The development of the new arts standards (2014) reflects the oversight and collaboration among all of the key stakeholders, including a conceptual framework and matrix that is uniform across all of the arts disciplines, while reflecting the specific qualities and characteristics of each arts discipline. The standards are organized around the the artistic processes of Creating, Presenting, and Responding, reflecting the use of these terms within the NAEP Arts Assessment.
Type of Material:
Assessment Tool
Recommended Uses:
The new standards are designed to be achievable when students are provided with a high-quality, sequential, standards-based program of instruction. Also, because arts standards outline the most important outcomes of arts education, they will be helpful to arts educators as well as their supervisors in designing appropriate arts objectives and measures.
Technical Requirements:
Internet access. Reprint permission costs and copyright guidelines are clearly indicated. See link at the bottom of the main website page.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The philosophical foundations and lifelong goals establish the basis for the new standards and illuminate artistic literacy by expressing the
overarching common values and expectations for learning in arts education
across the five arts disciplines (dance, music, theater, visual arts, media arts). The intent is to experience the arts as communication, as creative personal realization, as culture, history, and connectors, as a means to well being, and as a community engagement.
The primary goal of the site is to show art educators meaningful ways to establish measurable learning outcomes within their classrooms, particularly for a discipline where many instructors find it a challenging process to create learning objectives that align to the student performance required in art classes.
Target Student Population:
Pre-K-12 students; For professional development in the National Core Arts Standards the target population is Pre-K through university educators, especially those in the arts
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
None. However, some knowledge of standards, expectations, and lesson plan development and assessment is helpful.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The Core Arts Standards include two levels of standards: Anchor Standards and Performance Standards. Anchor Standards are overarching standards statements of what students should know and do in all of the arts as a result of their PreK-12 education. A performance standard is a statement of what students should know and be able to do in a particular artistic discipline by the end of a specific grade or level. There are 15 standards total and they are paired with 15 enduring understandings by grade level bands. These 2014 standards also are web-based and dynamic, meaning users can customize a pdf to specifically fit their needs. If an educator teaches one of the five arts, but not all of them, then the grade bands, standards, and sample assessments for that discipline can be selected to create a custom pdf that can be downloaded.
The site offers a profound solution to a pervasive issue amongst art educators---that there are not consistent standard ways to describe the assessment of student performance in art courses. The National Core Arts Standards provide significant support to standards-based education within the arts.
Concerns:
None.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The standards are divided by four artistic processes: Creating, Presenting, Responding, and Connecting. These processes are organized to support learning progressions in the school curriculum. Besides showing a performance standard, learning targets for students and methods in which student learning is demonstrated are provided. The standards are also clustered in groups such as Pre-K through Grade 2 so educators can see the sequence and learning expected.
Concerns:
None.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The layout of the National Core Arts Standards web page is clean, clear, and specific. Labels are organized and color-coded. The standards, processes, grade bands, and model cornerstone assessments are all easily identified and positioned in the sequence that would be normal for use. Copyright guidelines, a glossary, further resources, guiding principles for inclusion strategies, contact information and more are all clearly tabbed along the bottom of the page.
Concerns:
Some links pop-up in new windows without any sort of warning to the user where the content will appear after clicking on the link - this is explained by the authors in the FAQ section, but that's not readily known to go to that section of the site for an explanation of this fact and how to get around it. Also, with the wealth of worksheets and resources available, it would be nice to have an explanation of how the pieces all work together on the front of the site.
Creative Commons:
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