Michigan's Arts Assessment Profile (Ana Luisa Cardona)

Summative arts assessment in Michigan is a local district responsibility.

The Michigan Department of Education has provided guidance on arts assessment through a variety of means including standards-based assessment examples provided via an electronic resource called MICLIMB. This was once available online but is now only available via CD Roms.

In the late 1990's, the Michigan Department of Education partnered with the Michigan Art Education Association and ArtServe Michigan for a series of two summer institutes for teachers that were devoted to development of classroom visual arts assessments.

MDE also pulled together a network of in and out of school arts providers in which arts assessment was a key area of interest. The issues for out of school arts providers was one of finding assessment tools that went beyond arts learning to measurements of the social and developmental impacts of the arts. Many of these providers are continuing to do this work on their own.

An example of this work is the recently published evaluation of the impact of Detroit's Mosaic Youth Theatre model which has received favorable attention due to the high success and college going rate of student members who would would be considered at risk of failure by most traditional predictors. Their evaluation report can be found at: http://www.mosaicdetroit.org/mosaic-model.htm

With the introduction in 2006 of the Michigan Merit Curriculum for high schools, there is a new requirement that local districts have in place student assessments that align with the credit guidelines for the 1-credit requirement in the Visual, Performing, and Applied Arts.

The Michigan Department of Education's Curriculum Unit is also supporting and participating in the Office of Educational Assessement's Balanced Assessment series of professional development which is based on the work of Rick Stiggins.

I hope this gets us started. It helped me to focus my attention on the steps we are taking in Michigan in the area of arts assessment.

Ana Luisa Cardona
Consultant for Arts Education
Michigan Department of Education
P.O. Box 30008
Lansing, MI 48909
cardonaA@michigan.gov
517-335-0466 (phone)
5170335-2473 (fax)

Arts Assessment Data from Midwest Region State

The western states have started posting descriptions of what each state is doing in terms of arts assessment.

Let's begin to do the same for the Midwest. These are narrative descriptions and the first step in getting this work done.

To see what these look like for the Western states, go to:

http://seadaewesternregion.blogspot.com/

NAEA Assessment Notes

I thought I’d pass along a few notes I took regarding assessment at the National Art Education Association convention. The national organization has decided to develop position papers about where it stands regarding issues relating to curriculum, assessment, instruction and relationships. I participated on the assessment table. Essentially, over a two day – six hour period assessment was boiled down to four main questions:

1. Who should be assessed?

• Students
• Educators
• Programs

2. Who has concerns about who is being assessed

• School boards
• Decision makers
• Stakeholders: parents, art educ., students

3. Why assess?

• What are the purposes, goals, aims of assessment
• To determine levels of achievement
• To evaluate programs
• To evaluate instruction
• To evaluate curriculum
• If/which standards have been met
• Validity
• reliability

4. What to assess?

• The content of art education
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Processes
• Work habits/behaviors
• Creativity
• Personal expression
• Relationship of assessment to standards
• Behaviors
• Higher order thinking skills
• Critical thinking
• Problem solving
• Research
• Communication
• Evaluation/reflection
• Risk taking
• Classroom conduct

4. How to assess?

• Methodology
• Appropriate to goal
• Rubrics
• Professional development about…
• Uses of technology in assessment
• Digital portfolio
• Computer assisted assessment
• Data storage
• Timing of assessment
• Formative
• Summative
• Multiple assessments
• Based on clear and concise standards/criteria
  
  From here, the regional teams will develop these into a one or two pager. The process will take about a year. It seems to be an interesting frame to wrap thinking around.

Rosemary Burns, Rhode Island

Minnesota Update

This year the Minnesota Academic Standards for the Arts K-12 have been undergoing a revision process. The committee, of around 25 educators from across the state, has just completed a draft and sent it off to the Commissioner of Education. After reviewing it the Commissioner will present the new standards to the Legislature for information and then begin the formal rule-making process.
One significant change is that Media Arts standards have been added for K-8 students. Previously there were Media Arts standards at only the high school level.

SEADAE Western Blog now available for reading

Andres Libed, Western Regional Rep, has initiated a blog for their region.

Check it out by clicking on:

http://seadaewesternregion.blogspot.com/