Responding to a post about a test question for second-grade students, which assumed they knew the words “commission” and “Mozart,” this parent replied:
My second-grader defined “commission” without needing the
multiple choice prompts this morning, but her school has a really
strong music program.
She credited her music teacher for having
taught her the term–which was done in the context of an annual
all-school field trip to a local Symphony Orchestra concert. (This
is not district-wide; our PTA fundraising pays for the cost of the
buses necessary to take all the kids. I don’t know of another
public school in the district or in the area that has all of its
kids at the concert every year; most take only one or two grades,
if they participate at all.)
Before they go to the concert, our music teacher gives the kids the elementary-school equivalent of a pre-concert lecture–which is to say, it takes place over a few
weeks and isn’t a lecture, but they come away with much of the same
information.
My daughter has also played violin since she was 4,
and her public school has a fabulous strings program that she’s
been in since kindergarten, also thanks to our fabulous and amazing
music teacher (who, it might be noted, belongs to the union and
runs the entire strings program during her free periods).
Our school is also blessed with amazing parents, and several of them
attend each and every orchestra rehearsal to help the kids tune
their instruments and set up music and stands. And in the spirit of
full disclosure, my daughter has a musicologist for a mother.
Do I think most second-grade students could define this term? Probably
not, especially with so many schools cutting music and arts
programs. Unfortunately, putting terms like this on a test will
likely have the effect of extending vocabulary lessons and cutting
into time that would otherwise be used for music or art or
P.E.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
What a fine example of the value of a well-rounded education, the value of which cannot be assessed by confining standardized measurements, nor can its results be produced by teaching to a test.
Thank you for this post, a great one for me to read first this day.
How would Bill Gates measure this school? Test scores?
People like Bill Gates think they are measuring a school via test scores because they do not consult with statistical experts like me before rushing in, getting nothing, and publicizing it as something.
I guarantee folks like Bill Gates do not send their children to schools where the teachers and programs are Pearson-dependent.
Admirable, but not always supported by the schedule. I’d like a clearer definition of what “free periods” means.
In my schedule, we have the equivalent of 29 class periods. With lower enrollment, related arts teachers are often assigned only 26-28 classes. We are given duties to fill the time in the schedule where there are no classes to teach. These duties can entail covering of classes, supervising arrival and dismissal or supervising lunch/recess. In essence, these can be called “free periods” if no coverage is necessary.
By contract, every teacher in the building is entitled to one duty-free lunch period and one planning/preparation period daily (or five per week). Every teacher in my district is also assigned an additional team prep once every five days at the elementary level or every other day at the middle school level. What union would look the other way while a teacher gave up her prep to teach unless a prep is not a provision in the contract to begin with? I’m guessing that there may be open periods in the schedule, but correct me if I’m wrong. If there are none, when is the teacher expected to plan, do paper work, contact parents, etc.? If there is one, let’s represent the “free periods for teaching strings” correctly.