The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has developed a new generation of assessment tasks for assessing student achievement in the visual arts. Using paper-and-pencil and performance formats, these tasks draw on the concepts, skills, and processes used to create and understand visual images from a variety of world cultures and historical periods. This report summarizes results from the 1997 assessment of eighth grade student achievement in the arts. Students were assessed in music and the visual arts using a nationally representative sample of all students, regardless of their background in music or the visual arts. The visual arts sample data included about 2500 public and private school students. The assessment covered content and process. The content included knowledge and understanding of the visual arts and perceptual, technical, expressive, and intellectual/reflective skills. The processes included creating and responding. In 1995 NAEP field tested the assessment tasks for grades four and eight. Twelfth-grade tasks were field tested in 1997. The NAEP assessment used two types of tasks in the visual arts field tests: paper-and-pencil tasks and performance tasks. Paper-and-pencil tasks required students to respond to multiple choice questions, short constructed-response questions, and extended-response questions. The performance tasks required students to work in a variety of media: paints, drawing pencils, drawing charcoal, Plasticine, and various construction materials. The scoring guides for the pencil-and-paper tasks used criteria similar to the following, giving credit for "extensive" answers that went beyond what was required: unacceptable, partial, essential, and extensive. Seven criteria for evaluating the performance tasks were established. (JEH)