ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on teacher training and the assessment of student portfolios. It examines the utility of authentic assessment as a way to involve art teachers as stakeholders in the assessment process and provides reasons for the project using an authentic approach to student portfolio assessment. Although school reformers see testing as a significant part of reform, very little effort has been expended on determining how such testing relates to what teachers teach. Arts educators believe that creative values can be taught directly or encouraged in arts classes and therefore focus on the forms of thought the arts best teach. Many educators today believe that creative performances in art are just another form of critical thinking, but as D. N. Perkins noted, critical thinking is only part of creative thinking. Perkins raised a number of important questions, some of which have already been posed by arts educators concerned about discipline-based art education (DBAE) approaches.
