The new National Core Arts Standards were officially launched on Monday, October 20, 2014, after nearly five years of planning and spirited debate among administrators, educators, and art education organizations. While some teachers welcome them, others are wary of how the standards will impact their music programs.

At MusicFirst, we know that each music educator has unique talents and brings their own passion to their K-12 music programs, and we are here to help support them. The MusicFirst Online Classroom was designed by educators for educators; the tools and resources that we provide can help you to easily and painlessly implement and assess these new standards. We want to help you to preserve the integrity and individual nature of your music program.

The National Core Arts Standards contain 11 Anchor Standards divided into 4 strands: Creating, Performing, Responding and Connecting. The resources and tools provided by the MusicFirst Online Classroom address all of the standards and strands with: world-class content; a one-of-a-kind, patent-pending assessment creation tool; and software that extends your music classroom by allowing students to address the standards at home.

Creating

Use one of six acclaimed cloud-based music creation tools paired with our incredible lesson plans and tasks (all tagged to the standards) to allow students to compose within specified guidelines outside of class time. These tools include Noteflight, Soundation 4 Education, Groovy Music, Morton Subotnick’s Music Academy, O-Generator and Inside Music.

Performing

The optional record feature in the MusicFirst Online Classroom allows you to easily build digital portfolios for all of your instrumental and vocal students. The huge content library from Music Sales provides world-class instructional materials for your students to perform.

Responding

Embed web-based content into the exclusive Task and Assess- ment creator included with the MusicFirst Online Classroom and your students can listen and respond to your activities online – from the convenience of their own homes on any device, anytime, anywhere.

Connecting

Our suite of cloud-based software tools provides students with everything that they need to make the critical connections between the arts, their personal lives, and historical and cultural contexts. Tools like Focus on Sound and Music Delta let students experience music in new ways, by connecting their digital lives with the subject we all hold so dear.

Assessing the Standards

The MusicFirst Online Classroom has the first ever research-based, patent-pending assessment creator developed specifically for music education. Choose from 7 different question types, including the ability to embed software tools and audio recording functionality directly in the assessment to provide you with the most authentic snapshot of a student’s musical ability.