Improving the Assessment of Student Learning in the Arts – State of the Field and Recommendations

Given the increased focus on assessment and accountability since the 1990s, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) identified the need to capture the current status of arts assessment. In 2005, the NEA began requiring a narrative statement of assessment practices to apply for arts education funds. Project applicants needed to explain their assessments methods and types of tools used to measure student knowledge and skills. Through several grant cycles, it became clear to NEA staff that applicants did not necessarily differentiate between program evaluation and assessment of student learning. As such, the NEA commissioned WestEd to examine current trends, promising techniques, and successful practices being used to assess student learning in the arts throughout the country, as well as identify potential areas in which arts assessment could be improved. Although the original intent of the study was to identify strong models of assessment practices that could serve as examples for possible replication, the study found that such models were not available and are in fact a need of the field. Thus, this report provides a description of the current state of arts assessment, including a review of the high-quality literature available, common practices being used to assess student learning, and needs of the field to improve arts assessment.

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