Instructional leaders have the responsibility to familiarize themselves with assessment strategies and theories of assessment that are aligned to the intended learning outcomes associated with study in the visual arts. This paper will consider multiple assessment strategies that have been applied in high school art education. These assessment strategies comprise the assessed curriculum and indirectly influence the taught curriculum. This paper will focus on the needs of high school students who wish to pursue careers related to the visual arts, and will review a number of visual arts assessment strategies to which these students may be exposed. These assessment strategies differ markedly in their appropriateness in meeting the needs of future visual artists.