High School Pilot
Model Cornerstone Assessments (MCAs) for high school, aligned to the National Core Arts Standards, were created by the five NCCAS arts discipline writing teams at the three high school levels (proficient, accomplished, advanced) to demonstrate the type of standards-based evidence needed to show student achievement.
During this pilot project, the High School MCA's were piloted beginning in February of 2016. Piloting and benchmarking teachers were chosen after a rigorous application process during an all call to the field; with 57 piloting teachers and 23 benchmarking teachers. The professional arts service organizations and members of the NCCAS Media Arts leadership committee made the choices based on a careful review of applicants, with the goal of creating a diverse cross section of urban, suburban, and rural schools from across the nation.
Over 2400 student portfolios and works of art were collected in May and June of 2016 and benchmarked during the summer. The resulting 741 adjudicated student work samples aligned with the national core arts standards housed on the standards website at www.nationalartsstandards.org.
WHAT IS BENCHMARKING?
Benchmarking student work is a process of benchmarking; or adjudicating student work with groups of teachers in order to come to a shared understanding and agreement on student work that demonstrates proficiency.
WHAT IS AN MCA?
An MCA, or Model Cornerstone Assessment, is a unit of instruction with embedded assessment that represents important learning in a discipline. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards adopted the MCA concept from the work of Jay McTighe (2011) who consulted to the writing of the arts standards. Go here to learn more about the MCA's, or download and view the PowerPoint presentation below.
2016 Model Cornerstone Pilot Sites Represented the Following States
Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont and the Department of Defense.
Regional Break Down
New England -16%Mid Atlantic - 16%Southern - 23%Mid Western & Middle America - 24%Western - 14%Pacific - 7%
Type of Classroom
Rural - 16%Small Village - 9%Suburban - 41%Urban - 34%
We gratefully acknowledge our piloting teachers
The piloting teachers utilized Model Cornerstone Assessments- units of study and sample assessments linked to the national core arts standards released in June of 2014. The arts were the first among the core academic subjects to embed model assessments within the package of resources offered with the publication of national standards. Called Model Cornerstone Assessment (MCA's), these sample tools are designed to be teacher friendly, relevant to student learning, and to yield proof of student achievement. The goal of piloting these embedded assessments to develop and refine benchmarking protocols was two fold. First, to provide a rich source of professional development for the educators directly involved in the project, and secondly to generate student work benchmarked at grade levels 2, 5 and 8 and three levels of proficiency in High School using a tested process with inter-rater reliability. The result was a data bank of student artwork as evidence of what standards based learning in the arts looks and sounds like available to all and housed on the national arts standards website at www.nationalartsstanards.org
WHAT IS A MODEL CORNERSTONE ASSESSMENT?
MCA's, or Model Cornerstone Assessments, are performance assessments linked to the new national core arts standards. Click on the link above to access and download a definition of an MCA. This excerpt from National Core Arts Standards: A Conceptual Framework for Arts Learning defines model cornerstone assessments and describes their use. (Used by permission of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards.)