This document presents the results of the project to develop an assessment framework and specifications for a planned 1996 Arts Education Assessment. The purpose of the project was to develop and recommend a framework and other design features for an arts education assessment that includes the areas of dance, music, theater, and the visual arts. The recommended form of the assessment was designed by a planning committee composed of K-12 teachers and arts educators from higher education, practicing artists, assessment specialists, and lay persons guided by a steering committee. The framework was evolved from an issues paper that identified the major areas of concern for the assessment design and from a series of public hearings. This framework describes the proposed assessment and gives the underlying rationale for approaches to arts education assessment on which the 1996 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) will be based. The document is divided into four chapters: (1) the arts in U.S. education; (2) the content and processes of the arts; (3) desired attributes of the arts education assessment including issues and strategies specific to the art forms of dance, music, theater, and visual arts, and the desired emphasis for each arts area; and (4) preliminary achievement level descriptions. Appendices include content outlines, general descriptions of present arts education programming in the schools, public hearings, schedules and timelines, steering committee, planning committee, and management team. (DK)