Are You More Creative than an 8th Grader?

I received an e-mail today from Morgan Saxby, an account executive at a pr company that, I'm guessing, represents the NAEP. He corrected a comment I made in my "Put Art Back on the Charts" post that asserted, 

Arts education ought to be appreciated in its own right, and not just for its potential to raise a school's NAEP results.

Actually, the NAEP, in Mr. Saxby's words,

does not find results for individual schools.  NAEP finds national results, state results (for math, reading, writing, and science), and on a trial basis, district-level results for a handful of urban areas. 

So, sorry for the misstatement, but that's not really the interesting part, anyway. He goes on to say that the NAEP is preparing a report on the arts that will be released next year. The last time this was done was in 1997, and only eighth graders were assessed. It's a pretty fascinating bit of reading, and raises any number of questions about what exactly is or isn't quantifiable. It's also kind of horrifying to read that 74% of these students received no theater instruction. (What are those middle school drama types supposed to do during their free time if they can't rehearse for a class play? Just keep getting beat up?) I still remember my eighth grade musical experience:  Perfectly Frank, a tribute to the music of Frank Loesser, which introduced me to Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, and most important, Lots and Lots of Applause. A belated thank you, Mr. Goltz.

I'm wondering if the 2008 test will be performed across the board, in only certain schools, if raising its scores will become a mandatory part of No Child Left Behind (of course, if there's a Dem in the White House come November, hopefully NCLB won't really be an issue) or if the results are just for our own edification.

Of course, I'd love to have answers for you today, but I'm on a tight deadline this week with a big feature due to my editor (look for it in Sunday's Image section of the Philadelphia Inquirer). So I'll speak with Mr. Saxby and get back to you with some more details ASAP. In the meantime, poke around the report, and hey, while you're at it, try out some of the sample questions. I'd love to know how creative professionals or arts afficionados perform when put to the test. Literally.