What is a CHAT?
    The Comprehensive Holistic Assessment Task (CHAT) is a model developed by the Florida Institute of art Education for assessing student performance in art that includes: Interdisciplinary instruction with visual art as the focus. Holistic performance tasks. Use of portfolios and journals. Key assumptions of the model are: Learning and assessment are inseparable. Works of art are content for learning. Teachers and students can direct their own learning and assessment.
The CHAT is a unit of study that:

    Relates instruction and assessment in the visual arts. Implements Discipline-Based Art Education, an approach that regards art as a way of thinking and knowing, essential to the learning of every child. Emphasizes two major goals: To interpret and create. Guides students to discover meaning by talking about art, writing about art and making art. Connects to other works of art, literature, poetry, music, creative drama and movement, as well as language arts, social studies, science, geography and math. Offers students active, hands-on learning based on real-life experience. Assists in the development of critical and creative thinking skills. 		Nine CHATs have been developed:
Mother's Helper by Diego Rivera, K-2
Study for painting with White Border by Wassily Kandinsky, K-2
Shalako Mana Kachina a Hopi Kachina, K-2
Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold, 3-5
Great Wave Over Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, 3-5
Still Life with Parrots by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 3-5
Brooklyn Bridge by Joseph Stella, 6-8
Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright, 6-8
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, 7-12
The CHAT model has been developed by

  • Teams of art and classroom teachers and experts in art education.
  • Field testing in the classrooms of DBAE and non-DBAE teachers.
  • Revision and consensus of art education and assessment experts.
  • Writing and field-testing scoring procedures and criteria.
  • Consultation with national experts in performance assessment from Harvard PACE (Performance Assessment Collaboratives for Education) Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf, Dr. Joan Baron, and Dr. Brent Wilson, Professor of Art Education at Penn State University.
“Assessment is an episode of learning... learners have minds to develop with experience and teaching; it underscores thinking rather than the possession of information and recognizes that minds function in concert with other minds and the tools their culture makes available.”
Dennie Palmer Wolf
Funded by:
   The Getty Education Institute for the Arts, an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, with additional support from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.


  For more information contact: The Florida Institute for Art Education Florida State University * 933 West Park Avenue Tallahassee, FL 32360-4210 * (850) 644-2322