This post was written by Wells Middle School Art Teacher, Chris Milliken
Chris Milliken (at Haystack, 2009)
On November 2nd and 3rd I had the opportunity to travel to Princeton, New Jersey to work with Educational Testing Service (ETS) on the Praxis II exam for Art teachers that the state of Maine requires for certification. The highlights of the experience included meeting art educators from 21 states, deeply examining each question of the exam and identifying and reflecting deeply on the nature of testing as it relates to individual people.
The work that our group was assigned for the two days consisted of taking the Praxis II, creating a profile of a person who would be minimally prepared for the exam and who would just barely pass it. Then we would rate each of the exam questions and predict how the hypothetical test taker would respond. When we finished our assignment, we would have the cut off score for the exam. The process was very well facilitated and I enjoyed the work and the dialogue that developed among the members of the cohort. There was a love and passion in the room for Art education, the communities of students and schools that participate in art education and the young aspiring professionals who wish to become art teachers. Never had I seen such synergy created around art education and of all things, a test.
The richest part of the process was when we looked at each individual multiple choice question, (of which there were 120) to determine, on a 10 point scale, how difficult the question would be for our “just qualified candidate”. What ensued was rich dialogue about what the candidate may or may not have experienced with regard to art making and art history. There was too, the discussion of the complexity of the question and what would the candidate be best at answering. Though I still see the Praxis II as just one small indicator of teacher preparedness, I do see the test, as it stands today, as a fair and clear indicator of general art knowledge.
The question I am left with is: would an adaptive test akin to the NWEA be more suitable for such a broad range of knowledge such as art making and art history? NWEA style tests scan 6,000,000 possible questions and constantly check the answers that the test taker records and raises and lowers the challenge of the questions that give a general picture of strengths and weaknesses.
Thank you Chris for representing Maine arts educators in the process at ETS!
me arts ed 