ABSTRACT
Assessments and evaluations guide teachers, students, administrators, and policy makers in making informed judgments about the quality and effectiveness of teaching and student learning. Hearing about required assessments and evaluations can initially feel like learning how to balance on a bicycle without the aid of training wheels. Visual arts assessments present discipline-specific challenges that differ from other academic subjects. Performance assessments measure learning targets that result in students’ creative products and performances derived from lesson objectives, student learning outcomes, and curricular goals. Formative assessments provide teachers and students with immediate feedback before assigning summative grades. Formative assessments contribute to students’ autonomous behaviors and personal investment in learning. Teachers combine formative and summative assessments for optimum results. Teachers may develop informal summative assessments at the completion of learning tasks that do not result in grades. Teachers maintain physical and/or virtual spaces, including folders and grade books, to collect, organize, and store the results of formative and summative assessments.
