Since the National Core Arts Standards were released in 2014, several states have adapted these new more rigorous and robust foundations for learning in the five arts disciplines of theatre, dance, media arts, music, and visual arts. The standards also include curriculum-embedded performance-based assessment examples that are designed to reflect standards-based arts measures of student achievement. Known as Model Cornerstone Assessments (MCAs), these examples at the grades of 2, 5, and 8 and the three levels of high school (Proficient, Accomplished and Advanced) are intended to illustrate how educators can create reliable assessments of student learning through their own curriculum and teaching practice. During the 2014-15 school year, the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS), with the assistance of a National Endowment for the Arts grant, created the MCA Pilot Project. In the project, seventy-five arts educators piloted the MCAs at grades 2, 5, and 8, putting the example standards-aligned tasks “on their feet,” to measure how effectively they could assess their students’ knowledge and skills in authentic and relevant ways. For theatre, the pilot teachers submitted 350 examples of student work they considered to be “at standard.” A secondary team of five assessment experts reviewed the examples and eventually “benchmarked” forty that they agreed were examples of student work that were performed at or above standard. A select number of those examples will be posted on the standards website to help teachers better understand how to align their own curriculum and assessments to the core standards.
The MCA Pilot Project will be repeated during the 2015-16 school year, again with NEA assistance, with high school pilot teachers working with the high school Model Cornerstone Assessments at the levels of Proficient, Accomplished, and Advanced. Each of the five arts areas, including theatre, are seeking twelve to fifteen classroom arts educators working in rural, suburban, and urban classroom settings across the country. Prior to the launch of the full project in January, 2016, chosen teachers will be asked to pre-pilot the assessment in their discipline with a small test population of 1-2 students in November. Those selected will be asked to participate in online training; secure administrator approval of participation and permissions to share student work; pilot the assessment with their students; select student work; and upload appropriate images, audio, or video files that documents student work.
Applications will be accepted through Friday October 23, 2015. Applicants must complete an online application form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HighSchoolMCA and forward a résumé or CV, along with a signed letter of permission from your principal or school administrator to the Project Manager at projectmanager@seadae.org. NCCAS will contact chosen applicants and announce selected pilot sites by November 5, 2015.
For questions about the theatre aspect of the pilot, contact Jim Palmarini at jpalmarini@schooltheatre.org