This online report presents the national results of eighth-grade students who participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2016 arts assessment. Results are presented separately for music and visual arts; an overall "arts" scale score is not reported. Although students were evaluated in two arts processes—responding and creating—average scores are presented on a 0–300 scale based on responding questions only. Visual arts results include an average creating task score reported as the average percentage maximum possible score from 0 to 100. Music and visual arts results are also presented as average responding scale scores for students performing at five selected percentiles (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th). Along with overall scores, results are reported by race/ethnicity, gender, type of school, and other demographic groups.

In 2016, average responding scores for eighth-graders in both music and visual arts were not significantly different compared to 2008. In music, the average responding score in 2106 was higher for Hispanic students in comparison to 2008, while the average responding score for male students declined. Results for other reported student demographic groups in 2016 showed that the average responding score in music did not change significantly compared to 2008. In visual arts, the average responding score in 2016 did not change significantly for most reported student demographic groups compared to 2008, but it was higher for students eligible for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).

In both music and visual arts, score gaps between White and Hispanic students in 2016 narrowed in comparison to 2008, and female students scored higher on average than their male peers in both areas. In visual arts, the score gap between students who were eligible for NSLP and students who were not eligible narrowed compared to 2008. In 2016, students from the Northeast scored higher on average than their peers from the South, Midwest, and West in visual arts, and students from the Northeast scored higher on average than their peers from the West in music.