Four Myths about Arts Education Assessment

When first introduced to the idea of assessing the arts, many educators are reluctant for a number of reasons. Let’s take this opportunity to dispel some commonly held myths about arts education assessment.

Myth #1: Success in the arts is subjective. Achievement in the arts is often thought of as highly subjective. We are all familiar with having a personal response to a piece of visual art or music that differs from others’ responses. There is a prevalent myth that the arts cannot be assessed because of this subjectivity. In actuality, there are many aspects of arts education that can be assessed within state or national standards.

1. Each art form has content. Traditions, history, and vocabulary are all assessable knowledge that is included in each art form.
    
2. Each art form employs technique. Technique involves specific skills that can be measured. For a simple example, when a student plays the correct series of notes, that is easy to assess. When a wrong note is played, that is also easy to identify. In ballet, a student correctly performs a plié when the body is in the proper position. Arms, feet, hips, back, shoulders – these must be in a specific alignment to accomplish this task.
    
3. Each art form encourages intellectual behavior. Carmen Armstrong, in her book Designing Assessment in Art, identified seven behaviors that are specifically developed by the visual arts. (It is not difficult to see how these could be adapted to the other art forms.) The seven behaviors are:  
   
   
   
   Each of these behaviors can be used to create goals and assessment tools for student learning. For example, Armstrong illustrates how a student’s ability to inquire can be measured across a continuum from low to high. A progression of a student’s ability to inquire is provided, beginning with a student elaborating on a topic, developing into experimenting or reflecting on that topic and then, lastly, being able to innovate. These behaviors are necessary for success in the arts but also in other content areas of the curriculum.   
   
   

Myth #2: It is all about the end product. In the professional world of the arts, yes, it is all about the end product. The success of a concert, film, or play in the professional realm depends on what is seen or heard by the audience. However, in arts education, the process of making the art is as valuable and important as the resulting artwork. Arts education is a complex and multilayered educational process. The end product, such as a sculpture or an aria, is but one piece of the student’s learning and experience. Arts education is about knowledge, process, and product, thus making the arts an exciting and multilayered curricular area to assess.
 
Arts teachers assess a variety of process-related criteria in their students. In their study published by the National Art Education Association, Dorn, Madeja, and Sabol (2004) found that the visual arts teachers they studied used the following criteria in assessing their students’ behavior and learning in the art classroom. These criteria are not about the artworks or the students’ artistic abilities but about their process of learning art. At least 75% of the teachers in their study identified the following criteria as the five they used most commonly to assess students in visual arts.

1. Effort – are students trying, particularly with something new or challenging?
2. Problem-solving ability – when faced with an obstacle, how do students respond? What do they do next?
3. Improvement or growth – Students may not master a technique or concept but are they making progress toward that goal? Are students challenging themselves?
4. Classroom behavior – Classroom behavior might look a little different in an arts context. Are students supportive of each other, offering constructive criticism about each others’ work? Students may not be working quietly by themselves, although there may be instances where that is appropriate. Students may be working collaboratively. For example, students in a theatre class may be actively engaged in creating a scene – talking, laughing, moving classroom furniture. This may be the ideal classroom behavior for this class, rather than working independently at a desk. 
5. Self-motivation or initiative – Are students engaged? Are they pursuing answers to their own questions? 

As you can see, all of the criteria are useful and assessable in any educational context, not just the arts. These criteria emphasize the importance of the artistic process and its value for all students.

Looking at the process of students’ learning in the arts has recently been studied by Project Zero at Harvard University. They developed the Studio Thinking Framework, which identifies eight “Studio Habits of Mind.” To learn more about the Studio Thinking Framework as well as how the Alameda County Office of Education is incorporating it into their schools, visit their Web site at: http://www.artiseducation.org/about_frameworks.

Myth #3: Teachers can just tack on assessment to their arts instruction. Many classroom teachers feel the lack of the arts in their own education. The idea of assessing students in the arts becomes even more daunting. However, they are not alone in their lack of preparation in assessing the arts. Dorn, Madeja, and Sabol (2004) found that the majority of visual arts teachers in their study had no assessment training during their own college education. In addition, approximately 25% of the visual arts teachers had no training at all in assessing their art form. Professional development in arts education assessment is a need that extends to all teachers who use and teach the arts.

Myth #4: Assessment is contradictory to the artistic process. Actually, the artistic process includes embedded assessment. If you look at the simple graphic below, you will see there is an assessment component to the artistic process. Assessment and art making are inextricably linked. Assessment can come from the artist as self-assessment and it can come from external sources, such as the public or arts critics. We commonly think of these types of assessment as critiques.

The audience typically does not get to see that making art is, in large part, about assessing and revising. Rehearsing a concerto or a production of Macbeth is about assessing the work and revising it. Two of the most famous paintings of the twentieth century, "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso and "Madame X" by John Singer Sargent, look the way they do today because both artists sketched and revised many times before they painted the final version. Sargent sketched “Madame X” over 30 times before settling on the iconic image we recognize today.

Picasso sketches

Sargent sketches

                                        “The first draft reveals the art, revision reveals the artist.” – Michael Lee