Results of the NAEP 2008 arts assessment will be released in the spring of 2009. The  assessment was administered to students at grade 8 in schools across the country from January through March of 2008. The assessment measures skills in music and visual arts.

In 1997, NAEP administered an arts assessment to approximately 6,480 students at grade 8 in the nation. The national sample assessed 268 schools. The assessment measured students' knowledge and skills in music, theatre, and visual arts.

• Review major findings from the 1997 arts assessment.
• Take a look at publications about NAEP arts.
• Take a look at the NAEP schedule of assessments.

• Developing an Arts Assessment: Some Selected Strategies is a web-only report,  based on the 1997 arts assessment field test. It describes six strategies for creating an effective arts assessment.

Browse the The NAEP 1997 Arts Report Card: Eighth Grade Findings From the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NCES 1999-486) online.

This report card is also available on CD-ROM, Eighth-Grade Findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress: The NAEP 1997 Arts Report Card (NCES 1999-485). Single copies can be ordered at no charge while supplies last.

• Learn what the assessment measures and how it was developed.
• Learn who took the assessment and how it was administered.
• Explore sample questions from the music, theatre, and visual arts assessment.
• Find out what students know and can do by looking at the NAEP arts scale.
• Find out what students should know and be able to do by viewing NAEP arts achievement levels.

• Explore NAEP arts assessment data or view Summary Data Tables.

• Assessing the Arts: Selected NAEP Tasks and Scoring Guides for Grades 4 and 12 1997 Field Test. Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts (NCES 2003-452) is a CD-ROM containing arts tasks and scoring guides developed for grades 4 and 12, which were not used on the 1997 assessment due to financial constraints. Single copies can be ordered at no charge while supplies last.