As a teaching artist or school-based teacher prepares to meet students, it is natural for them to ask not only “What am I going to teach?” (curriculum) and “How am I going to teach it?” (instructional strategies), but also, “How do I know that what I have taught has been learned?” (assessment).  A principal of a school, or the administrator of a sponsoring arts organization sending teaching artists on assignment in schools or other venues, will ask “Is everything in order?  Are all the elements of the program in place?  Has the program encountered unanticipated obstacles to its proper completion?” and so on.  The kinds of questions that elicit information about programs and how they work are generally referred to as part of an evaluation.  Whether the evaluation is conducted by staff within a program or by external evaluators brought in for their more objective but expert point of view, The objective is the same:  to find out what’s working, what’s not, and what the program seems to be accomplishing.

 

Most evaluations of arts education or arts-in-education programs involve a review of curriculum and various program activities, as well as the consequences of the program in question.  Most commonly, an “evaluator” tries to ascertain whether the activities associated with a program are appropriate for the group of designated students.  Information is solicited in a variety of ways (interviews, focus group sessions, surveys requiring written responses, etc.) that help weigh the value of planning processes, teaching plans, teaching personnel, time expended, efforts to individualize instruction, and alignments with research findings that suggest the most effective practices.  The Evaluation section in this chapter points the Toolkit user to important sources of information and data gathering techniques for evaluation.

 

There are many models of evaluation reports that, when analyzed, reveal the various aspects of the process.  A user of the Toolkit interested in evaluation might want to browse through ERIC, a website containing a collection of selected evaluation reports on arts education, as well as other educational topics of interest. 

 

Assessment processes generally try to find answers to the following kinds of questions:  How do you know if when you are leading students through a creative process – whether it is in music, art, dance, theatre, literary or media arts – they are actually learning something?  And if they are learning, is it what you intend to teach them?  How do you know that they have each raised their level of knowledge and/or skills as a result of working with you?  How do you know when your plans lead to successful arrival at a predefined goal?  These are only some of the big questions that those who teach the arts need to confront.  The   Assessment Section contains information and references to tools to help those who teach in and/or through the arts to address the results in terms of changes in students’ behavior.  This section should help those who teach to plan next steps or to modify teaching style, content and artistic processes central to sessions with students. 

 

Rarely are the topics of assessment and evaluation discussed separately.  Together they help an advocate determine whether the arts program is delivering on its promise.  The two processes also provide guidance to people who are considering programs and practices to plan for those characteristics that promote good programs and which deliver good assessment results.  The Toolkit contains enough information and data-seeking instruments to help amateurs at evaluation and assessment begin to find out whether a program is working as it should and if the results of the program are yielding changes in, for example, academic behavior (increases in knowledge and/or skills), social behavior (increased ability to work productively in a group, on a team; ability to interact appropriately and productively with other members of the class); attendance and promptness to class; ability to express self through one of the artistic media; and so on. 

 

To become familiar with the nuts and bolts of evaluation, those who teach in or through the arts should first check out the abstracts of reports compiled in the Educational Resources Information Center, also know as ERIC, that is maintained by the US Department of Education.  The reports give the reader a sense of how evaluation processes are put together and what evaluators have to do in order to come to some judgments regarding the quality of programs. 

 

For those interested in digging further into this subject, Toolkit users might consult the web sites of these outstanding organizations:

American Alliance of Theatre Educators

Arts Education Partnership

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Harvard Project Zero

Music Educators National Conference (MENC)

National Art Educators Association

National Dance Educators Organization

National Endowment for the Arts

 

Other helpful state and national sites that discuss various aspects of evaluation are cited later in this section.

 

It is not uncommon for teaching artists to encounter external evaluators who have been commissioned by sponsoring arts organizations.  Many funders require these external evaluators to review the work of their grantees periodically as part of a due diligence process.  Evaluators often visit classes where teaching artists are working to get some feeling for how a funded program is functioning.  They may ask to interview the artist, the partner teacher, students, school administrators, and parents as part of their search for information regarding the program’s quality and effectiveness.  Frequently when evaluators are hired, they are expected to deliver their “findings” in a written report, and their recommendations may be used to modify the way the organization delivers its programs in the future. 

 

 

Teaching artists in particular will find the sections on evaluation and assessment at the Empire State Partnership websiteuseful.  ESP’s site includes an evaluation grid that can be very useful in examining the quality of a partnership.  Empire State Partnerships (ESP) is a program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and is dedicated to identifying, supporting and developing promising practices in collaborations between cultural organizations and schools.  The focus of the project is on the achievement of the New York State Learning Standards and contributing to the improvement of teaching and learning in New York Schools.  Their resources page offers assessment forms and tips in the form of handouts authored by past presenters from previous ESP Summer Institutes.

 

The Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts (CEDFA) promotes student achievement by providing professional development tools and opportunities based on state and national standards in art, dance, music, and theatre.  The CEDFA website addresses program evaluation and quality indicators for elementary, middle school, and high school programs in the above arts disciplines, as well as recommendations on staffing strategies.  The site offers easy-to-use step-by-step guides and series of questions that can be used to calculate the effectiveness and efficiency of an arts program.  Additionally, CEDFA offers a Program Support Database of sources and abstracts from research studies that focus on why the fine arts are essential to school communities.

 

Good teachers (certified or otherwise) assess their students continuously.  They need to know that their students have indeed learned what the teachers have sought to teach.  This involves looking and looking again at student work in progress and in completion.  It also means that students need to be asked to demonstrate verbally, as well as visually and in actual performance, that they have acquired the techniques and skills associated with artistic expression in their particular disciplines at various levels of proficiency. 

 

In drama classes, good teachers give “notes” to their young performers just as is done in professional theatre situations, to help students work on issues that their teachers have assessed as needing work.  They may ask students to demonstrate certain skills in workshop situations as well as during rehearsals and performances.  In dance, as in music, the assessment inquiry can focus on technique and the acquisition of the discipline’s conventions, or it can look at the creative process as it unfolds in the composition of original music or dance.  There are statewide protocols to determine the level of proficiency of music instrumentalists and vocalists that can be adapted locally by certified music teachers. 

 

Anyone who is involved in teaching needs to be literate in evaluation and assessment because only through these processes can one develop evidence that can be used to brag, complain, or better yet learn from. 

 

Collecting and Interpreting Data:

Evaluation and Assessment Tools and Processes

 

In this section, there are references to tools and protocols which help assess what students as a group and as individuals have learned.  Tools range from rubrics and checklists that can be filled out by individual students or teachers to tests that teachers can adapt.  In addition, Toolkit users will find references to standardized tests that are relevant to arts goals, standardized tests that are relevant to academic goals, and protocols for reflection on the quality of student work developed by several different assessment experts. 

 

The first stop on the internet should be  New York State Visual Learning System, which will lead you to everything that New York  State has provided regarding learning standards in all subjects (beginning with the arts) and includes guidance and tools for evaluation and assessment.  From there you can check to see standards and assessment information for music, art, dance, and theatre with some model processes and tools.

 

The Community Arts Education Project (CAEP), developed by the California State PTA and the California Alliance for Arts Education, is designed to help parents, local schools and school districts work together to create district-wide systemic change in arts education.  CAEP is both a guidebook and a hands-on technical assistance process that enables districts to assess current arts learning programs and funding allocations, identify gaps in delivery, and create long-range plans that will ensure equitable access for all students in each of the four arts disciplines: Graphic arts, dance, music and theater.

 

Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) also offers easy-to-use evaluation tools.  CAPE is an organization that works to improve student learning through partnering with schools to integrate the arts into curriculum.  CAPE also actively participates in professional dialogues with practitioners, researchers, and leaders in the field.  Their Partnership Planning Assessment Form is a step-by-step checklist that can be used to inventory evidence of effective arts integration in a school.

 

The Evaluation Center’s site provides evaluation specialists and users with refereed checklists for designing, budgeting, contracting, staffing, managing, and assessing evaluations of programs, personnel, students, and other factors.  It offers guidance on collecting, analyzing, and reporting evaluation information; and determining merit, worth, and significance.  The site aims to improve the quality and consistency of evaluations and enhance evaluation capacity through the promotion and use of high-quality checklists targeted to specific evaluation tasks and approaches.

 

While the process of assessment is fairly simple, the big job is to interpret the results of an assessment so that those who teach the arts can determine next steps with group or individual students.  Where and how should they intervene in order to help students achieve higher levels of achievement?  How can they attend to the needs of especially talented students, those who are lagging behind, and those who are encumbered by special learning needs?  Analysis of assessment data can be used to figure out where a student or group of students is in regard to selected skills or knowledge, and is also essential to determine differentiated ways of approaching individual students.  Again, we suggest that users start at http://eservices.nysed.gov/vls/welcome.do from which one can connect to Learning Standards and methods of assessing learning within particular categories. 

 

Where scores are available for student work, derived from tests, rubrics, or checklists, it is important to determine what range of scores is deemed proficient and what score is considered above proficient.  When the quantifiable data is standardized, the source of the test or questionnaire will indicate the norm for a certain age/grade.  Otherwise, it is up to the individual administering the instrument to determine what the scores mean.  We strongly advise teachers of the arts to consult with the assessment experts in their district or school.  Here is a case where a little bit of knowledge can be very misleading. 

 

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "the Nation's Report Card," is the only nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas.  Developing an Arts Assessment: Some Selected Strategies, a web-only report by NAEP, is based on an arts assessment field test, describing six strategies for creating an effective arts assessment.  By exploring the tasks used in the NAEP arts assessment and field test, arts teachers, arts coordinators, and arts policymakers may be able to learn some valuable assessment development techniques.

 

The Arts Education Partnership is committed to increasing resources for quality education in and through the arts in schools, schools districts and partnering arts and cultural institutions.  The resources posted on their web site include Envisioning Arts Assessment, which is a guide to help design large-scale evaluations of arts programs.  It also provides informational support and activities to be used as both a practical tool and reference.

 

There are all kinds of questionnaires, surveys, checklists, and knowledge tests available on the internet and through publishers’ catalogs.  Some government-funded programs have produced tools that are in some cases useful for arts educators who work with similar objectives.  In addition there are ways of determining knowledge through questioning, reflection on student work over time, and submitting work to a panel of experts for assessment.  The wise artists will always consult with experts within the school or district before venturing too far in their desire to determine what children know and can do as a result of an artist’s residency or course of study.  That said, there are a number of useful sites to check out in preparation for any conversations regarding assessment tools.  

 

Arts Impact, an independent arts organization in Tacoma, WA has developed several assessment tools that address learning in and through the arts for grades K-5.  Copies of their tools are available on line and could be adapted by teachers/teaching artists in various elementary grade situations. 

Among the tools they have developed are criteria-based checklists, a peer reflection protocol, teacher self-evaluation guides and rubrics for student assessment.

 

Samples of each of these tools, taken from lessons written and taught by Arts Impact artist mentors in the teacher training summer institutes, are presented on their site.

 

The Coalition of Essential Schools has a vast collection of tools, strategies, and resources collected from years of work in the areas of school design, classroom practice, leadership and community connections.  These resources are available online as well as for purchase.  

 

Last but certainly not least, for those who would delve into evaluation and assessment, there is no more authoritative resource than the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.  ASCD has published many books and support materials on the subject.  Users are advised to check their website at www.ascd.org and see what is available in their virtual bookstore.  Assessment authorities including Arthur Costa, Robert Marzano, Larry Lewin and Betty Jean Schoemaker are all represented in the ASCD collection of books on assessment. 

 

Some arts programs are geared toward the elevation of self esteem or other qualities and attitudes that enhance the learning process.  Here particularly it is important to administer such instruments ONLY in collaboration with the school administration. 

 

A Word of Caution

 

Those who teach need to welcome evaluation and assessment activities; they are essential elements in the educational process.  However, they need to find the right balance between teaching time, discovery and practice time and assessment time.  Toolkit users might find it beneficial to consult with local university experts in the field and also to discuss the topic at meetings sponsored by the AIE Roundtables in their region.  Statewide conferences including Common Ground, presented by the Partnership for Arts Education, and the various regional conferences presented by the NYSAAE, afford many opportunities to explore the process and findings of various evaluations and assessments.