Music education professionals from across the country and around the world will gather together in Williamsburg, Virginia, from Wednesday, Feb. 18, through Saturday, Feb. 21, to share the latest research, thought, and practice in music education assessment.
The Fifth International Symposium on Assessment in Music Education, also known as ISAME5, is co-hosted by Shenandoah University, the University of Florida and James Madison University. The key questions of the symposium focus on connecting the areas of practice, measurement and evaluation.
More than 200 music educators from 13 different countries will attend this bi-annual event, including primary and secondary school music educators; higher education professionals and music education researchers; and national, state and local education officials from around the world.
“ISAME5 offers participants and attendees the chance to newly imagine and shape future educational communities; communities that embrace assessment processes which, beyond offering meaningful evaluation of programs, schools, and individuals, further support and vitalize those very qualities of excellence and care that make good music teaching such a powerful force and source of meaning in students’ and teachers’ lives,” said Shenandoah Conservatory Dean Michael Stepniak, Ed.D.
The conservatory is well represented in this symposium, with Associate Professor of Music and Director of Music Education Jeffrey Marlatt, Ph.D., serving as an academic co-chair of the event. Eight undergraduate music education majors will attend the event and serve as room presiders and chairs. The symposium will also feature performances by the Shenandoah Conservatory Jazz Ensemble and the Galestro-Smith Duo, comprised of flutist Angela Galestro and guitarist Jonathan Smith, both of whom are pursuing doctoral studies at Shenandoah Conservatory.
In addition, the following Shenandoah Conservatory faculty members and alumni will serve as presenters during the conference: Chair of Conservatory Academics Division and Professor of Music Education David Zerull, Ph.D.; Associate Professor of Music Education Stephanie Standerfer, Ph.D.; Alice M. Hammel ’87, ’99; Patricia Riley ’01; and Jeffrey Ward ’06.
Ward serves on the symposium’s International Steering Committee along with Shenandoah alumna Sarah H. McQuarrie ’08. Hammel, McQuarrie, Riley and Ward are joined on the Symposium Reviewing Committee by fellow Shenandoah alumni Carol Benton ’02; Rebecca A. Birnie ’12; Susan Harvey ’08; Gayla Kobialka ’12; and Cynthia Ramsey ’05.
Symposium keynote speakers include Margaret Barrett, Ph.D., University of Queensland, Australia; Pamela Burnard, Ph.D., Cambridge University, United Kingdom; Richard Colwell, Ed.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois; René Human, D.Mus., University of Pretoria, South Africa; and Scott Shuler, Ph.D., Connecticut Department of Education.
To learn more about the symposium, visit http://reg.conferences.dce.ufl.edu/ISAME.