National assessment and the future of art education

Throughout the 1974-75 school year, teams of National Assessment administrators have been working on a scientifically selected, stratified random sample of schools throughout the country. Their purpose is to ask nine-, thirteen-, and seventeen-year-old students to respond to carefully formulated exercises indicating how well they: (1) perceive and respond to various aspects of works of art, (2) value art as an important realm of human experience, (3) produce works of art, (4) have acquired knowledge about art, and (5) make and justify judgments about the aesthetic merit and quality of works of art. There are actually 153 major and subobjectives being evaluated by the assessment.' These objectives, formulated by teams of art educators and others working in the arts, reflect the major purposes of art education throughout the country. The National Assessment in art is designed to gather, analyze, and report data which will furnish information regarding the achievements of children and youth. The data are being collected from a stratified sample so that findings may be reported for four major geographical regions of the country, by community size and type, by socio-economic levels, by sex and race, and (perhaps most important for art education) by the nature and amount of art instruction received in schools. As the major outcome, the assessment in art will produce information relating schooling to art achievement. However, the implications of National Assessment and its possible influence on the evaluation of art teaching and research in art education range far broader than mere findings of the current assessment. These influences may best be explored through discussion of a series of questions about work already accomplished and future assessment developments. What has already been accomplished by the National Assessment in art? Objectives: The National Assessment objectives represent a comprehensive synthesis of desired art educational outcomes. These objectives have served as the basis upon which other sets of objectives have been extended and refined. The Florida objectives represent one of the finest examples.2 The National Assessment objectives can serve also as the basis for competency-based statements for public schools and for teacher training programs

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