The Status of Arts Assessment in the United States

Based on data gathered from members of SEADAE, the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education, the authors report on current priorities and practices in dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts assessment in states across the nation and in Department of Defense schools around the world. With the 2014 publication of the National Core Arts Standards and the then-impending replacement of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) by the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA), it became clear that conditions and resources at national and state levels had undergone significant change since the completion of the 2008 SEADAE study of arts assessment practices. New questions relative to current policy and practice needed to be addressed in order to inform the approach to and development of state and local assessment in the arts, the outcomes of which must inform and raise the quality of instruction in today’s arts classrooms.