Arts & Education Preconference

Assessing Student Learning in the Arts:
What Do Funders Need to Know?

This preconference will bring together experts in educational assessment to help us understand 1) how the arts fit into the national assessment and performance management conversation, and 2) innovative practices in assessing teaching and student learning in the arts. Session topics include: packaging arts assessment with the national conversation about assessment and student achievement; assessment as a benefit and not a constraint; and a participatory exercise with Chicago Public School arts teachers for critiquing arts education teaching and learning.

This preconference will take place at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Ryan Education Center, a state-of-the-art facility that hosts education programs for families, groups, teachers, and teens.

Schedule

Welcome and Introductions
Frank Baiocchi, program officer, Polk Bros. Foundation; Janet Brown, executive director, GIA; Sydney Sidwell, director of administration, senior program officer, The Fry Foundation

Assessment and the National Conversation
How does assessment in the arts fit into the national conversation about student achievement? What do arts education funders need to know about the world of national educational assessment and performance management? Assessments, common standards, performance management, data-driven instruction, and assessing for understanding will be covered.
Presented by Jim Pelligrino, co-director, Learning Sciences Research Institute

Assessment as a Benefit and Not a Constraint
Dennie Palmer Wolf will discuss how assessments can be used to benefit, rather than constrain, those being assessed. She will cite ethical principles concerning the uses and purposes of assessment and outline how assessment can take the form of a capacity-building tool for learners, teachers, and artists—as opposed to a means for sorting winners and losers. With Frank Baiocchi moderating, Julie Fry and Cynthia Weiss will weigh in with the funder’s perspective.
Moderated by Frank Baiocchi, program officer, Polk Bros. Foundation. Presented by Julie Fry, program officer, Performing Arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Cynthia Weiss, associate director of school partnerships; Columbia College Chicago; Dennie Palmer Wolf, principal, WolfBrown

The Real Deal: Arts Education Assessment in Chicago
This session will be a presentation of the innovations in arts education assessment that are developing at the practice level in Chicago, including networks forming to align with the Chicago Guide for Teaching and Learning in the Arts.
Presented by Arnold Aprill, founding and creative director, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education; Evan Plummer, administrator; Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Program, Office of Academic Enhancement, Chicago Public Schools; Cynthia Weiss, associate director of school partnerships; Columbia College Chicago

Interactive Session with Chicago Public School Arts Teachers
Participants will be introduced to (and participate in) a structure for facilitated conversations that provides critical feedback to Chicago Public Schools arts teachers on actual arts lessons. This approach to looking at documentation of student and teacher work is a way of generating rigorous professional conversations, at the practice level, about curriculum, instruction, student learning, and assessment, and has proven highly sustainable and effective in Chicago. And it’s fun.
Presented by Arnold Aprill, founding and creative director, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education; Evan Plummer, administrator; Fine and Performing Arts Magnet Cluster Program, Office of Academic

What Did We Learn about Assessment?
Moderated by Dennie Palmer Wolf, principal, WolfBrown

Wrap Up
Presented by Frank Baiocchi, program officer, Polk Bros. Foundation; Sydney Sidwell, director of administration, senior program officer, The Fry Foundation

Arts & Education Committee
Arnold Aprill, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education
Frank Baiocchi (co-chair), Polk Brothers Foundation
Julie Fry, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Stan Hutton, Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation
Richard Kessler, Center for Arts Education
Jewel Malone, JPMorgan Chase & Company
Frances Phillips, Walter and Elise Haas Foundation
Sydney Sidwell (co-chair), Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Jenny Siegenthaler, Terra Foundation for American Art