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Since the 1980s, there has been a growing trend toward accountability in education. Policies such as No Child Left Behind1 and the Race to the Top2 have tied federal education dollars to quantifiable school performance, resulting in the passage of state-mandated assessments of student learning and more stringent evaluation of teachers.3 Responding to these measures, some educators have looked to large-ensemble festivals to provide evidence of student growth in music performance classes, and music associations in several states have renamed their large-ensemble festivals "music performance assessments"4 For example, Kentucky relabeled its festivals in 2013 "to better reflect [their] assessment value" while making no structural changes to the event.5 While festivals are a type of assessment, a full investigation of their nature and development is needed before their use in this context should be deemed appropriate. To date, there have been no such investigations. Because the national band and orchestra contests terminated in the 1930s, determining their evolution afterward must come by examining state festivals.6 The purpose of this historical study was to determine the character and nature of large-ensemble festivals in Michigan, another state that recently considered relabeling festivals as assessments. Primary source material consisted of reports, minutes of meetings, and other publications and documents held in the archives of the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association, as well as interviews with past Association officers. Data were collected as researcher notes and recorded in a database using standard spreadsheet software to allow organizing, coding of themes, and sorting; this database became a timeline of the festival's development from 1938 to the present. Research questions addressed 1) the historical context regarding large-ensemble festival development; 2) the factors that shaped festival systems after their inception; 3) whether current festivals are, by nature, contests, performance events, academic assessments, or a combination of these; 4) whether or not festivals should be used in conjunction with teacher evaluation. After reviewing the contest/festival historical literature and discussing the influence competition has had on music education, I will closely examine how large-ensemble festivals evolved in Michigan. I will also discuss the implications the current study has for festival practices and music education policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important staple food crop in households worldwide. Genotype and location influence phenotypic nutrient composition. However, there are limited data on the magnitude of this variation for common bean yield and nutritive value. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of location on yield and seed nutritional composition. Four globally important varieties (dark red kidney/'Montcalm', great northern /'Taurus', black /'Eclipse' and yellow Mayocoba/'MY06326') were planted for two years in four locations (Iowa, Colorado, Michigan, in the USA, and Masaka, Uganda). Yield and seed weight differed among locations and varieties. Yield in Colorado and Michigan was 42% and 56% higher than in Iowa and 76% and 81% greater than in Uganda, respectively. Eclipse had greater yield than Taurus (6%), MY06326 (16%), and Montcalm (35%). Concentration of P, K, Mg, S, and crude protein (CP) differed among varieties. Montcalm had 18%, 7%, and 4% greater P concentration and 13%, 9%, and 5% greater CP than Eclipse, MY06326 and Taurus, respectively. The location × variety interaction was significant only for seed Zn concentration. Despite differences in edaphic factors among locations, elemental concentrations other than Zn were comparatively stable among locations. Stability in seed elemental concentrations across locations and environments is important knowledge for better understanding human nutrition and malnutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]