high-quality professional development (PD) experiences. A sample of 450 in-service music educators across the United States completed a 78-item rating scale embedded within 10 domains reflecting high-qu...

The Development of a Predictive Opportunity-to-Learn Model Using Machine Learning

An ecological approach for school music assessment is a method for helping music teachers investigate the school, student, and community factors that may affect their music program and identifying the values associated with these factors. The purpose of this article is to prescribe an ecological framework for student and program evaluation in a way...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss opportunity-to-learn (OTL) as it relates to the field of music teaching and learning. Broadly, OTL is the consideration for all conditions or circumstances within schools and classrooms that promote fair and inclusive learning for all students. From an inclusion perspective and in the context of music educati...

Validity, reliability, and fairness are three prominent indicators for evaluating the quality of assessment processes. Each of the indicators is most often written about and applied in the context of large-scale assessment. As a result, the technical properties of these indicators make them limited in both their practicality and relevance for class...

The Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) is a widely implemented performance assessment in the United States used to indicate the readiness of pre-service teachers to enter the classroom and the level of pre-service teacher preparation supported by individual colleges of education. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychom...

The purpose of this study was to build a Random Forest supervised machine learning model in order to predict musical rater‐type classifications based upon a Rasch analysis of raters’ differential severity/leniency related to item use. Raw scores (N = 1,704) from 142 raters across nine high school solo and ensemble festivals (grades 9–12) were colle...

The purpose of this study was to examine differential item functioning (DIF) in a rubric used to assess middle-school solo and ensemble performances. This study was guided by the following research questions: (a) does measurement equivalence for all items exist when used to measure subgroups of students based on their musical instrument? (b) what p...

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable rubric to be used for the evaluation of large ensemble wind band performances. The guiding questions for this study were: (a) what are the psychometric qualities (i.e., reliability and validity) of the scale developed to assess wind band ensemble performance at the high school level? (b)...

An effective assessment process can improve student performance, guide instructional decisions, and advocate for a music program. Strategies include designing and administering reliable and valid measures of student learning and using assessments to enhance feedback, longitudinal documentation of assessment results for accountability, and a transpa...

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric quality (i.e., validity and reliability) of a rating scale to assess pre-service teachers’ lesson plan development in the context of secondary-level music performance classrooms. The research questions that guided this study include: (1) What items demonstrate acceptable model fit for the c...

The purpose of this study was to describe the development of content and performance standards for a rubric to evaluate secondary-level solo instrumental music performance using a modified bookmark standard setting procedure. The research questions that guided this study include (1) What are the psychometric qualities of a rubric to evaluate second...

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable rubric for the evaluation of large ensemble string performances using psychometric principles of invariant measurement, whereby the measurement of ensembles, items, and raters are simultaneously and independently calibrated. The multifaceted Rasch partial credit measurement model was use...

In formal music performance assessments where raters evaluate performances by different students or ensembles over several days, the quality of raters’ judgments can vary over the duration of the assessment. Because time is construct-irrelevant, the influence of time on rater judgments poses a threat to the fairness of the assessment. In this study...

In the development of a measure to assess music performance in the United States, the method of data analysis is most often factor analysis. However, Rasch Measurement Theory is a branch of item response theory that is underscored by properties of invariance using a fixed model across independent items, persons, and raters. It is because of the pro...

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the state of measurement in music research, and the need to implement a new paradigm for the improved treatment of data used to measure latent constructs of musical experiences. From a philosophical and conceptual perspective, this paper discusses how the use of additive conjoint measurement models based on t...

In music teaching and learning, all individuals experience musical phenomena in unique ways as a result of experiences, perceptions, cognitive engagement with, and awareness of musical events. Phenomonography is a research method for mapping the qualitatively different ways in which people experience, conceptualize, perceive, and understand various...

This study investigates the production and perception of timing, synchronisation and dynamics in jazz trio performances. In a production experiment, six trio combinations of one saxophonist, two bassists, and three drummers were recorded while they performed three popular jazz songs. Onset timing and dynamics of each performer were extracted and an...

In any performance-based musical assessment context, construct-irrelevant variability attributed to raters is a cause of concern when constructing a validity argument. Therefore, evidence of rater quality is a necessary criterion for psychometrically sound (i.e., valid, reliable, and fair) rater-mediated music performance assessments. Rater accurac...

Rater variability studies in the context of music performance assessment treat rater effects as static characteristics of raters, where the effects occur similarly across each assessed performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate expert raters' (N = 13) differential severity/leniency as dynamic processes, where the rater effects occur...

The purpose of this study was to describe the development of a valid and reliable rubric to assess secondary-level solo instrumental music performance based on principles of invariant measurement. The research questions that guided this study included (1) What is the psychometric quality (i.e., validity, reliability, and precision) of a scale devel...

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between audio descriptors for groove-based electronic dance music (EDM) and raters’ perceived cognitive, affective, and psychomotor responses. From 198 musical excerpts (length: 15 sec.) representing 11 subgenres of EDM, 19 low-level audio feature descriptors were extracted. A principal comp...

18 sematic differential items from Bartel’s [54] CART-M. (DOCX)

Summary of track information and subgenre labels. (DOCX)

Calibration of the musical sample facet. (DOCX)

The MUSIC Model: Five orthogonal dimensions of music preference [63,64]. (DOCX)

When good model-data fit is observed, the Many-Facet Rasch (MFR) model acts as a linking and equating model that can be used to estimate student achievement, item difficulties, and rater severity on the same linear continuum. With sufficient connectivity among the facets, the MFR model provides estimates of student achievement that are equated to c...

This manuscript sought to investigate rater cognition by exploring rater types based upon differential severity and leniency associated with rating scale items, rating scale category functioning, and dimensions of music performance assessment. The purpose of this study was to empirically identify typologies of operational raters based upon systemat...

THE USE OF RATERS AS A METHODOLOGICAL TOOL to detect significant differences in performances and as a means to evaluate music performance achievement is a solidly defended practice in music psychology, education , and performance science research. However, psy-chometric concerns exist in raters' precision in the use of task-specific scoring criteri...

The purpose of this study was to describe and illustrate the use of modern measurement theory for evaluating the psychometric quality of a scale designed to measure jazz big band performance achievement. Many of the measurement models used in music education are based on classical test theory. Advances in item response theory, such as the Rasch mea...

Student achievement growth data are increasingly used for assessing teacher effectiveness and tracking student achievement in the classroom. Guided by the student learning objective (SLO) framework, music teachers are now responsible for collecting, tracking, and reporting student growth data. Often, the reported data do not accurately reflect the...

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable rating scale to assess jazz rhythm sections in the context of jazz big band performance. The research questions that guided this study included: (a) what central factors contribute to the assessment of a jazz rhythm section? (b) what items should be used to describe and assess a jazz rhy...

The purpose of this study was to investigate model-data fit and differential rater functioning in the context of large group music performance assessment using the Many-Facet Rasch Partial Credit Measurement Model. In particular, we sought to identify whether or not expert raters’ (N = 24) severity was invariant across four school levels (middle sc...

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable rating scale to assess jazz big band performance and to evaluate the psychometric properties of jazz big bands at three performance achievement levels (e.g., low, moderate, high). The pool of initial scale items (N = 22) was gleaned from jazz big band research and instructional literatur...

We investigated temporal synchronization and joint action in improvised, groove-based jazz performance. Expressive timing has been studied extensively in areas of music psychology and performance science (see Honing, 2013 for a review). Additionally, several models of expressive timing have been offered that propose single-factor conceptions of exp...

In popular music, the quality of a performance is often judged by its groove. As easy as it may seem to decide for a listener on what is “groovy” or not, it is difficult to identify technical characteristics of groove in a performance. Even though solo performances can be groovy by themselves, another theory refers to systematic delays between bass...

Human perception of groove-based music is underscored by listeners’ ability, inclination or affection to respond physically to musical stimuli. Sensorimotor coupling results from real-time interactions between the body’s nervous system along with perceptions of events, whereby multisensory input (i.e., affective and expressive information) guides m...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects and relationships of selected musical variables on the horizontal (i.e., successive eighth note timing relationships) and vertical (i.e., the degree of ensemble synchronicity between separate parts) timing properties of jazz rhythm. A total of 949 eighth note samples from five improvised solos by...

A fundamental aim of the Race to the Top agenda is to assess the effectiveness of teachers based on value-added growth measurement models of student achievement. However, in nontested grades and subject areas, such as music, alternative assessment types are being considered, including district-, school-, or teacher-developed measures. This article...

The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive processes related to interaction episodes in jazz improvisation through the development, testing, and validation of a rubric for assessing interaction in jazz improvisation. Four questions guided this study: (a) is a rubric an effective method for assessing performance achievement at undergradu...

The purpose of this study was to empirically determine what selected musical factors affect the acoustical properties (i.e., note dynamics) of eighth notes in jazz performance. Eighth notes (N = 231) were sampled from four unaccompanied solos performed by American saxophonist Chris Potter. Note dynamics were simultaneously regressed on metrical bea...

A primary difficulty with music performance assessment is managing its subjective nature. To help improve objectivity, rubrics can be used to develop a set of guidelines for clearly assessing student performance. Moreover, rubrics serve as documentation for student achievement that provides music teachers with a written form of accountability. This...