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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 psychometric qualities (i.e., validity and reliability) of the edTPA specifically in the context of pre-service music education candidates. The study was guided by the following questions: 'What is the overall psychometric quality (i.e., validity and reliability) of the edTPA rubric items in the context of pre-service music educators?' (Research Question 1); 'How do the rubric criteria fit the measurement model and how do they vary in difficulty?' (Research Question 2); and (c) 'Do the category response structures for each criterion empirically cooperate to provide meaningful measures?' (Research Question 3). Results indicated overall adequate model-data fit but demonstrated measurement optimization concerns attributed to the category response structures. Implications for pre-service music education training are discussed.

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 construct of lesson plan development in the context of a secondary-level music performance classroom? (2) How does the structure of the rating scale vary across items? and (3) Does differential severity emerge for academic administrators or music education content specialists across items? Using multiple teacher effectiveness frameworks, the lesson plans in this study were evaluated using a 4-point Likert-type rating scale (e.g., "strongly agree," "agree," "disagree," "strongly disagree") consisting of five domains: (a) instructional planning, (b) instructional delivery, (c) differentiated instruction, (d) assessment uses, and (e) assessment strategies. Secondary-level school administrators (n = 8) and music education content specialists (n = 8) rated 32 lesson plans using a balanced incomplete assessment network. The multifaceted Rasch measurement partial credit model was used in this study. Results suggest higher rater severity among administrators than music specialists. Of the 68 potential pairwise interactions examined in the study, 5 (7.4 %) of those were found to be statistically significant, which indicates that 5 raters demonstrated differential severity across at least one lesson plan. Implications for student teacher preparation, teacher effectiveness, and the validity of measures are discussed.

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 secondary-level solo instrumental music performance? (2) What is the quality of ratings obtained for the standard-setting panel of subject matter expert judges? (3) What cut scores best categorize secondary-level solo instrumental performances into four performance levels across the latent performance achievement variable? and (4) What content mastery of items best categorizes achievement in secondary-level solo music performance at each of the four performance levels? A panel of eight subject matter experts participated in the study. A 30-item rubric was used to collect the judging panel's observed responses. The collected responses were transformed to linear measures using the multifaceted Rasch partial credit model. The bookmark procedure resulted in the setting of three cut points representing minimum pass levels on a latent continuum differentiating between four performance achievement levels (rudimentary, emerging, proficient, and exemplary) with clearly defined content standards. Implications for opportunity to learn are discussed.