Fast Facts: Arts (86)

Arts

Question:
Do you have any information on assessments of students in arts education classes?

Response:

The results from the 2016 arts assessment at grade 8 were based on a representative sample of 8,800 eighth-graders from 280 schools. Approximately one-half of the eighth-grade students were assessed in music (4,300 students), and the other half were assessed in visual arts (4,400 students).

Music responding questions in the 2016 arts assessment asked students to evaluate musical performances, identify and explain musical notation, describe the emotion or mood of a composition, and identify the region of origin or social context of a musical excerpt. The average music responding scale score for eighth-grade students in 2016 was 147, which was not significantly different from 2008, the previous assessment year. The NAEP music scale ranges from 0–300.

Visual arts knowledge and skills include understanding the meaning of visual form and how it is conveyed, as well as understanding how to construct or interpret meaning in visual form. The visual arts portion of the 2016 arts assessment measured students' ability to respond to art as well as their ability to create original artwork. The average visual arts responding scale score for eighth-grade students in 2016 was 149, which was not significantly different from 2008, the previous assessment year. The NAEP visual arts scale ranges from 0–300.

Key findings in the 2016 results are as follows:

In music, female students scored higher on average than their male peers, and students in private schools had higher average scores than students attending public schools.
Students in the Northeast scored higher on average in visual arts than their peers in the other regions.
There were no significant differences in the percentages of students who reported taking a music class between male and female students and between students attending public and private schools.
A higher percentage of students in the Northeast reported taking a visual arts course than their peers in the other regions.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2017). The Nation's Report Card: 2016 Arts Assessment at Grade 8 (NCES 2017-087).

Related Tables and Figures: (Listed by Release Date)

2019, Digest of Education Statistics 2018, Table 224.10. Average NAEP music and visual arts scale scores of 8th-graders, percentage distribution by frequency of instruction at their school, and percentage participating in selected musical activities in school, by selected characteristics: 2016

Other Resources: (Listed by Release Date)