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DOE Information: Majors and Minors (Power Point)
Below are a few of the questions that have been asked in recent days by FMEA members. If you have similar questions about how issues are being handled, please let us know.
Q: I am concerned about the new middle school requirement for students to take a semester of “career development” in lieu of their elective.
I am looking for a solution, to present, for this problem to the directors in my FBA district so we can act in an informed way and prevent students being removed from our programs in the coming years. I want to get the parents and other arts supporters writing educated letters to our administrators and school board members so we can prevent the killing of our programs.
If you can offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated.
A: There is a solution in process. June Hinckley, at DOE, worked with music supervisors to create a band, chorus, and orchestra middle school course description for middle school that incorporates the career education requirements into this one semester course. The course descriptions go to the State Board of Education at their November meeting for approval and will then be available for use.
You will want to make certain that principals and guidance counselors know this is coming. There will be new course code numbers for these courses which will allow you to keep students in these sequential courses. It is also an opportunity for savvy music educators to address the major/minors choices that 8th grade students will make for high school – so that music students in middle school see how to pursue interests in music during their high school career.
Q: I am a former music teacher who is now in charge of the STAR program in my county. Do you know of any standardized tests that could be made available to districts trying to rank music teachers on student performance?
A: FMEA is field-testing a grade 4 music test this spring and will have a MS and HS test ready for field-testing next year.
All districts are scrambling to have something for this year. At present only Hillsborough County has an approved plan. We recommend that music educators propose to their administrators a plan that utilizes a locally written “end-of-course” exam for their classes and use that in conjunction with the Music Performance Assessment ratings from Concert and Solo-Ensemble events. Any written test is one that must be a district wide test, produced by the district or one available commercially through a text book. There is a prohibition on “teacher made” tests for this purpose.
Q: What courses qualify for the new one-credit requirement for Fine Arts in the A++ plan?
A: Any course in the course code directory for music, art, theatre, or dance.
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