Psychometric perspectives on the assessment of pre-service teachers in instrumental music education

Teacher accountability and student growth have become the forefront of public education. Therefore, the need for valid, reliable, and fair assessments must be developed in order to accompany the change in teacher accountability. The purpose of this dissertation is to develop assessments using Rasch measurement theory. Specifically, these assessments were developed in the context of assessing pre-service music education students in lesson planning and teaching ability. It is the intent of these studies to guide pre-service teacher preparation in aligning pre-service expectations with in-service teaching expectations.