Students show wide range of knowledge in music

The music portion of the assessment measured students' ability to respond to music. A combination of multiple-choice and constructed-response questions that explored students’ abilities to analyze and describe aspects of music they heard, critique instrumental and vocal performances, and demonstrate their knowledge of standard musical notation and music's role in society were used to assess the responding process. The average responding score for music was reported on a scale of 0 to 300.

Average responding scale score and percentile scores in NAEP music at grade 8: 2008

Findings

• While the overall average responding score in music was set at 150, percentile scores ranged from 105 for the lowest-performing students (10th percentile) to 194 for the highest-performing students (90th percentile).

Additional information about responding scale scores is available in Interpreting Arts Results.

To see the types of questions students at the 25th and 75th percentiles would be likely to answer, see the music item map.

Explore sample questions in the NAEP Questions Tool.

It is important to note that because music and visual arts are two distinct disciplines, results are reported separately and cannot be compared.

NOTE: View complete data with standard errors.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2008 Arts Assessment.