Connecting and Comparing to the 1994 National Standards
These images show how the 1994 standards fit into the 2014 standards:
Connection to 1994 Standards
2017 WMEA Standards Commitee
Comparison of 1994 and 2014 National Standards
Adapted from materials shared by Denese Odegaard at the 2016 WMEA Conference
Music National Standards Comparison: 1994 versus 2014
Shuler, Scott C. Music National Standards Comparison: 1994 versus 2014., 2014. Print.
After closely examining the new music standards, you will notice that the new standards look at the act of teaching and learning through a new lens. However, upon further examination, you will quickly discover many facets of the 1994 standards embedded within the current standards. While the 1994 standards focused on what students should know and be able to do, the new standards embody key concepts and processes in well-defined subject areas. The way we look at teaching and learning music moves beyond simply learning skills and knowledge. Today’s standards now focus on music literacy through understanding music and developing musical independence.
The authors of the National Core Arts Standards, specifically the writing team representing NAfME, took the 1994 standards and kept the integrity of those standards by reformatting them into the new National Core Arts Standards. In order to connect the 1994 standards to the current standards, consider this analogy: In today’s world, technology has continuous upgrades. With those updates or upgrades, there are new views and new elements of functionality, yet the operation or integrity of the technology remains the same. Bringing the analogy back to music education, we know the integrity of making music remains the same, but the focus on teaching and learning of music literacy through understanding music and developing musical independence is the new upgrade. Some of the authors have stated that the standards can be viewed as Music Standards 2.0.
As stated, the focus of the standards has shifted from students learning skills and knowledge to having students develop music literacy through the understanding of music and developing musical independence. The overarching structure has shifted from content standards to artistic processes. The artistic processes capsulize the content standards. The new standards go a step farther and add process components, enduring understandings and essential questions which will greatly assist and drive curriculum development. The achievement standards in the 1994 standards are now infused within the process components. In addition, there is a shift from approximately 25-34 performance standards per level to 13-19 performance standards per level.
