Arkansas

Representatives from various arts education organizations met in September to discuss the response to fears that arts educators would be evaluated by standardized test results in math and language arts. They designed a student growth in the arts survey that was sent to members of the various arts education organizations in Arkansas and the results from that survey are currently being analyzed.   Members hope to present the results to the Arkansas Department of Education and to their various constituencies soon.  They also discussed the possibility of developing a portfolio model for arts educators to show student growth as a component to the new Arkansas teacher evaluation system, which could substitute for the use of standardized test results.  The Arkansas Arts Educators Consortium hopes to meet again in January to more carefully review the portfolio system Tennessee is employing in order see if it could be a viable option for their teachers.