CURRICULUM Markers of Quality
Taking Arts Curriculum to the Next Level
Markers of Quality
To effectively teach the arts, teachers need curriculum that:
• Identifies concepts, skills, techniques, and artistic processes that students should master during the school year at each grade level and in which sequence, as part of a learning plan (“scope and sequence”).
• Aligns sample lessons and assessment strategies with EALRs and frameworks.
• Provides for student responses.
• Engages teachers as contributors to the curriculum.
• Makes connections to other curricula with authentic arts concepts that also appear in math, science, language arts, and other subjects.
• Focuses on “structure seeking” rather than “rule following.”
• Provides teachers with resources, examples, and information on arts materials and equipment.
• Aligns instruction to budget.
• Undergoes regularly scheduled review.
ASSESSMENTS Markers of Quality
Taking Arts Assessment to the Next Level
Markers of Quality
In effective assessment in the arts:
• Teachers and students work from a specific, consistent set of criteria when assessing student performance.
• Assessment is an ongoing part of the teaching and learning process for both teachers and students, from early development of an artwork or concept through completion.
• Students, teachers and staff work together to develop and embed a range of assessment strategies: e.g., checklists, rubrics, self-assessment, peer critique, and portfolios, using available technology.
• Students are an active part of the assessments process.
• Assessments are aligned with state EALRs and benchmarks.
• Student tasks are meaningful and transferable in a real life context.
• Individual students are assessed based on individual responses.
• Teachers seek parallel assessments with other disciplines where appropriate.
• Assessments are reported to students at the classroom level, as well as to families, district and local stakeholders, and the state.
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TEACHING CAPACITY Markers of Quality
Taking Staffing and Professional Development to the Next Level
Markers Of Quality
Effective professional development in the arts:
• Provides teachers with expert, in-depth instruction to support better teaching practice.
• Focuses on teacher needs, using a variety of instructional methods: e.g., coaching, mentored practice, modeling.
• Aligns specifically with state standards.
• Provides varied and specific instructional content: curriculum design, performance-based assessments, arts concepts and creative processes, skills and techniques, arts integration, child development in the arts.
• Offers potential for teachers to earn clock hours/credit.
• Links with higher education, including the potential for advanced degrees at local higher education institutions.
• Meets accountability for certification, endorsement.
• Lets educators choose the training that best meets their needs.
• Links with community resources.
• Is regularly scheduled, regionally wherever possible.
Schools that attract qualified arts specialists:
• Seek arts staff who will lead the school to meet state standards.
• Allow arts staff sufficient time to teach curriculum through revised class scheduling.
• Compensate arts specialists for their expertise.
• Evaluate teaching performance in the arts.
• Include arts staff on school planning teams, and provide an opportunity for teacher planning time between specialists in artistic disciplines and classroom teachers.
COLLABORATION Markers of Quality
Taking Collaboration to the Next Level
Markers of Quality
In an effective collaboration between educators, artists and arts organizations, partners will:
• Create educational goals for arts programming that are shared across the community.
• Align arts curriculum with state standards and frameworks.
• Plan and develop curriculum collaboratively among teaching artists, schools and classroom teachers.
• Mentor teachers.
• Create ongoing impact beyond initial site contact through planning meetings between teachers, cultural educators, and/or teaching artists.
• Implement sustainable teaching practices.
• Provide cultural breadth in instruction.
• Provide primary study resources in a given arts discipline.
• Offer student apprenticeships.
• Make cultural resources such as art reproductions, video and original performances accessible to teachers.
• Share funding responsibilities.