미술교육을 통한 학습효과에 대해 그동안 많은 학설과 논의가 진행되어 왔다. 이러한 논의들은 미술교육 활동에 관한 평가와 측정이 무엇을 평가하고 어떤 결과물이나 과정을 보다 높은 수준의 성취로 볼 것인가에 관해 다양한 관점들을 제시해 오고 있다. 미술교육에 있어 평가란 학생 개개인의 학업성취를 차별화하여 학습효과를 진단하고 교육프로그램을 향상시키는 데 중요한 역할을 한다(Beattie, 1997). 아울러 오늘날 평가와 측정이란 기능은 갈수록 심화되어가는 교육에 대한 국가적 관심과 아울러 교육이론과 실행에 있어 그 효과를 가늠할 수 있는 유일한 수단으로서 연구가 활발하다.
Throughout the history of art education, objectivity of art assessment has been considered as a something unattainable or, sometimes, a hindrance to true learning in arts. This study is an attempt to understand the meanings of AP(Advanced Placement) Studio Art program as a means to objectively measure student achievement in studio practice. Over the three decades from its inception, AP Studio Art has been praised for its benefits as well as criticized for its downside. This study examines critiques and advocacies on the program by scrutinizing the program; what it is, how it works, how it got introduced, and why people in the art world welcome or not welcome. This study takes a form of a historical analysis which helps to understand its past and present status in different contexts borrowing the framework of understanding this historical event, the introduction of AP Studio Art, from Tyack & Cuban's ‘Tinkering Toward Utopia.’ In their book, the authors introduce a term, ‘businessinspired reform’ indicating a group of reform movements in the 1960s. The authors point out that the kind of reform efforts have been resisted by those from the educational practice. The authors argue that the resistance resulted from the characteristics of the reforms taking consideration only to some measurable features of student learning in contrast to the characteristics of the institutional belief of educators. With its rewards, grading system and summative evaluation, it seems inevitable that AP Studio Art has been criticized by many of those engaged in the field of art education who have held a long-standing belief in qualitative judgement on student learning. On the other hand, there are many of those who advocate AP Studio Art for its strong instructional goals and academic rigor, as well. By examining the debates over AP Studio Art as an art assessment, it will allow us to take close look to the possibilities and limits of the program in the context of Korean secondary schools