Reframing Assessment in Art Education

By Leslie Gates

How do you assess creative thinking, artistic process, skill development, reflection, and personal expression while also navigating standards, limited instructional time, and the pressure to demonstrate measurable results? More importantly, how can assessment support learning rather than simply measure it?

Reframing Assessment in Art Education, the newest title in the Art Education in Practice Series, reframes assessment as a practice that happens with students. Through inquiry, meaningful feedback, and reflection, educators can use assessment to better understand student learning while helping them become more active participants in their own growth. Readers will examine the role of power, subjectivity, teacher expertise, student agency, and the culture of assessment-as-accountability as they evaluate their practice and make informed choices to better serve students. Whether you are looking for more meaningful ways to gather evidence of learning or seeking to better align assessment with contemporary practice, this title provides a thoughtful foundation for developing student-centered assessment practices and will help you:

• Navigate common challenges in assessing learning.
• Develop assessments that support creating, presenting, responding, and connecting.
• Provide feedback that moves learning forward and strengthens student agency.
• Balance teacher expertise with student voice, reflection, and collaboration.
• Develop equitable, standards-aligned approaches that honor the complexity of artistic learning.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Developing Student-Centered Assessment
• Chapter 2: Developing a Sound Assessment Practice
• Chapter 3: Designing for Alignment
• Chapter 4: Why Assess Habits and Dispositions?
• Chapter 5: Strategies for Assessing Habits and Dispositions
• Chapter 6: Qualities of Effective Feedback
• Chapter 7: Feedback within Relationships
• Chapter 8: Grading and Assessment Are Not Synonyms
• Chapter 9: Grading Practices and Scoring Tools
• Appendix A-G: Teaching Resources & Activities