HOME | Arts | Health | Language Arts | Math/Science | Social Studies | World Languages | Glossary

Alaska Department of Education & Early Development
Arts Framework

Chapter 5: Assessment

• Introduction
• Assumptions about Arts Assessment
• Guidelines for Assessment
• Designing Assessments
• Assessment Techniques
• Sample Assessments
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Dance
  • Drama
  • Literary Arts
  • Music
  • Visual Arts
    
    

Introduction

Assessment in the arts reveals what Alaskan students know and are able to do and therefore should be based on high standards for the arts and embedded in the arts curriculum. Assessment is designed to be an ongoing part of the learning environment. Process and product are both parts of arts assessment. Performance, art making, talking, writing, and thinking are parts of the design of each assessment strategy. As we approach the Twenty-first Century and address issues of school reform, assessment holds a role of ever-increasing importance in schools, programming, and the learner's experiences.

As we learn more about assessment, the challenges of designing quality assessment for all learners become a major emphasis of curriculum design. The arts have a rich heritage in performance assessment that has served as a model for other subject areas. We must continue testing our own practice, learning from others and accepting the challenges to build innovative assessment strategies into curriculum design.

The Arts Framework Development Committee has collected assessment ideas and models to act as a guide and resource to teachers. We encourage educators to use the models as a starting place to design assessment.

We believe that assessment in the arts:

1. is essential and should impact learning, program development, and professional growth in ways that produce effective practices;
2. is built on a common language and clearly defined standards;
3. allows learners to reach and exceed given standards;
4. takes into account multiple solutions to complex problems;
5. encourages learners to take risks in a supportive environment, leading to personal growth and a positive self-concept;
6. allows for individual differences and developmental levels by measuring a diversity of knowledge, experiences, and skills;
7. must be on-going, relevant, and connected to the learner's environment;
8. allows each learner to demonstrate competency and achievement in a variety of ways;
9. is a process of learning and allows multiple opportunities for the achievement of goals;
10. allows for self-assessment as an important component;
11. encourages learners to transfer knowledge, resulting in a self-reliant, lifelong learner.
    

Assumptions about Arts Assessments

1. Assessment in the arts is not only possible but necessary. Every school district should develop reliable, valid, and useful techniques for assessing student learning in the arts. Assessment should be based on explicit objectives that identify clearly the skills and knowledge expected of students. Many of the problems traditionally associated with assessment in the arts have arisen from objectives that are vague, ill-defined, or extravagant and, consequently, are sometimes incomprehensible to students, parents, and teachers. Assessment of learning, particularly in the arts, is sometimes difficult and time-consuming, but it can be done. If instruction is effective, then the student will in some way change as a result.

Some arts teachers reject the idea of assessment on the grounds that much learning in the arts is highly subjective. It is likely that no single measure can fully define a student's behaviors. It is difficult or impossible to assess the most intangible and exalted qualities of artistic expression, but it is possible to assess the practical, everyday skills and knowledge called for in the arts standards. Effective assessment is essential for the arts to remain among the basics of the curriculum.

1. The purpose of assessment is to improve learning. It does this by

• informing students, parents, and teachers of individual and group progress toward meeting the standards;
• demonstrating to students, parents, and the community the types of learning and levels of achievement sought;
• furnishing teachers with information on the effectiveness of instruction and thereby providing a basis for instructional improvement;
• making possible comparisons involving student achievement across time and, when desired, among students, districts, or states;
• motivating student learning; and
• providing information to policy-makers at all levels to aid in decision-making.

1. Assessment of student learning is not synonymous with evaluation of teaching or evaluation of programs. The quality of teaching naturally affects the quality of student learning. Similarly, the quality of the school's instructional programs affects student learning. Both of these variables can be evaluated. But, for purposes of assessment, both may be thought of as separate from student learning. Poor learning may be caused by poor teaching, by a poor instructional program, or by other factors. If learning has not been satisfactory, it is then important to identify why this is so and to improve the situation.

A valid assessment of an arts program not only would consider the extent to which the school provides all students with the opportunity to learn the arts, but also would reflect the variety of arts offerings available, the percentage of students involved, and their success in achieving the diverse types of learning called for in the Alaska Standards for the Arts. Information concerning the necessary conditions for effective learning may be found in Chapter 1, The Starting Point, of this framework.

1. Assessment in the arts requires various techniques in various settings. Comprehensive assessment takes place in a wide variety of contexts and settings, and each assessment context requires different assessment techniques. While assessment techniques are useful in more than one instructional setting, any discussion of assessment techniques is meaningful only when linked to clearly defined purposes. There is no general-purpose formula for assessment that is useful in every setting.

Insofar as is practical, assessment information should be gathered from various sources, using a variety of methods. Each source has its own biases, and each information-gathering technique has its own strengths and weaknesses. When information obtained by various means is combined or considered collectively, weaknesses in the various methodologies tend to cancel each other out, and the assessor can have greater confidence in the results.

1. Electronic technology (e.g., video, audio, computer equipment) can play an important role in assessment as well as in instruction. This is true because much of what artists do is multimedia in nature and therefore cannot be adequately represented on paper. Using technology, one can record, evaluate, or revise performances. Technology can also be used in administering assessment exercises to individuals and groups, as well as in pacing assessment according to student readiness, in compiling results, and in charting student progress.
2. Reports to parents should be based on standards. One of the most common uses of assessment has traditionally been reporting to parents on student progress or grading. Parents have a right to assume that a good grade indicates knowledge and skill in the course content. Therefore, assessment should be based on content standards translated into objectives that are expressed in terms of specific skills and knowledge. Standards-based objectives provide the only justifiable basis for assigning grades. In fact, other factors that have sometimes influenced grades in the artseffort, progress, degree of talentare inevitably reflected in the achievement of standards.

1. Caution is needed in interpreting assessment results; assessment results are only approximations of the complete truth. If more information were available, the result might be somewhat different. The larger the sample of evidence, the more confidence can be placed in any conclusion reached. The degree of error that can be tolerated depends on the consequences of the inferences to be drawn. For example, if the stakes are high-as when a student's promotion or admission to a select group hang in the balance-then highly reliable measures are required and a broad sampling of student learning must be considered.
   

Guidelines for Assessment

Any materials or techniques used to assess student learning in the arts should satisfy the guidelines suggested below.

1. Assessment should be standards-based and should reflect the arts skills and knowledge that are most important for students to learn. Assessment of student achievement should not be based on the skills and knowledge that are easiest to assess nor on those for which ready-made assessment devices are available. Instead, it should be based on the extent to which each student has met the standards established, and it should reflect the priorities of the instructional program.

Assessment should not be based primarily on where the student ranks relative to a particular class or group. It should be based on whether or not the student has met specific criteria. In these performance standards, separate criteria must be established for benchmarks I (age range 8-10), II (age range 12-14) and III (age range 16-18). (See Chapter 4, Instruction in the Arts, for sample performance standards in each arts discipline.)

1. Assessment should support, enhance, and reinforce learning. Assessment should be viewed by both students and teachers as a continuing, integral part of instruction rather than as an intrusion into or interruption of the process of learning. The assessment process should itself be a learning experience, and it should not be conducted or viewed as separate from the learning process. Students should regard assessment as a useful tool rather than as a source of fear or anxiety. They should use it as a means of further learning and as a means of measuring their own progress. When assessment tasks are designed to provide information concerning the extent to which students meet standards that have been established for them, teachers can adjust their instructional programs so as to be more effective.
2. Assessment should be reliable. Reliability refers to consistency. If an assessment is reliable, then another assessment of the same skills or knowledge will produce essentially the same results. For assessment to be reliable, every student must be assessed by identical procedures and the assessors must share the same levels of expectation so that a student's score does not depend on who is doing the scoring.

1. Assessment should be valid. Validity means that the assessment technique actually measures what it claims to measure. The mental processes represented by the scores correspond to the mental processes being assessed. No measurement instrument should be used to measure something that it was not designed to measure. If there is a mismatch between assessment strategies and the objectives of the curriculum, the assessment strategies are not valid for that curriculum.
2. Assessment should be authentic. Authentic assessment means that assessment tasks reflect the essential nature of the skill or knowledge being assessed. The student should actually demonstrate a behavior in an authentic or realistic situation rather than merely answer written questions about it. For example, the ability to play the recorder should be assessed by having the student play the recorder, not by having the student answer test questions concerning fingerings, hand position, phrasing, and note-reading.

Assessment should take a holistic view of learning. It should not concentrate on isolated facts and minutiae but should deal with broad concepts, "whole" performances, and complete works of art. Authenticity, like reliability, is a prerequisite to validity.

1. The process of assessment should be open to review by interested parties. Although assessment of arts learning can best be carried out by qualified arts teachers, it is important that students, parents, and the public be provided with sufficient information and help that they, too, can make judgments about the extent to which arts learning are taking place in their schools. It is especially important that students know what they are going to be assessed on, how they are to be assessed, and what criteria will be used to judge their achievement. When appropriate, they should be allowed to participate in developing the criteria by which their work will be assessed.

adapted from MENC: Performance Standards for Music

Designing Assessments

Assessment Techniques in the Arts

An effective arts program utilizes a variety of assessment techniques to gain a comprehensive picture of student progress and program effectiveness relative to all four components of the arts curriculum. The table below lists a range of possible assessment techniques or strategies and indicates the individual (i.e., student or teacher) who is expected to assume the major responsibility for carrying out those strategies. Following the table are descriptions of each assessment technique.

Student Responsibility

Teacher Responsibility

Sample Assessments

The Arts Framework Development Committee has collected assessment ideas and models to act as a guide and resource to teachers. We encourage educators to use the models as a starting place to design assessment.

• Interdisciplinary
  • Worksheet: Relationship of Goals to Behaviors and Levels of Attainment
  • Classroom Management Rubric
• Dance
  • Skills Checklist for Unit on Space
  • Performance Critique
  • Lesson Plan Evaluation Sample
  • Anecdotal Form Sample
  • Formative Measures of Specific Dance Knowledge
• Drama
  • Starters Rating Scale
  • Assessment Rubric for Theatre
  • Acting Evaluation
• Literary Art
  • Group Discussion
  • Quiz
  • Essay
  • Rubric for Oral Presentation and Defense
  • Six-Trait Analytic Writing Rubric
  • Anecdotal Map for Fishbowl Discussion
• Music
  • Concept Mapping
  • Singing Skills
  • Evaluation for Group Music Project
  • Portfolio Reflection-Classroom Music
  • Recorder Skill Assessment
  • Striving For Musical Excellence
  • Composition
  • A Sample Rubric According To Skills You Have Taught
• Visual Arts
  • Elementary Art Individual Progress Report
  • Design
  • Analysis
  • Art Criticism Rating Scale
  • Defining the Qualities of a Masterpiece
  • Aesthetics Dialogue About the Value of Art From Different Eras
  • Georgia O'Keefe Color Relationships
  • Pastel Drawing Rubric
  • Portfolio Assessment Rating Scale
  • Art Critical Reasoning Rubric
  • High School Assessment Activity Vignette
  • High School Assessment Rubric for Visual Arts
  • Primary Level Art Problem Solving Assessment