Vol. 3 No. 4 August 1998

NAEP and the Visual Arts: Framework, Field Test, and

Assessment

Abstract: NAEP has developed a new generation of assessment tasks for student achievement in the visual arts. These

tasks draw upon the concepts, skills, and processes used to

create and understand visual images from a variety of world

cultures and historical periods, using both paper-and-pencil

and performance formats.

In 1992, the Arts Education Consensus Project, sponsored by the National Assessment Governing Board

(NAGB), began an 18-month effort to establish objectives for assessing arts instruction in the nation’s elementary and secondary schools. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) had assessed the

visual arts in 1975 and 19781

. The National Endowment

for the Arts, in collaboration with the Getty Center for

Education in the Arts, funded the Arts Education Consensus Project, designed to develop the NAEP Arts

Education Assessment Framework.

The Consensus Project2

 identified objectives for arts

education in general and individually for dance, music,

theatre, and the visual arts, in the fourth, eighth, and

twelfth grades. It also developed Assessment Specifications for each of the four arts, setting forth requirements

for the content of the assessments in more detail. NAEP

field-tested the visual arts assessment for the fourth and

eighth grades in 1995 and for the twelfth grade in 1997.

In the spring of 1999, NAEP will publish a Field Test

Process Report, on the development, administration, and

scoring of arts tasks for the three grades. The report will

cover all four arts, including the visual arts.

In 1997, NAEP conducted an assessment of eighth-grade

students’ achievement in the arts. NAEP assessed

eighth-grade students in music and the visual arts using

a nationally representative sample of all students, regardless of their background in music or the visual arts.

The sample for the visual arts assessment, approximately 2,500 students, in both public and private

schools, was large enough to obtain statistically valid

results. The theatre assessment was a targeted assessment, limited to students who would have completed at

least 30 class hours in theatre instruction by the end of

the 199697 school year. Because there were too few

The NAEP 1997 Visual Arts Assessment allows extensive

assessment of student creativity.

NOTE: For reasons of confidentiality, the students shown in this picture are not NAEP participants.

PHOTO BY UNIFOTO
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dance programs in schools to allow for an adequate national sample, NAEP did not conduct an assessment in

dance. Results of the three assessments, together with

samples of arts tasks for all four arts, will appear in the

NAEP 1997 Arts Report Card, which will be published

in the fall of 1998.

The next two sections of this Focus on NAEP summarize the current visual arts framework, which is set forth

in full in the NAEP 1997 Arts Education Assessment

Framework. Following these sections will be a discussion of the visual arts field tests.

The Importance of the Visual

Arts

The NAEP Arts Education Assessment Framework is

founded on a vision of a society that believes the arts are

essential for every child’s complete development and

education. To be fully educated, students must be able to

draw on artistic experiences and knowledge as a means

of understanding both themselves and the world around

them. They must be able to use the arts as an important

vehicle for communicating ideas in our increasingly

multimedia society.

The visual arts are rightly described in the plural: at

their broadest, they take in such forms as painting,

drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. They also embrace

more recent media (photography, film, video, and computer imaging), and functional design areas such as architecture and industrial and graphic design. The visual

arts enable students to reflect on what they inherit from

past and present world cultures.

The expectation of the framework as a whole and for the

visual arts in particular is not that all students will become professional artists, although some will. What is

expected is that they will have experienced enough of

the discipline, the challenge, and the joy of creating in

different art forms to understand intimately the human

significance of all the arts, not simply the visual arts (see

table 1 for assessment guidelines).

The Visual Arts Assessment

Framework: Content and

Processes

The visual arts assessment covers both content and processes. Content includes (1) knowledge and understanding of the visual arts and (2) perceptual, technical,

expressive, and intellectual/reflective skills. Processes

include (1) creating, and (2) responding. (In the visual

arts, unlike dance, music, and theatre, performing is not

one of the processes). While much of what students

know, as well as what they can do, will be demonstrated

through creative work, the visual arts assessment

framework includes a written portion as well. Table 2

sets forth the visual arts assessment framework in brief.

Table 1.NAEP Guidelines for Visual Arts Assessment

Visual arts assessment shall

 Affirm the visual arts as a way of knowing with a unique

capacity to integrate the intellect, emotions, and physical

skills.

 Honor the visual arts as a discrete art form, but also encourage students to see the artistic experience as a unified whole.

 Examine and report on developing abilities of students.

 Connect with students’ real-life experiences of the visual

arts.

 Evaluate students through performance.

 Go beyond quantification to include critical judgment.

 Use background variables to recognize differences in

school resources (large-scale assessments only).

 Address both the processes and products of the visual arts,

and expand the public’s awareness of the importance of

each.

 Produce information useful to a variety of audiencesstudents, parents, teachers, administrators, policymakers, artists, and other community members.

 Reflect a pluralistic view of visual arts education, both in

terms of individual products and the cultural bases of the

visual arts.

Source: NAEP 1997 Arts Education Assessment Framework, National Assessment Governing Board
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Content

Knowledge in the visual arts relates to understanding the

meaning of visual form and how it is conveyed. For example, students must be able to account for the influence

of context (personal, social, cultural, and historical) on

meaning in both creating and responding to works of art

and design. They explore the content of visual form

through examinations of subject matter, means of representation, media and processes, visual organization,

composition, and theoretical frameworks (philosophical

or aesthetic constructs) for creating and interpreting the

visual arts. In areas of functional design, knowledge of

user/audience characteristics is also critical to creating

objects and environments that meet performance criteria.

Skills in the visual arts relate to understanding how to

construct or interpret meaning in visual form. Creating

skills include gathering information; analyzing and

synthesizing experience; generating many visual ideas or

solutions; selecting among competing ideas, media, or

processes; planning and organizing the visual execution

of ideas; evaluating ideas and form; and applying technical proficiency in the making of visual objects. Responding includes many of the above skills applied in

interpretive contexts. Verbal skills exhibited in oral and

written presentations and the construction of convincing

arguments are also relevant.

Processes

Creating in the visual arts and areas of functional design

involves students in the construction and communication

of meaning through the making of works of a tangible

Table 2.Visual Arts Assessment Framework

Processes

Creating Responding

 Students generate subjects, themes, problems, and ideas

for works of art and design in ways that reflect knowledge

and understanding of values (personal, social, cultural,

historical), aesthetics, and context.

 Students reflect upon and evaluate their own works of art and

design.

 Students describe works of art and design in ways that show

knowledge of form, aesthetics, and context (personal, social,

cultural, historical).

 Students invent and use ways of generating visual, spatial,

and temporal concepts in planning works of art and design.

 Students select and use form, media, techniques, and processes to achieve goodness of fit with the intended meaning

or function of works of art and design.

 Students experiment with ideas (sketches, models, etc.)

before final execution as a method of evaluation.

 Students analyze and interpret works of art and design for relationships between form and context, form and meaning or function, and the work of critics, historians, aestheticians, and artists/designers.

 Students articulate judgments about works of art and design that

reflect attitudes and prior knowledge (description, analysis, interpretation).

 Students create a product that reflects ongoing thoughts,

actions, and new directions.

 Students apply judgments about works of art and design to decisions made in daily life, developing a personal belief system and

world view that is informed by the arts.

Content

Knowledge Skills

 Understanding of context (personal, social, cultural, and

historical)

 Perceptual

 Aesthetics  Technical

 Form and Structure  Expressive

 Technical Processes  Intellectual/reflective

SOURCE: 1997 NAEP Arts Education Assessment Framework, National Assessment Governing Board
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object, visible performance or environment. It involves

feeling, thinking, and doing. The creative process seeks

to integrate the artist’s intuitive and emotional insights

with rational thought, critical judgment, and the physical

and cognitive abilities required to make successful visual forms.

Responding in the visual arts means interpreting works

of art or design done by artists/designers or the students

themselves. Responding is an interpretive and evaluative

behavior that reveals knowledge of how visual form

communicates meaning in various contexts. It includes

the ability to articulate as well as formulate judgments.

The writers of the framework sought to be as inclusive

as possible both in terms of the kinds of art students

would be asked to analyze, and in terms of the kinds of

production tasks students would be given. The Consensus Project’s Assessment Specifications require coverage of art dating from before the 13th century to the present, from a wide range of geographic areas, including

Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America (see table 3).

The framework envisioned that students would have the

opportunity to show what they know and can do vis-àvis the visual arts by both analyzing and creating works

of art and design. Students would engage in a range of

processes that would capture the complexity of analyzing and creating.

The Field Test Samples

NAEP conducted the fourth- and eighth-grade visual arts

field tests in 1995. About 2,700 public and private

school students participated in each of the two field

tests. NAEP conducted the twelfth-grade field test in

1997. About 1,200 students participated. All three field

tests sampled a general population of students.

Visual Arts Tasks

NAEP used two types of assessment tasks in the visual

arts field tests: paper-and-pencil and performance. Assessment tasks were prepared by the Educational Testing Service, under the guidance of a committee of experts in visual arts education. The fourth-grade field test

devoted 60 minutes to the paper-and-pencil tasks and

3040 minutes to the performance task, as did the

eighth-grade field test. The twelfth-grade field test devoted 65 minutes and 4560 minutes, respectively. In all

cases, assessment times are approximate only, depending on the specific tasks involved.

The performance task assessed creating, while the paper-and-pencil tasks assessed students’ abilities to respond to the visual arts. To ensure coverage of all aspects of knowledge of the visual arts, and to lighten the

burden on a given student, NAEP developed a number

of different “blocks,” for both the paper-and-pencil and

the performance tasks. Students in the sample were assigned at random to several paper-and-pencil blocks and

one performance block. While the NAEP 1997 Visual

Arts Assessment went further in covering the full range

of the visual arts than previous assessments, due to constraints of time and expense it was not possible to assess

student performance in such areas as film and video.

NAEP performance tasks are designed to be as authentic

as time and resources permit. However, the assessment

Table 3.Guidelines for Stimulus Materials for

Visual Arts Tasks

The categories for stimulus materials are meant to provide a

broad view of visual art from a historical as well as a geographic perspective. It will be important to select images

and examples that are appropriate to the grade level. Color

print reproductions or three-dimensional reproductions of

works of art/design need to reflect the diversity of art styles,

periods, and cultures, as well as representation of fine and

folk or craft traditions

Percentage by Geographic Regions/Cultural Groups

African 15%

Asian (Near/Middle East) 10%

Asian (Far East) 10%

Australian/Pacific 10%

European 20%

North America 20%

South America 15%

Percentage by Time Periods (Global Scope)

pre-13th century 20%

13th14th centuries 10%

15th16th centuries 10%

17th18th centuries 15%

19th century 15%

20th century: 19001950 15%

20th century: 1950present 15%
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tasks must also offer the same opportunities and the

same challenges, in the same circumstances, for all students assessed. No comparison across students is possible without such standardization. In 1998, NAEP will

make all tasks not subject to copyright, both paper-andpencil and performance, for all three grades, available to

the public.

1. Paper-and-Pencil Tasks

The paper-and-pencil tasks used multiple-choice, short

constructed-response, and extended constructedresponse questions. Constructed-response questions require written answers from the students. (See table 4 for

an example of the kinds of issues raised by constructedresponse questions.) On the field test for twelfth-grade

students, constructed-response questions constituted

over two thirds of the total number of paper-and-pencil

questions.

The paper-and-pencil tasks went well beyond traditional

“art appreciation” questions. One task asked students to

consider several sculptures, intended for use in a public

space, and to select the one most appropriate for an

imaginary community, explaining their reasons for doing so, based on such considerations as the makeup of

the community and the purpose of the statue. Students

were also asked to consider design issues involved in

basic household utensils.

2. Performance Tasks

Performance tasks required students to work with a variety of media. For example, the twelfth-grade field test

performance tasks involved Plasticine (a clay-like substance), paints, drawing pencils, drawing charcoal, and a

variety of construction materials. Students were given

such tasks as printmaking, creating a relief sculpture,

creating sculptures or drawings while taking inspiration

from processes or emotions described in a brief story,

and designing an architectural model of an interior

space. (See table 5, next page, for a sample scoring

guide.) Often, students were asked to critique their own

work.

Creating and administering a national assessment was

very challenging. The NAEP Visual Arts Framework,

Field Test, and Assessment provide useful models for

future assessments, at the state and local level, as well as

nationally. Several important problems were confronted

during the development and scoring of the assessment.

Among these were how to create tasks suitable for a variety of students with a variety of educational backgrounds, while also making distinctions among levels of

student ability. These issues, among others, will be explored in the upcoming arts reports.

Footnotes

1. For results from the first assessment of the visual arts, see

the following:

Design and Drawing Skills. Selected Results from the First

National Assessment of Art, June 1977. National Center for

Education Statistics, Washington, DC. ERIC # ED141249.

Knowledge About Art. Selected Results from the First National

Assessment of Art. Education Commission of the States, Denver, CO. ERIC # ED155116.

Attitudes Toward Art. Selected Results from the First National

Table 4.Twelfth-Grade Visual Arts Field Test Scoring Guide for Paper-and-Pencil Task

The visual arts assessment field test gave students tasks such as

reacting to a sculpture. Scoring guides used criteria similar to the

following, giving credit for “extensive” answers that went beyond

what was required:

Unacceptable: The student does not address the sculpture in any

meaningful way, failing to identify any specific aspect of the work

as its strongest element, and failing to describe how that aspect

relates to the work as a whole. Examples: “It’s pretty. It’s interesting. I like it.”

Partial: The student offers a brief comment on one aspect of the

work, without explanation. Examples: “There is a small figure and

a large head, that make an interesting contrast,” or “There’s a

coat with no one in it.”

Essential: The student singles out one aspect of the work as the

strongest, and specifically describes it, but relates it to the work

as a whole in only a general way.

Extensive: The student singles out one aspect of the work as

the strongest and specifically describes it. The student also relates the aspect to the work as a whole in a clear and intelligent

way. The student may refer to formal elements of the sculpture,

or to the emotional or imaginative experience that the sculpture

provokes.
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Assessment of Art. Education Commission of the States, Denver, CO. ERIC # ED166122.

For results from the second assessment of the visual arts, see

Art and Young Americans, 19741979: Results from the Second National Art Assessment. National Center for Education

Statistics; National Institute of Education, Washington, DC.

ERIC # ED212538.

2. For details on the Arts Education Consensus Project, see the

Arts Education Assessment Framework for the 1997 National

Assessment of Educational Progress (1994), the National Assessment Governing Board.

For Further Information

Arts Education Assessment Framework for the 1997 National

Assessment of Educational Progress. Single copies are available free from the National Assessment Governing Board, 800

 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 825, Washington, DC

20002–4233. Copies may also be obtained on the World Wide

Web at http://www.nagb.org/pub.html.

National Standards for Arts Education. Copies are available

for $20 from the Music Educators National Conference, 1806

Robert Fulton Drive, Reston VA 20191, 8003363768.

Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools,

NCES 95082, provides data obtained from questionnaires

sent to the principals of nationally representative samples of

public schools. It is not in print, but is available over the

NAEP web site at http://nces.ed.gov/NAEP/.

The following Focus on NAEP publications are also available

free from the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S.

Department of Education, Washington, DC 202085653.

Copies may also be accessed over the World Wide Web at

http://nces.ed.gov/NAEP/.

The NAEP Arts Education Framework, Field Test, and Assessment, NCES 98527

NAEP and Dance: Framework, Field Test, and Survey, NCES

98459

NAEP and Music: Framework, Field Test, and Assessment,

NCES 98529

NAEP and Theatre: Framework, Field Test, and Assessment,

NCES 98528

The Focus on NAEP series briefly summarizes information on

the ongoing development and implementation of the National

Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The series is a

product of the National Center for Education Statistics

(NCES), Pascal D. Forgione, Jr., Commissioner, and Gary W.

Phillips, Associate Commissioner for Education Assessment.

This Focus on NAEP was written by Alan Vanneman, of the

Education Statistics Services Institute and Mac Arthur

Goodwin of the South Carolina State Department of Education. To order other NAEP publications, call Bob Clemons at

202–219–1690, or e-mail bob_clemons@ed.gov.

Information on NAEP may also be obtained over the World

Wide Web at http://nces.ed.gov/NAEP/.

Table 5.Twelfth-Grade Visual Arts Field Test Scoring Guide for a Performance Task

The scoring guides for the performance tasks on the NAEP visual

arts field test attempted to capture the full range of possible student outcomes. In one performance task for the twelfth-grade field

test, students were asked to develop an architectural model for a

space that would represent a solution for a specified problem. To

obtain full credit, students had to provide a model that met all of

the following criteria:

 the problem is solved through the definition of space rather

than the use of decoration.

 the solution is built to a practical scale.

 the solution exhibits an understanding of the role that placement of design features plays in defining the experience of the

user.

 the solution exhibits an understanding of the role of the placement of the entrance and exit.

 the solution goes beyond the notion of a conventional room by

exploring the potential of changing elevation, piercing walls,

and modifying the shape of the space.

 the solution exhibits an understanding of the structural principles necessary to make walls stand up.

 the solution exhibits an understanding of the nature of materials

and how they behave; joinery and spanning distance are used

correctly and inventively.