Are you interested in rubrics, inter-rater reliability and all things standards? Then here’s an opportunity that might interest you: The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) is seeking educators interested in serving on a team that will benchmark student work generated by the 2015 Model Cornerstone Assessment Pilot Project. The Model Cornerstone Assessments (MCAs) are performance-based assessments designed in conjunction with the newly released National Core Arts Standards at the grades of 2, 5, 8 and three high school levels.
Partially funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the first phase of the 2014-15 project focused on the piloting of the elementary and middle school MCAs by 75 teachers who applied the tasks suggested in the assessments with their students. The second phase will occur this summer when a benchmarking committee of 25 teachers in the disciplines of dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts will review the student assessment products gathered by the teachers to determine if they meet the standards embedded in the individual MCAs. Those student samples that committee members agree upon as “at or above standard” will be posted on the National Core Arts Standards website to illustrate the classroom application of the standards.
The benchmarking committee will consist of 5 teachers from each arts discipline, including theatre Applications, including a résumé or CV, (three page limit) highlighting experience in arts assessment will be accepted through Friday, April 24, 2015, at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WGJWS3D. National Core Arts Standards or MCA writing team members are not eligible to apply.
Participating educators will undergo required training in benchmarking procedures and in the use of an online scoring tool. Online scoring will occur between May 15 and June 28. Team members must also attend an in-person meeting in Reston, Virginia, July 7-9, to work with their discipline specific groups on the final selection of benchmark work samples. While there is no stipend associated with this work, all travel, room and board will be covered by NCCAS. Plus, you have the opportunity to make a really important contribution to our efforts to validate learning in theatre. The total estimated commitment time for benchmarking committee member will be 75 to100 hours, May through July. NCCAS will complete the selection of team members by May 4, 2015.
Questions should be addressed to me at jpalmarini@schooltheatre.org or Lynn.Tuttle@azed.gov; we’re both members of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards Leadership Team.