Standards

Expectations (also called benchmarks) for what students will learn; what educators are expected to teach students. In the USA, state and national standards have been formulated and passed into law as a result of a movement to hold schools accountable for teaching students skills that are considered essential. Although the primary focus for standardized testing has been in the disciplines of language and math, eventually students may well be assessed every discipline for which states have mandated standards. Although some art educators have been reluctant to see the arts assessed in this way, many others understand that our disciplines are greatly validated and strengthened by an effort which raises expectations that students must learn art skills.Related resources: The USA's National Standards for Art Education can be seen at the Kennedy Center's site. Individual states' art standards can be found at the link below. Academic Benchmarks provides up-to-date K-12 USA state curriculum standards in all states and for all subject areas. Visual arts standards are easy to find there, and each state's document is put into a similar format, which can be very helpful when researching the standards of more than one state. This site has a very useful search engine too. Also see advocacy, art therapy, assessment, ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials), effort, masterpiece, science and art, teacher, and theory.