The Virginia Visual Arts Standards of Learning are content standards that are incorporated in the Standards of Quality—the Virginia Board of Education’s policy document for public education. The Virginia Board of Education is charged with establishing and revising these content standards to maintain academic rigor and provide challenging visual arts educational programs in Virginia’s public schools.

The Visual Arts Standards of Learning consist of a set of benchmark standards that students are expected to achieve at each grade level or core high school course. The program is designed to reflect the knowledge, processes, and skills essential to guide teaching and learning and to enable teachers to place emphasis on critical areas of the visual arts curriculum. These rigorous, measurable, and jargon-free standards establish a framework for developing local curricula that best meet the educational needs of Virginia’s students.

The initial Art Standards of Learning were developed and adopted by the Virginia Board of Education in 1983. Assessment resource materials for classroom use were developed in 1987 and reflected the 1983 Art Standards of Learning. In 1989, the standards were reviewed and revised, but the assessment resource materials were not revised. During the February 25, 1999, meeting of the Virginia Board of Education, a work plan was requested for the revision of the Standards of Learning for dance arts, music, theatre arts, visual arts, foreign language, health, physical education, and driver education. A work plan was submitted for review and approved by the Virginia Board of Education on April 28, 1999.

A superintendent’s memorandum was sent to all school division superintendents requesting recommendations for individuals to serve on the revision team. The Department of Education selected the revision team members based on superintendents’ recommendations, educational and professional experiences, leadership skills, participation in past Standards of Learning and other writing teams, and geographical representation. A project consultant was selected to facilitate the revision process, provide drafts of working documents, conduct a qualitative analysis of feedback following a statewide review, and assist with final drafts resulting from the public comment.

In June 1999, the 10-member visual arts steering committee convened in Richmond to establish the parameters and guidelines for revising the content standards. The committee was requested to review the 1989 Art Standards of Learning, Virginia Licensure Regulations for School Personnel, Virginia Art Education Association Goals and Objectives for Art Learning Standards, National Standards for Arts Education, other states’ standards, and in-state visual arts curricula prior to beginning the revision process. The committee then identified the grade levels and core high school course sequence, goals, strands, and document format to be presented to the revision writing team.

The 24-member writing team, including the steering team members, met July 25-30, 1999, at Radford University to develop the working draft document within the parameters provided by the steering committee and the Department of Education. The writing team reviewed the goals and strands developed by the steering committee. The team developed the working draft document containing benchmark content standards that reflected the eight SOL goals and four strands: Visual Communication and Production, Cultural Context and Art History, Judgment and Criticism, and Aesthetics.

The steering team re-convened in Richmond in September 1999 to review the working draft. In November 1999, the working draft was presented at the Virginia Art Education Association Conference held in Virginia Beach. Five sessions were conducted during the conference to share the revision plan, time line, and working draft document. Participants that attended the meetings were provided copies of the working draft document and invited to review the document and submit comments to the project consultant. The Department of Education received comments from 28 individuals. The project consultant and the Principal Specialist of Fine Arts, Department of Education, reviewed the comments and revised the document accordingly. The proposed document was prepared for submission to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Executive Committee of the Department of Education. Based on comments from the Department of Education, the proposed document was prepared for presentation to the Virginia Board of Education for first review and approval to disseminate the document for public comment.

At the January 6, 2000, Virginia Board of Education meeting the draft document was approved and the date and sites for the public hearings were set. The proposed Visual Arts Standards of Learning were disseminated to the field for public comment. On April 3, 2000, public hearings were conducted in five regions: Fairfax, Hanover, Marion, Martinsville, and Virginia Beach. Input from these hearings and written comments submitted during the comment period were reviewed and analyzed and revisions were incorporated into the proposed document. All public hearing and written comments were collected, summarized, and submitted to the Virginia Board of Education for review prior to final approval of the proposed document. On May 26, 2000, the Virginia Board of Education approved and adopted the Visual Arts Standards of Learning.

In June and July 2000, the Visual Arts Standards of Learning were prepared for printing. Copies of the Standards of Learning were distributed in August to public schools throughout Virginia for teachers to use in developing curricula and lesson plans to support the standards. The Standards of Learning were also disseminated to fine arts contacts, institutions of higher education, organizations, museums, and other interested persons. The Standards of Learning are available on the Virginia Department of Education’s Web site at <http://www.pen.k12.va.us>.

The May 26, 2000, Visual Arts Standards of Learning reflects a more concise format and a title change from the original 1983 and revised 1989 Art Standards of Learning. Included in the introductory material for the document is an explanation of the goals and content strands that remain constant as organizing principles for all levels of the discipline. Of the eight goals, two are new to the document¾ the safe and ethical use of materials, methods, information, and technology and developing a personal philosophy regarding the nature, meaning, and value of the visual arts.

The content standards are statements of knowledge, processes, and skills essential to the visual arts discipline. They were designed to reflect what students are expected to accomplish at any given level or core high school course. They do not reflect teaching methods, classroom strategies, or specific instructional materials. There are no descriptive statements to further define each standard as in previous documents. This information was either included in the standards or was deleted. Numbered items listed after a standard are to be interpreted as part of the entire standard. Each standard was developed as a benchmark at each level and designed to be measurable for classroom use. The Virginia Board of Education does not plan to develop a statewide testing program for the Standards of Learning in the fine arts.

One significant change over the 1989 Art Standards of Learning is the core high school course titles and sets of standards. They were revised to reflect the Administrator’s Handbook of Course Codes, Position Codes and Licensure Endorsement Codes (February 1999) and course program offerings at the secondary level. The core high school courses are Art I: Art Foundations, Art II: Intermediate, Art III: Advanced Intermediate, and Art IV: Advanced. Also, the standards succinctly and sequentially define student expectations for each of the secondary core courses.

No standards for safety were developed for the grade levels or core high school courses. This was a decision made by the revision writing team. Instead, the document contains a safety overview section in the introduction that better defines the safe use of materials, equipment, and facilities.

The standards are minimum requirements for the visual arts that set reasonable targets and expectations for what teachers need to teach and students need to learn. Schools are encouraged to go beyond the prescribed standards to enrich the curriculum to meet the needs of all students.

A comprehensive visual arts education program provides students with multiple means of expression as well as analytical skills to evaluate information that is conveyed by images and symbols.

Special thanks and sincere gratitude are expressed to the following members of the Visual Arts Standards of Learning Revision Writing Team for sharing their leadership, knowledge, skills, and time to develop an outstanding document the arts education community can embrace and support:

Dr. Noel G. Lawson

Professor Emeritus of Art Education

Radford University

Samuel Banks*

Richmond City Public Schools

Sandi D’Alessandro*

Roanoke County Public Schools

Lin L. Ferrell*

Chesterfield County Public Schools

Bonnie Keyser*

Alleghany Highlands County Public Schools

Dr. Carole Hubbard*

Newport News City Public Schools

Dr. David D. McKinney

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Dr. Sally Shumard*

Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Roger Tomhave*

Fairfax County Public Schools

Marie-Claire Bullins

Smyth County Public Schools

Shirley Cadmus

Danville City Public Schools

Dr. Stephen Carpenter

Old Dominion University

Kathy Coughlin

Prince William County Public Schools

Joyce A. Crown

Essex County Public Schools

Sandi Hammonds

Fairfax County Public Schools

Jill Hartz

Bayly Art Museum

Paul F. Llewellyn

Henrico County Public Schools

Robert Mercer

Gloucester County Public Schools

Bettyann Plishker

Fairfax County Public Schools

Susan Richardson

Virginia Beach City Public Schools

Jo Lynne Shockley

Carroll County Public Schools

C. Lynn Smith

Hanover County Public Schools

Michelle Tillander

Norfolk Governor’s School for the Arts

The Visual Arts Standards of Learning were developed through the efforts of many persons, including classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, administrators, college faculty, professional artists, professional arts organization representatives, museum personnel, parents, and students. The Virginia Department of Education thanks all persons who assisted in the development and review of draft documents.

Special thanks to the members of the Virginia Art Education Association for your dedicated work in the development of the Virginia Art Education Association Goals and Objectives for Art Learning Standards. This document was an invaluable resource guide for the members of the Visual Arts Standards of Learning Revision Writing Team. We were fortunate to have most of the members of the Virginia Art Education Association Standards Writing Team serve on the Visual Arts Standards of Learning Revision Writing Team. This proved to be extremely beneficial to the production of the final document. You will be pleased to know that a crosswalk document has been created that correlates the VAEA document with the 2000 Visual Arts Standards of Learning proving the high correlation between the two documents. A crosswalk document correlating the 2000 Visual Arts Standards of Learning with the 1989 Art Standards of Learning, a document correlating the 2000 Visual Arts Standards of Learning with the 1995 English, Mathematics, Science, and History and Social Science Standards of Learning, and a document correlating the standards and goals for the 2000 Visual Arts Standards of Learning are available at this Web site.

The Visual Arts Standards of Learning are an important part of Virginia’s efforts to provide challenging educational programs in the public schools. Knowledge and skills that students acquire through fine arts instruction include the ability to think critically, solve problems creatively, make informed judgments, work cooperatively within groups, appreciate different cultures, and to use their imagination and be creative. In addition to the benefits for students and teachers, the program will provide parents and other citizens with a better understanding of what students are expected to learn. With this understanding, all of us will be able to work together to help students achieve these standards.