Work produced during a course of study in the creative arts may differ from assessment in other disciplines in the following ways: (1) it is non-text-based: work may consist of a performance, video recording, digital or interactive work, music composition, audio recording, or physical artefact; and (2) it is creative: works demonstrate individual…

In this article I attempt to interrogate some of the issues around the assessment of live work. I use a range of theories, particularly Ranciere's notion of the "aesthetic regime" of art, to suggest a three-pronged ontological approach to assessment that seeks to avoid the dangers of Bourdieu's and Passeron's concept of reproduction, and which…

Charter Theatre is a small professional theatre in Washington, DC. Its mission is to develop and produce new plays. Like other organizations, Charter Theatre wants to be accountable. Its members saw early the need for evaluation--a repeatable process to assure the quality of their work, and have infused their development process with evaluation.…

Describes the multifaceted process for assessing students over the course of their undergraduate degree work in the Department of Theater and Dance at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. (SR)

Notes that assessment and evaluation models, even portfolios, measure impact over fairly short periods of time. Discusses how transformative moments happen out of educators' line of vision and sometimes long after these students have left the classrooms and rehearsal halls. Discusses instances when teens isolated the content of the play they were…

Proposes that the Internet can be a valuable source of information for teachers who use or plan to use Readers Theatre in their classrooms. Provides a brief description of Readers Theatre and its many benefits for literacy learning. Describes Internet sources for scripts and for information on implementation, additional classroom applications, and…

Summarizes the creation and results of the 1997 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Arts Assessment Report Card. Discusses the creation and the many improvements made to the NAEP Assessment, particularly the Arts Assessment. Discusses the impact of the assessment. (SC)

The Communication and Theatre Arts Department at Heidelberg College (a private liberal arts college in northwestern Ohio) developed a departmental assessment plan. The department faculty began by working to establish "exit criteria" during an all-day meeting. Unlike other disciplines, communication has no standardized tests and…

A computer assisted system called PEERRATE was used in a theater history course at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in Newark, in fall 1980, in order to give students an opportunity to anonymously grade one another's written work and to compare their own ratings with those of fellow students and the instructor. The PEERRATE system is a…

Talent beyond Words instructed elementary inner-city children in the performing arts, especially dance and percussion music, to provide opportunities for dynamic assessment of talent. Students identified as having talent participated in after-school curricula, thereby increasing their proficiency and self-esteem. (Author/JDD)

The evaluation and professional development of teachers and administrators are two sides of the same coin. Both are the essential currency schools have to improve teachers' practice and students' learning, but schools often spend this currency unwisely. Too often, evaluations are a source of tension and conflict, even a necessary evil.…

Describes a public library program designed to stimulate appreciation of adult fiction written in and about the contemporary western United States. Discussion covers project objectives, oral interpretation of literature, project phases, study guides and bibliographies, staff orientation, lectures, evaluators, personnel, publicity, problems, and…

Reflects on the balancing act among the methodological, practical, and political forces in the arts that affect evaluation, focusing on evaluations of systemic reform. Discusses the meaning of systemic reform and the special requirements added when the arts are the main force behind the education changes. Offers an illustration. (CMK)

The relationship of syntactic sensitivities to fluency and understanding are usually neglected when discussing reading fluency. The article describes oral reading and interpretation activities in one seventh grade class undertaken to improve comprehension and fluency. It also discusses evaluation methods, such as portfolios and recordings as…

McNamee and Chen describe the Bridging assessment system they developed to measure performance on specific learning tasks for pre-K through 3rd-grade students. Bridging assesses an individual student's skill level on learning tasks in five curricular areas: language arts and literacy, visual arts, mathematics, science, and performing arts. The…