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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine if the use of a teacher-authored rubric improves elementary students comprehension and retention of material related to singing and playing an instrument. The quasi-experimental design employed a pretest, a posttest, and a retention test. The subjects were 608 students enrolled in kindergarten through grade five attending a suburban school in the southeastern part of the United States. Intact classes (fourclasses at each grade level) were randomly assigned to an experimental (n=300) or a control (n=308) group. The treatment period consisted of four consecutive lessons for each class of students. All groups were instructed on the same material within a month of time. The experimental groups were given a copy of a rubric and the contents were discussed before beginning the instruction. The control group received instruction without the use of a rubric. A retention test was administered to each group a month after their completion of the posttest. An independent two-sample t-test was used to determine if there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the posttest and the retention test. Results of the t-test revealed that scores of the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group for both variables (singing and playing). In addition, an informal student survey indicated that the students reacted favorably to using the rubric. It was concluded that the use of a rubric in music classes at the elementary level could be an effective tool for improving and assessing studentperformance.