"States should ... be encouraged to develop assessments that measure higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills," says the RAND corporation in "Passing or Failing? A Midterm Report Card for No Child Left Behind” (RAND Review, Fall 2007). This study looks at NCLB, the largest insertion of federal authority into school management in U.S. history, signed in January 2002 with goals stretching to 2014. Having analyzed the effects of the law at nearly every level of the education system, the authors issue a set of mixed grades, early warnings and general guidelines that can help the law fulfill its promise. They don't mention the arts, which are mandated as an area of curriculum by NCLB, but not included in "proficiency" testing, which drives the whole mechanism. Their recommendation on assessment prompts us to point out that assessment strategies being used in arts education would be enormously useful in measuring higher-order thinking and problem-solving. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics in the U.S. Department of Education) has published the NAEP Arts Education Assessment Framework. There's an excellent case study of that framework on The Nation's Report Card (from the National Center for Education Statistics). It explores "useful strategies for developing an arts performance assessment." We wish the government would read its own reports.

"Passing or Failing? A Midterm Report Card for No Child Left Behind”

"Developing an Arts Assessment: Some Selected Strategies"

   

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