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The State Board of Education did not, as planned, accept proposed Praxis II passing scores today for the Department, nor did
they schedule a public hearing on them for April.
Instead, on receipt of the report from Department staff of the work of the various stakeholder panels that met this winter,
along with their recommendations for passing scores, the State Board held a lengthy discussion about the meaning of the scores.
They asked the Department staff to provide them with more information about national performance on certain exams, and deferred
the publication of proposed passing scores and scheduling of a public hearing to their next meeting, which is scheduled for
May 11.
What this means is they will not be holding a public hearing on the proposed scores until late May, the public comment period
on the proposed rules will not close until late June, and the scores will not be adopted until their mid-July meeting.
This creates additional stress for new graduates who want to be sure they are highly qualified before beginning job interviews,
but this is the State Boardıs schedule.
In addition, the changes to the rules that would adopt the composite score for Praxis I will follow the same schedule for
public hearing, public comment and adoption, and therefore will not be adopted before mid-July.
No Subject Left Behind (in pdf format) - A Guide to Arts Education Opportunites in the 2001 NCLB Act
BENEFITS OF ARTS ASSESSMENT
Our previous article discussed some of the ways that arts teachers can deal with the effects of the No Child Left Behind Act.
The No Child Left Behind Act makes carries with it both explicit and implicit effects on arts education. Explicitly, arts
are considered a core subject, eligible for both federal and state funding. Implicitly, the No Child Left Behind Act currently
requires testing in only reading and math. This means that school districts are urgently working to raise students' reading
and math scores, often at the expense of arts education.
While arts assessment is not a panacea, it does provide both teachers and administrators a measuring stick to gage the effectiveness
of the arts education in their schools. Assessment encourages schools to set goals for their arts programs, and it allows
students to strive for a certain level of achievement. Testing in the arts also has drawbacks.
The danger of teaching to the test is inherent, as is the bias of any test toward a certain population and style of learning.
Nonetheless, in the current educational climate, assessment at the district level and at the state level may be a key to the
survival of arts education in public schools.
Following is a short editorial from The Baltimore Sun entitled "Assessing Arts Education."
Maryland has long been a leader in arts education. For 15 years now, it has required that students earn a credit in fine
arts before receiving a high school diploma, recognizing the arts as an integral part of the academic experience as well as
an essential part of life.
Now the state is trying to be a leader in measuring how well students are doing in the arts. To do that, the state Department
of Education needs some additional money next year to support its ongoing effort to develop a fine arts assessment for middle
school students.
The state's leadership in arts education has included the development of standards for dance, music, theater and the visual
arts, for elementary, middle and high schools, adopted by the State Board of Education in 1997. Since then, the state has
slowly begun the arduous process of trying to determine how well students are meeting those standards. In the past five years,
the Education Department has developed a tool kit as a step toward creating an assessment or performance measure that all
eighth-graders in the state would have to pass. For the upcoming budget, the department is seeking an additional $685,000
to continue the assessment development process.
Why is a fine arts assessment so important? For starters, it helps improve teaching and the curriculum. Look at the experience
of Wicomico County, which has jumped ahead of other counties and even the state in evaluating its students in the past two
years. Gary Beauchamp, fine arts supervisor for the county's public schools, and his teachers describe a circular phenomenon:
As teachers examine the state fine arts standards to identify appropriate testing areas, they collaborate to shore up the
curriculum. As students then prepare for and take the assessment, teachers can figure out whether the test really measures
student comprehension and ability, and they can adjust the assessment and curriculum accordingly. In that way, the assessment
becomes an important way to improve instruction in the arts.
Another reason is the national testing fever that threatens to strangle educational creativity. The federal No Child Left
Behind law already requires that students be tested in math and reading. Schools that cannot show yearly improvements stand
to lose students -- and funding. Because testing in subjects such as science and fine arts is being phased in later, many
schools are cutting back in those areas in order to maintain or improve math and reading scores. Mandated tests,then, can
help ensure the viability of arts education.
That seems perverse, but it's the new reality. The sooner Marylandcan assess students in fine arts, the better it can secure
the placeof fine arts in the education tapestry.
Source: The Baltimore Sun, December 14, 2004
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.arts14dec14,1,4469165.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines
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