Test Design and
Test Framework
Field 212: Music
Recommendation for individuals using a screenreader: please set your punctuation settings to "most."
The test design below describes general test information. The framework that follows is a detailed outline that explains the knowledge and skills that this test measures.
Test Design
| Format | Computer-based test (CBT) |
|---|---|
| Number of Questions | 100 multiple-choice questions |
| Time* | 3 hours, 15 minutes |
| Passing Score | 240 |
*Does not include 15-minute CBT tutorial
Test Framework
| Test Subarea | Number of Test Objectives | Number of Scorable Items | Number of Non-Scorable Items | subarea weight as percent of total test score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subarea 1—Responding: Listening Skills | 5 | 18 | 5 | 22 percent |
| Subarea 2—Music Theory: Musical Elements and Structures | 4 | 13 | 3 | 17 percent |
| Subarea 3—Creating and Performing Music: Composing, Singing, Playing and Conducting | 4 | 14 | 3 | 17 percent |
| Subarea 4—Connecting: Music History, Culture, and Context | 5 | 18 | 5 | 22 percent |
| Subarea 5—Content Specific Pedagogy: Music Education | 5 | 17 | 4 | 22 percent |
| Totals | 23 | 80 | 20 | 100 percent |
Subarea 1—Responding: Listening Skills
Objective 0001—Understand the elements of melody, harmony, and form in recorded music.
For example:
- Identify aural examples of scales (e.g., octatonic, harmonic minor, microtone, whole tone), modes (e.g., Dorian, Lydian), and intervals (e.g., ascending major seventh, descending minor sixth).
- Identify aural examples of melodic structures, form, and devices (e.g., sequence, repetition, contrast, AB, ABA).
- Identify aural examples of harmonic structures (e.g., tonal, atonal, modal) and textures (e.g., polyphonic, homophonic).
- Identify aural examples of chord structures (e.g., augmented triad, dominant seventh) and progressions.
- Identify aural examples of cadences (e.g., imperfect authentic, Phrygian half).
Objective 0002—Understand the elements of rhythm and expressive qualities in recorded music.
For example:
- Identify aural examples of beat, meter, and tempo.
- Identify aural examples of rhythmic patterns and devices (e.g., syncopation, hemiola, metric displacement).
- Identify aural examples of dynamics, articulation, and embellishments (e.g., turn, accented passing tone).
Objective 0003—Understand the historical and cultural characteristics of recorded music.
For example:
- Identify composers, types of works, and characteristics of Western art music from major periods (e.g., Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary) in aural examples.
- Recognize characteristics of music of the United States (e.g., popular, folk, jazz, art music) in aural examples.
- Identify styles of world music in aural examples (e.g., mariachi, calypso, Indian classical).
Objective 0004—Understand the elements of timbre in recorded music.
For example:
- Identify acoustic and electronic instruments in aural examples.
- Identify vocal classifications in aural examples.
- Identify instrumental ensembles in aural examples (e.g., orchestra, jazz combo, steel drum band).
- Identify vocal ensembles in aural examples (e.g., mixed chorus, madrigal group, vocal trio, vocal jazz ensemble).
Objective 0005—Detect errors in a recorded musical performance.
For example:
- Identify pitch errors made by individuals and ensembles.
- Identify rhythmic errors made by individuals and ensembles.
- Identify intonation errors made by individuals and ensembles.
- Identify errors in expressive qualities made by individuals and ensembles (e.g., dynamics, tempo, articulation, embellishments).
Subarea 2—Music Theory: Musical Elements and Structures
Objective 0006—Understand music notation and vocabulary.
For example:
- Identify pitch notation in standard clefs.
- Analyze key and time signatures.
- Identify note and rest values.
- Analyze changes in tempo and dynamics.
- Identify expressive terms and symbols.
Objective 0007—Understand melodic elements of music.
For example:
- Analyze characteristics of melodies (e.g., melodic direction, range, contour).
- Analyze scales (e.g., pentatonic, whole tone), modes (e.g., Phrygian, Mixolydian), and intervals (e.g., diminished fourth, augmented sixth).
- Analyze melodic structures (e.g., motive, sequence, phrase, parallel period), devices (e.g., inversion, retrograde, diminution), and embellishments.
Objective 0008—Understand harmonic elements of music.
For example:
- Analyze specific chords (e.g., augmented triad, half-diminished seventh) and chord inversions.
- Analyze chord progressions (e.g., Pachelbel sequence, ascending fifths, blues).
- Analyze cadences (e.g., imperfect authentic, Phrygian half).
- Analyze nonchord tones (e.g., passing tones, neighboring tones, suspensions).
- Analyze textures (e.g., polyphonic, homorhythmic homophonic).
Objective 0009—Understand the forms, rhythmic structures, and styles of music.
For example:
- Analyze elements of musical form (e.g., repetition, variation, contrast, phrase, medial caesura).
- Analyze characteristics of musical forms (e.g., sonata allegro, rondo, theme and variations, twelve-bar blues) and compositional techniques (e.g., fugue, tonal answer, motivic fragmentation, retrograde inversion, tone row).
- Analyze elements of compound forms (e.g., sonata, concerto, symphony, suite).
- Analyze rhythmic patterns and devices (e.g., syncopation, hemiola, clave rhythm, polonaise rhythm, metric displacement).
- Identify characteristic elements (e.g., timbre, form, rhythm) of various music styles (e.g., blues, folk, reggae).
Subarea 3—Creating and Performing Music: Composing, Singing, Playing and Conducting
Objective 0010—Understand techniques for creating music.
For example:
- Apply knowledge of music composition (e.g., instrumental and vocal ranges, transpositions, melody harmonization).
- Identify approaches for improvising music (e.g., question and answer, rhythmic variation, adding neighbor notes).
- Demonstrate knowledge of techniques and technologies used for composing, scoring, adapting, and arranging music that is appropriate for a variety of instruments and voices within the school music program.
Objective 0011—Understand techniques for performing vocal music.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the process of producing vocal tone.
- Demonstrate knowledge of vocal classifications and ranges.
- Recognize the stages of vocal maturation as well as characteristics of the developing voice from early childhood to late adolescence.
- Demonstrate knowledge of processes and techniques used to develop singing skills.
Objective 0012—Understand techniques for performing instrumental music
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the types, characteristics, and uses of string, woodwind, brass, percussion, and keyboard instruments.
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic playing techniques for string, woodwind, brass, percussion, and keyboard instruments.
- Demonstrate knowledge of basic playing techniques for classroom instruments (e.g., Orff instruments, recorder, guitar).
Objective 0013—Understand techniques for rehearsing and conducting.
For example:
- Identify problems encountered in playing musical instruments and techniques for resolving such problems.
- Identify problems encountered in singing and techniques for resolving such problems.
- Demonstrate knowledge of rehearsal strategies for vocal and instrumental ensembles.
- Demonstrate knowledge of common beat patterns and expressive techniques used in conducting small and large ensembles.
- Identify appropriate strategies for selecting vocal and instrumental music for performance.
- Demonstrate knowledge of techniques for accompanying classroom and performing ensembles.
Subarea 4—Connecting: Music History, Culture, and Context
Objective 0014—Understand the characteristics, contexts, composers, and works of Western art music, including those from underrepresented groups and major historical periods.
For example:
- Identify major developments in and distinguishing characteristics of vocal and instrumental music from major historical periods (e.g., Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary).
- Apply knowledge of composers, including those from underrepresented groups (e.g., women, ethnic and religious minorities), works, styles, and forms of Western art music from major historical periods (e.g., Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Contemporary).
- Demonstrate knowledge of how music shaped and reflected the major ideas, issues, and themes of Western culture (e.g., J. S. Bach's Lutheran cantatas, Mozart's Da Ponte operas, nineteenth-century musical nationalism, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess).
Objective 0015—Understand the characteristics and contexts of popular, folk, and traditional music of the United States.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of instruments, styles, and characteristics of gospel, blues, rhythm and blues, negro spirituals, and rock-and-roll music.
- Demonstrate knowledge of instruments, styles, and characteristics of jazz (e.g., Dixieland, swing, bebop).
- Demonstrate knowledge of instruments, styles, and characteristics of folk, country, and pop musics.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how music shapes and reflects the major ideas, issues, and themes of cultures of the United States (e.g., civil rights movement, central European immigrants and polka).
Objective 0016—Understand the characteristics and contexts of world music.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of major genres of world music (e.g., Asian theatre music, African drumming, gamelan).
- Recognize instruments, styles, and characteristics of world music (e.g., Greek bouzouki, Caribbean steel drums, Balkan asymmetrical meters).
- Demonstrate knowledge of how music shapes and reflects the major ideas, issues, and themes of various world cultures.
Objective 0017—Understand the relationship between technological advances in music and the evolution of music.
For example:
- Identify developments in the design and use of instruments found in music ensembles.
- Identify developments in the creation of music through the use of computers, synthesizers, and technology applications.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how music is expanding and developing as a result of new technologies and societal changes.
Objective 0018—Understand the roles and functions of music as an expressive medium.
For example:
- Analyze how music functions as a means of individual, communal, and cultural expression and communication.
- Analyze how music changes in response to changes in society.
- Analyze how music functions in commercial applications.
- Demonstrate understanding of careers and jobs in music.
Subarea 5—Content Specific Pedagogy: Music Education
Objective 0019—Understand appropriate content and pedagogical methodologies for elementary school music classes (PreK–grade 5).
For example:
- Demonstrate understanding of teaching methods for elementary school instrumental music classes.
- Demonstrate understanding of teaching methods for elementary school choral music classes.
- Demonstrate understanding of teaching methods for elementary school general music classes.
- Demonstrate knowledge of various approaches and techniques used in developing musical literacy (e.g., pitch and rhythm systems, audiation).
- Identify characteristics of rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic instruments, including ethnic instruments, used in the elementary music classroom.
- Demonstrate knowledge of characteristics and types of music technology (e.g., music notation software, Internet resources, audio editing tools) that are appropriate for the elementary school music program.
Objective 0020—Understand appropriate content and pedagogical methodologies for middle school/secondary music classes (grades 6–12).
For example:
- Demonstrate understanding of teaching methods for middle school/secondary instrumental music classes.
- Demonstrate understanding of teaching methods for middle school/secondary choral music classes.
- Demonstrate understanding of teaching methods for middle school/secondary general music classes.
- Demonstrate knowledge of various approaches and techniques used in developing musical literacy (e.g., pitch and rhythm systems, audiation).
- Identify appropriate music education materials and literature for a variety of music settings.
- Demonstrate knowledge of characteristics and types of music technology (e.g., music notation software, Internet resources, audio editing tools) that are appropriate for the middle school/secondary music program.
Objective 0021—Understand appropriate methods and tools for assessing students in music programs.
For example:
- Identify techniques for assessing student achievement and measuring student growth that are appropriate for the music program (e.g., collecting baseline data, constructing learning goals, setting growth targets, utilizing measurement models).
- Identify the uses of assessment data for modifying instruction.
- Demonstrate knowledge of assessment validity and reliability.
Objective 0022—Understand aesthetic principles, evaluation criteria, and methods for connecting various types of musical knowledge and skills within and across the arts and other areas of the curriculum.
For example:
- Demonstrate knowledge of aesthetic principles of and responses to music.
- Demonstrate knowledge of aesthetic principles common to all arts.
- Apply appropriate criteria for evaluation of performances and compositions by using music vocabulary.
- Recognize how music and other forms of art can be combined to create interdisciplinary works (e.g., opera, musical theatre, film music).
- Recognize similarities and differences in the meanings of common terms used in the various arts.
- Recognize ways in which the principles and subject matter of various disciplines outside the arts are connected to those of music.
- Demonstrate knowledge of methods for integrating arts into other areas of the curriculum.
- Demonstrate knowledge of how the arts can contribute to students' academic achievement and social-emotional development.
- Identify rationales for music being used as a basic component of general education.
Objective 0023—Apply knowledge and skills appropriate to teaching music to diverse student populations, including students with special needs and gifted students.
For example:
- Recognize how child development as well as cultural and environmental factors influence the selection of instructional approaches and materials.
- Recognize the purpose and goals for the education of students with special needs in inclusive settings.
- Select appropriate modifications of music instruction for students with specific special needs (e.g., students with physical disabilities, students with sensory issues, students who are gifted, English language learners).
- Recognize the roles and rights of ancillary staff and parents/guardians in the education of students with special needs and gifted students.