The Delaware state standards and assessments for visual and performing arts follows the 2014 National Core Arts Standards, adopted by the state of Delaware in 2016. The arts contain anchor standards as well as discipline specific learning outcomes which serve as assessment.
The Delaware Arts Standards express the key concepts, processes, and traditions of study in all areas of the visual and performing art and address the needs of those invested in our schools—students, teachers, administrators, and the community. They’re framed by a definition of artistic literacy which includes philosophical foundations, lifelong goals, artistic processes, creative practices, anchor/performance standards. This framework also provides essential assessments to measure student experiences and success. This conceptual framework is designed to be understood by everyone involved, to ensure success for both educators and students in the real world of the school.
Delaware visual and performing arts include dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts. Arts standards are a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education for students in Pre-K through high school.
Additional Understanding
Each artistic process branches into two or three anchor standards. Enduring understandings, which describe student learning in each of the specific arts disciplines, align with anchor standards. Finally, the standards themselves are defined performance indicators that translate the anchor standards into specific, measurable learning goals.
The Artistic Processes
Artistic Processes are the cognitive and physical actions by which arts learning and making are realized. The DE Arts Standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating (Cr); Performing/Producing/Presenting (Pr); Responding (Re); and Connecting (Cn). Each of the arts disciplines incorporates these processes in some manner. These processes define and organize the link between the art and the learner.
Creating
Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
Performing/Presenting/Producing
Performing (dance, music, theatre): Realizing artistic ideas and work through interpretation and presentation.
Presenting (visual arts): Interpreting and sharing artistic work.
Producing (media arts): Realizing and presenting artistic ideas and work.
Responding
Understanding and evaluating how the arts convey meaning.
Connecting
Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.
Anchor Standards
Anchor standards describe the general knowledge and skill that teachers expect students to demonstrate throughout their education in the arts. These anchor standards are parallel across arts disciplines and grade levels and serve as the tangible educational expression of artistic literacy.
Each artistic process has its own set of anchor standards:
Enduring Understandings
The Anchor Standards are the same across all arts disciplines. However, each discipline’s standards have discipline-specific interpretations of the Anchor Standards, called Enduring Understandings (EU). EUs guide the content of the Performance Indicators. Anchor Standards in some of the arts disciplines have more than one EU.
Performance Indicators
Performance Indicators (sometimes described as Performance Standards) are discipline-specific (dance, media arts, music, visual arts, theatre), grade-by-grade articulations of student achievement in the arts PK-8 and at three proficiency levels in high school (Proficient, Accomplished, and Advanced). As such, the performance indicators translate the anchor standards into specific, measurable learning goals.
Many of the performance indicators are accompanied by “I Can” statements. While the language of the performance indicators is targeted to the instructor, the “I Can” statement is written in student-friendly language. It describes a success condition from the perspective of the learner, and helps students’ understanding by breaking down performance standards into achievable goals.
