It seems you may want to define what you consider success and then pursue the answers from that standpoint. SEC’s comments are true, but he leaves out the fact there are many directors out there who have have become “successful “ after struggling early in their careers. Our profession is not really good at helping us understand “sucessful ” can be defined in a number of ways beyond, or outside UIL ratings. The inner city orchestra director who had tons of kids in her program and a huge parent following. The director who has spend years in a small school in the middle of no where with a program that we all may not know about, but for their area is competent.

Usually the question really revolves around what is your understanding of what we do. I believe the central point we should be focused on is music education. Teaching and encouraging kids to be the best they can be. And through that teaching we make kids life long music makers and music lovers.

UIL ratings are not the end all, but, taken in perspective we can use them to improve our teaching. UIL gives you a somewhat varied standard in which you can measure your teaching. If you are getting consistently poor ratings, you need to examine your teaching and your situation to see what can be improved. Also keep in mind, while what is done on the elementary is vitally important, when yo I step into a middle school, or hs band position, you also have the added factor that your district has has spent a great deal of money on the program for equipment and facilities. You have to factor everything together.

Factoring all the above together and other ideas you may have, what is your definition of “success”