Advocacy & Policy

NAEA Position Statement on Teacher Evaluation

[Adopted March 2013; Reviewed and Revised March 2016; Reviewed and Revised February 2021]

NAEA supports teacher evaluation and accountability informed by student growth measures in visual arts to enhance visual arts teaching and student learning. NAEA believes that the following criteria are necessary:

  • Teacher evaluation systems should include multiple measures that can be used reliably in different teaching settings, instructional levels, and with all student populations. Any evaluation system should take into account the number of students taught and the instructional time available.

  • Effective teacher evaluation instruments and protocol must be aligned with visual arts local curricula, state and/or national standards.

  • The measure of student achievement growth in teacher evaluation systems must rely on standards-based student assessment in visual arts classrooms using both qualitative and quantitative data.

  • The student growth component of the visual arts teacher evaluation should be determined solely by student growth in the specific visual art subjects being taught during the evaluation time period.

  • Visual arts teachers and administrators should collaborate in the development of evaluation instruments.

  • Evaluators of visual arts teachers must be knowledgeable of the content and effective practice for the subject being taught.

  • Substantial, ongoing, appropriate and content specific professional learning and time must be allocated to provide continued professional growth for visual arts teachers.

Adapted with permission from Virginia Coalition for Fine Arts Education, Position on the New Teacher Evaluation Process and the Impact on Fine Arts Teacher Evaluation, 2012.