The Florida Performing Fine Arts Assessment Project

Abstract

This chapter outlines the background, philosophy, and process associated with the “Race to the Top” Florida Performing Fine Arts Assessment Project. On August 24, 2010, the US Department of Education announced that Florida was a recipient of the federal Race to the Top Phase 2 competition. Through a competitive process, the Florida Department of Education awarded the Polk County Florida School Board a total of $5.7 million to develop a statewide assessment tool in the performing arts for the creation of a district-developed test item bank in seven hard-to-measure areas that included the performing arts. The project involved approximately 450 performing arts teachers, supervisors, administrators, and university faculty. Project leaders felt it was imperative to develop an assessment that reflected activities and experiences within a realistic performing fine arts classroom environment with two interrelated assessments: (1) a performing task, and (2) a written test.