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THE ART OF TESTING
Teacher Magazine -- January 1, 2005
by Kristine Hughes
A group of high school seniors sits tensely, about to take
one of the
highest-stakes tests of their K-12 years: They won’t be able
to graduate
until they pass, and their school’s state-level rating
depends heavily
on their scores. Arranging pencils and multiple-choice
bubble sheets
nervously atop their desks, they wait anxiously until, at
their
teacher’s signal, they open the test booklet to the first
question.
“Which 1913 dance,” it asks, “was the first to incorporate a
combination
of slow and quick steps: waltz, flamenco, or fox trot?”
While standardized tests with questions like this are rare,
arts
educators across the country are rushing to endorse them. At
a time when
pressure to meet performance standards is surpassed only by
pressure to
keep budgets in the black, many see the assessments as a way
to justify
their budgets, ensure the future of the subject matter in
their schools’
curriculum, and improve their teaching in the bargain.
“There isn’t any doubt that what’s frightening for teachers
is, ‘If it’s
not assessed, should it be taught?’” says Alex Wagner, an
elementary
school arts teacher in Pinckney, Michigan. Her district
created its own
arts test for 7th graders about five years ago—a rarity, as
she
discovered this past summer while attending a National Art
Education
Association discussion on visual arts assessments.
“Each test question was based on a district standard, or
benchmark, so
that we methodically covered the entire curriculum,” Wagner
says. “At
the end of each year, we get a computer printout indicating
how well
students did on each question, [and] we use that information
to inform
our teaching practices.” What’s more, the district has since
taken the
assessment process a step further. Students are asked to
respond to a
variety of questions by, for example, illustrating one-point
perspective
or designing a monument. Their responses are scored by a
team of
teachers from all grade levels. A portfolio requirement will
be added next.
While most school districts use fine arts standards
developed at the
national or state level to define the scope of instruction,
as well as
expectations for the knowledge and skills students should
acquire, fewer
than 10 states have mandated testing to assess that
knowledge; most of
those are still being phased in. Where districts do conduct
testing,
it’s often done “more or less on a voluntary basis,” says
Jean Yan, a
senior study director for the research and consulting
company Westat. In
a review of current assessment applications in the fine arts
for the
Maryland State Department of Education, Yan found that about
20
additional states are still exploring arts assessment
possibilities, but
she adds that it will take considerable time and effort for
them to work
out the logistics of administering the tests.
Many see assessments as a way to justify their budgets,
ensure the
future of the subject matter in their schools’ curriculum,
and improve
their teaching in the bargain.
The obstacles are complex and abundant. There’s the
fundamental
conundrum, of course, of how to test a subject as subjective
as fine
arts. Include the cost of teaching all fine arts content
areas to all
students and then testing them at a time when arts funding
is already
limited, and the challenges can seem insurmountable.
“Not every school has the human resources to teach each art
component.
But if students don’t receive the instruction, they cannot
be tested,
and that’s a big hurdle,” Yan says. “That situation is very
common in
many states.” Oklahoma, for example, scrapped its statewide
arts
assessment at the end of the 2003-04 school year after
tracing students’
low scores to inconsistencies between what was taught and
what was
tested. Arts testing is now left to individual districts.
Even if these bumps can be ironed out, not everyone thinks
testing the
arts is a good idea. State accountability assessments
include more
subjects every year, and since each subject can affect a
school or
district’s overall performance, critics question the wisdom
of testing a
topic that they consider supplemental rather than an
essential life
skill, such as math or reading.
“We are in a public education environment of tight budgets
coupled with
the need to increase student performance. School districts
should
therefore have sharp focus on core academics,” says Bill
Ames, a
standards-reform activist in Richardson, Texas. “Using a
football
analogy, a coach should not teach trick plays until his team
is adept in
basic blocking and tackling. Those who believe art is as
important as
the three R’s should seek out special educational
opportunities for
their children.”
Arts educators and advocates say that’s the very thinking
they are
trying to counter. They assert that art is a necessity, not
a luxury,
and should be part of every student’s education—a view
shared by
then-Secretary of Education Rod Paige in a July letter to
superintendents. In the letter, Paige writes that art is
considered a
core academic subject under the No Child Left Behind Act. “I
believe the
arts have a significant role in education both for their
intrinsic value
and for the ways in which they can enhance general academic
achievement
and improve students’ social and emotional development,” the
letter states.
Wagner and other arts education advocates hope standardized
assessments
can help them prove that point. They acknowledge the
difficulty of
setting up tests that cover all the bases but say that
neither they nor
their charges can afford to be without them.
“ ‘Assessment’ is the hot word of the 21st century,” Wagner
says. “In
school, you want to have a balance in learning. ... We’re
part of the
big picture, and we should be part of the assessment
picture.”
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