IPP: Week 3 - The Historical Future of Assessment in Art Ed

The Historical Future Of Assessment in Art Education

• Read: Gruber and Hobbs “Historical Analysis of Assessment in Art Education”. Art Education. Nov. 2002
• Create one Artist’s Journal Page reacting to the authors call for action in the area of assessments in Art Education.  What do you think we need to do to improve assessment in Art Education?  What COULD the future of Assessment in Art Education look like? 

 What should we do to improve assessment in Art Education? My musings come from many angles and hopefully do not contradict each other. I realize that I no longer view assessment from behind the teacher's desk but also see it now from a parent's point of view (with my son starting school and having a veil dropped between home and school). I also have a unique "balcony" point of view from my Content Leader job where I am getting to see into many different teacher's classrooms with insight into the way they assess (or don't) and how they use assessment through the PLC process. It seems like first we need to be sure that art teachers are given some training in types of assessment so that they can as the facilitators of learning, create assessments that are specific and meaningful to their content. This needs to come first in undergrad or certification training. But what to do as times change and priorities change for those that have been in the field a long time? It taps into another question of how do we get teachers to desire to be life long learners not just in their content but also their profession of pedagogy? We need to stop accepting that all content areas are the same (and that is what makes them wonderful and valuable!) That we have commonalities and things to learn from each other, but differences also that makes what we do have value to life beyond the school years. 

We as art teachers need to embrace assessment, make it meaningful to how we operate as creative minds and artists, and look at the way learning artists could use it to grow. It needs to stop being approached as something "someone" else is making us do, and we need to look at how we can use it to improve instruction, learning, and development within our students. And be brave enough to stand up and speak out - and change - if something isn't working. We need to stop playing the system and design the system that works for our area. It needs to be looking at process, and reflective, and collaborative, and flexible. It needs to have the students' voice and it needs to be a reflection of what they know, not what they can regurgitate. It needs to mark a passage in their development and not be an end. It needs to map out what is learned and what still needs to be explored.

• Read: Sabol “Seismic Shifts in the Education Landscape: What Do They Mean for Arts Education and Arts Education Policy”
• Use One Artist’s Journal Page to react to the reading. Some guiding questions may be: How should student assessment and teacher assessment be related? What do the statistics about assessment in art illuminate to you? How can you blend 21^st century skills with new possibilities for art education?
• 
  

    How should student and teacher assessment be related? I think that student performance on assessment should not be related to teacher assessment at all, but rather a teacher should be assessed on how s/he uses assessment to structure / develop / guide learning for students. The teacher should be evaluated on how the tool of assessment is used within the craft of the profession.  

   I was surprised that the secondary stats didn't mention the use of selected response (multiple choice) assessments at all, yet were used in elementary. We have mandatory multiple choice finals that must be given in all classes at the HS level. The stats also illuminate for me that there are schools out there using portfolio for assessment, more than I originally thought. I was wondering how the rubrics stood alone as a category. I use rubrics to assess performance events and with its inclusion with the other categories, it seemed out of place.

   I think the idea of teaching art with meaning, allowing for more choice (and teaching through fewer "recipes") and investigation, incorporating design thinking, and changing the way we approach digital media will allow us as art teachers to embrace new possibilities for 21st century art learning.