How Utah Assesses Students

I have mixed feelings about standardized testing. On the one hand it can unite states in a common goal. It can create a clear baseline which parents across the state would want their children to meet, and upon receiving scores, it allows us to measure/compare the success of individual students and schools and against the norm.

However, these can have high stakes and education may suffer as we teach for tests and bore our students. They are also not necesarily authentic to our childrens' future responsibilities. In most cases they will not inspire them to want to learn.

As an art teacher I may be called on to review testing strategies, as was the case in my own high school experience when my art teacher was my homeroom teacher.
Mostly, I look forward to supporting my students' accademic success in ways that do not directly reflect test preparation. For example I plan to work with teachers from various dicsiplines to create art assignments that ask students to reflect on what they are learning in other classes. This could be an artwork that employs the use of mathematic principles, artwork based on micro-biological forms, portraits of poets that reflect their themes, moods, styles.