On April 25, 2017, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) will release results from the 2016 arts assessment at grade 8.
The 2016 NAEP arts assessment was administered to a nationally representative sample of 8,800 eighth-graders across 280 public and private schools. Approximately half of these students took the music assessment, while the other half took visual arts.
Results will be reported for the nation overall and by selected student demographics, such as race/ethnicity, gender, and the highest level of parental education. Results will be compared to findings from the previous 2008 arts assessment.
Music results are reported as an average responding scale score (0-300 points). Students were asked to analyze and describe aspects of music they heard, critique instrumental and vocal performances, and demonstrate their knowledge of standard musical notation and music's role in society.
Visual arts results are reported as an average responding scale score (0-300 points) and an average creating scale score (0-100 points). The visual arts responding scale score reflects students' ability to analyze and describe works of art and design. For the creating portion of the assessment, students were asked to create original artwork that was scored for identifying detail, compositional elements, and use of materials.
Results will also include information on students' opportunities to access and engage in the arts in and out of school.
Additionally, sample arts questions will be released to illustrate the types of questions students were given and illustrate student performance on specific arts tasks.
