1997 Arts Assessment Strategies ReportMore about field testing arts exercises

NAEP tests all exercises for its assessments in the field (that is, in schools) before creating final versions of exercises.⁴ In this way, exercises can be tried out and improved based on field-test results. In 1995, NAEP field-tested dance, music, theatre, and visual arts exercises at grades 4 and 8. In 1997, NAEP field-tested dance, music, theatre, and visual arts exercises at grade 12.

Field testing allowed staff at Educational Testing Service and members of the Arts Assessment Development Committee to see how well the arts exercises they had created worked. Based on student responses, scoring information, and statistical analyses of exercises, revisions were made to the language of exercises, their organization, the time allowed for student responses, and scoring the criteria.

NEXT: A Theatre Task Before and After Field Testing

4. The final arts assessment was administered at grade 8 only. Because of budget shortfalls, NAEP could not comprehensively assess the arts at all three grades. (This shortfall also affected other NAEP subjects, such as mathematics and science.) The arts community recommended that the assessment be administered at grade 8. In this way, a full assessment of the arts framework could be administered in the different arts. For this reason, all arts exercises featured in this web report for grades 4 and 12 are taken from the 1995 and 1997 arts field tests.

Last updated 3 June 2022 (YA)