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When I started teaching art at the elementary level about 35 years ago, student assessment rarely was done or even much of an issue. As a traveling teacher, I taught [...]

AbstractThe fields of general education and art education are in an unprecedented period of change. Educational leaders at all instructional levels have experienced new challenges, problems and opportunities that required higher levels of creativity, innovation and visionary thinking than ever before. Advances in neuroscience, creativity studies, charter schools, technology, national curriculum standards, high-stake assessments of learning, teacher evaluations and numerous other developments have contributed to making leadership development a priority in all school districts and communities. Opportunities for leadership development and professional learning are limited. In order for the field of art education to meet these growing leadership challenges, the field needs to increase its emphasis on leadership development for all art educators. Those in positions of leadership must engage in and emphasize policy studies in art education. At a fundamental level, art educators and leaders must refine and develop their understanding of the nature and structures of leadership. In order for these things to occur across the nation, creation of professional development opportunities must be made available on an ongoing basis so that art educators can continue to develop and refine their skills as leaders. Among the full array of leadership development needs in art education, there are significant opportunities for leadership growth and involvement in the areas of public policy, educational partnerships and teacher training programmes. Concentrating leadership development in these key areas holds potential for producing leadership outcomes that can positively influence art education in all schools and communities across the country.

Assessments have become commonplace in every art program in the country. They depend on guidelines we often call “criteria.” Beattie (1997) described “criteria” as “characteristics of something by which its quality can be judged or a decision about it [the quality of the object] can be made” (p. 4). Art teachers routinely struggle to identify criteria that capture the essence of what they teach and what students' artwork attempts to accomplish. Do exemplary criteria exist? Can they truly capture what art products are about?

This is a report of an experimental study that focused on adjudicating the art portfolios of secondary art students assessed in both actual and digital forms in order to determine whether art teachers evaluate actual works of art in students' portfolios differently than digital copies of them. The study participants included 178 students of 29 secondary teachers from four school districts in Florida and Indiana. This report includes description of the rationale for the study, goals and objectives of the study, analysis of the data, and discussion of findings of the study. The results suggest that electronic portfolios can be used to reliably estimate student art performances and that scores produced from art teachers' evaluations of digital copies of actual works of art are consistent with scores produced from evaluations of these same works in the actual form.

The article offers the author's insights on the National Art Education Association (NAEA). He says that he became president of the NAEA in 2011 that followed the leadership of Barry Schauk. He states that in March 2013 he became the NAEA past president, which succeeded by Dennis Inhulsen. He also reflects on the accomplishments of the organization including its 65th anniversary, the NAEA Strategic Plan, and the new visual arts standards.

The article discusses the highlights of the National Art Education Association (NAEA) International Art Education Research Program which took place in India in 2012. The program's main goal is to learn about art education and preservice teacher preparation in other countries. Aside from understanding the Indian art education system and curriculum content, the delegates immersed in the history of India as well.