[Month Day, Year]
Dear [Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss Last Name]:
I question the value of a formative assessment in elementary art like our current District Determined Measures
(“DDM”). I’m a K-4 visual arts teacher of 15 years at the [Name of School] in [City, State]. I’m also a working
artist with a studio at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell and a strong advocate for the arts. At Harrington, I’m
fortunate to have a good budget, a room, and the support of many school administrators, but I’ve become
protective of my discipline with regard to regulation. Over the past three years, I’ve been testing students on
their memory of art concepts. My colleagues and I collect data on these test results and spend enormous
amounts of time trying to find value in the data and modifying the tests to make them more accurate. The truth
is, students gain nothing from an assessment other than improving their ability to do well on the test, a practice
which goes against everything I’ve learned about creating a valuable art program. Please consider giving
educators back the privilege of using our time in more productive ways.
I’m further concerned about the loss of the silent benefits of our work as art educators, the parts that can’t be
measured and are unique to our work. A great educator is a responsive one, not a data driven one. When we
turn our attentions in the direction of data, we turn our heads away from more important values. Excellent art
teachers are highly motivated to reach their current population through sensitivity and responsiveness\, yet we
lose some of that responsiveness when our attentions are split.
It’s true that the arts are often overlooked—that’s apparent from the loss of funding when finances are low.
Every teacher of fine arts wishes for financial backing and to be taken seriously. We’re on the front lines of the
battle to keep kids engaged and connected to their personal core. We see the benefits of our work when
children find grounding as a result of the process of creating art. We see it when children are calmed by the
intensity of their artistic endeavors, and when, for a short time, they can feel safe in the exploration of materials
that aren’t offered outside our rooms. We are truly blessed by this privilege! We have a duty to our students to
defend the softer benefits of our work. I’m worried for them that “quantify” may overshadow “quality” in pursuit of
assessment. Please hear my voice, if not theirs.
Art can provide a compass that leads us to a higher place in this noisy world. I’m fearful that assessment is
changing the course of that compass. I’m worried that assessment is interfering with our number one duty to
bring out in our students a sense of joy in creating and of feeling more alive. I feel that we can teach children to
assess quality and steer them to improve their skills much better without this testing. Not every creation is
worthy of a second look and students need to know when this is the case in their own art and the art they view,
but I feel any assessment at the elementary level is counter-productive, even when the results create a nice
looking chart—and even when the results placate an administrator who perhaps never had the experience of a
great fine arts program. Please don’t confuse fact-based numbers with the benefits of personal exploration and
reflection offered in an excellent art program.
Many worthwhile enrichment programs have been abandoned in order to provide numbers for those who
measure in this way, through MCAS and other similar tests. Students are experiencing school as a more serious
place as a result. Experienced classroom teachers see the detrimental effects of these formative assessments
of core subjects. I’m so disappointed that people are attempting to pull the arts down the same dark path. I wish
there was a way to measure the soft achievements of inner strength, critical thinking, resilience, expression, and
getting closer to ones personal aesthetic, but there is not.
I’m offering this feedback because I can’t sit idly by while our programs are being squeezed by data demands.
Please consider eliminating art DDM testing altogether and protect our students’ right to a quality art program.
Respectfully,
Amy Aker
K-4 Visual Arts Specialist
Chelmsford Public Schools
akera@chelmsford.k12.ma.us