Introduction

Purpose and Design. A carefully crafted approach for using student portfolios will be developed as part of the Pilot Project and into the 2006-2007 school year. Because of inconsistent student attendance and mobility, portfolio instruction and assessment will provide students and teachers a descriptive and reflective portrayal of what was learned, how and when it was accomplished, and why it was or was not important to each student.

Standardized Approach. The Pilot Project Team of lead teachers will consider ways to standardize the student portfolios and apply technology to support their development and maintenance throughout a typical high school experience at Harbor City High School - East Campus. The following information and criteria will guide our efforts to establish a standardized approach to using student portfolios to improve student learning.

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The Big Picture

"Portfolios are messy to construct, cumbersome to store, difficult to score, and vulnerable to misrepresentation. But, in ways that no other assessment method can, portfolios provide a connection to the contexts and personal histories of real teaching and make it possible to document the unfolding of both teaching and learning over time."

Kenneth Wolf, 1991

Definition of Portfolio

The concept of "portfolio" as an assessment strategy or collection of works has been defined in many ways by artists, photographers, fashion models, stockbrokers, and, more recently, by educators. For this Pilot Project, portfolio is defined as:

    Portfolio is a form of alternative assessment intended to accumulate evidence to measure growth over time of a student's or teacher’s performance. Each portfolio might contain a selection of exemplars of the student's or teacher’s work, e.g., written products, journals, postwrites, reflections, graphics, spreadsheets, e-mail messages, web sites, digital video, questionnaires, and interviews.

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Definition of Portfolio Assessment System

Many times "portfolios" are referred to as containers for collecting, storing, and displaying student products, tests, and other indicators of student learning. In this case, the reference to portfolio usually means a portfolio assessment system and reflects the belief that the richest description of student performance must be done through multiple measures of student performance. Figure 1 shows the relationship of a portfolio to a portfolio assessment system.

Figure 1

In this context, portfolio assessment system is defined as:

    A portfolio assessment system is a measurement strategy that provides for the gathering of multiple measures from different forms of assessment throughout a student's educational program. Such evidence would provide verification of enabling skills as well as verification of outcomes in multiple content areas and real life settings.

Harbor City High School East will focus on the design, development, and application of portfolios and portfolio assessment systems. Many of the design considerations and questions are applicable to establishing both approaches. However, a portfolio uses repeated measures of the same outcome under standardized conditions. A portfolio assessment system incorporates that portfolio's measures into a system. That system utilizes multiple measures with different instruments to reach a conclusion about whether or not a student has attained a learning standard(s). Figure 2 illustrates this relationship.

Figure 2

Why are portfolios valuable to teachers?

Portfolios provide teachers with a tool for showing what, how, and how well students learn both intended and incidental outcomes related to their curricula and student needs and interests. Portfolios are aligned with and go beyond standards set by school systems and standardized testing programs. They provide students and teachers with creative, systematic, and visionary ways to learn, assess, and report skills, processes, and knowledge associated with the 21st century.

Nicholas Hobar, 2001

Criteria for Designing a Portfolio Approach

A portfolio approach should consider a variety and range of evidence and repeated measures appropriate for the standards it is intended to monitor over time. The questions shown below were adapted from the work done by Wolf (1991) to guide the design of portfolios and portfolio assessment systems.

The following questions provide a systematic process to follow in designing a portfolio or portfolio assessment system. Teachers may generate additional questions during the process.

Purpose and Standards

  1. What is the intended purpose -- instruction, training, and/or assessment?
  2. Given a set of standards, what is important for students, teachers, or employers to document through a portfolio?
  3. What standards, e.g., cognitive, affective, psychomotor, will be taught and measured through the portfolio?
  4. Will the standards involve one or several content areas, interdisciplinary, job expectations, or real world standards?
  5. Additional questions:

Instruction or Training

  1. When used for instruction, how is the portfolio integrated into learning activities?
  2. How are students taught the purpose of portfolios and the procedures for developing, managing, and improving a portfolio as a learning tool?
  3. How is a portfolio dedicated to instruction or training different from a portfolio dedicated to assessment?
  4. Additional questions:

Assessment

  1. When used for assessment is the portfolio formative, summative, or both?
  2. Are the assessment criteria known before instruction or training begins?
  3. What forms of selected or constructed assessments will be used to assess the standards?
  4. What are the designated milestones during the term of instruction or training when learning and progress will be measured by the portfolio?
  5. Will repeated measures of the same standards under the same conditions be used?
  6. Will multiple measures from different forms of assessment be used to measure the standards?
  7. Additional questions:

Evidence

  1. What types of selections or evidence will the portfolio include, e.g., performance projects, essays, written products, journals, postwrites, reflections, graphics, spreadsheets, e-mail messages, web sites, digital video, questionnaires, and interviews?
  2. What will be the criteria for acceptability of portfolio entries?
  3. How much evidence is necessary and who decides acceptability of the portfolio contents?
  4. What other performances will be expected besides the portfolio?
  5. How will a systematic collection of evidence that demonstrates range and growth over time be ensured? For example, do portfolio selections include biographies of work, range of works, reflections?
  6. How often will each piece of evidence be collected?
  7. What are the criteria for selecting what the portfolio will include, e.g., best work only, typical work, combination?
  8. How many unacceptable portfolio entries will cause instruction or training to be restructured to help the student, teacher, or employee meet outcome standards?
  9. Additional questions:

Structure

  1. What form will the portfolio take?
  2. How will the evidence be portrayed?
  3. How should the portfolio entries be structured?
  4. How will the portfolio represent both growth and best work?
  5. How will items such a duplication costs, storage space, time for training, and time for scoring portfolios be addressed?
  6. Additional questions:

Ownership

  1. Who owns the portfolio?
  2. Who decides on what goes into the portfolio: The student? The teacher? The employee? The employer?
  3. Additional questions:

Quality

  1. What approach will be used to score the portfolio, e.g., holistic, analytic, primary trait, or combination?
  2. What types of scoring tools will be used to assess performance, e.g., rubrics, keys, checklists, rating scales?
  3. What are the structure and criteria by which portfolios will be evaluated?
  4. How will the portfolio or portfolio assessment system be improved continuously?
  5. Additional questions:

New Categories and criteria?

Generate new categories and questions and share them with your colleagues.
Reference - Wolf, K. (1991). The schoolteacher's portfolio: Issues in design, implementation, and evaluation. Phi Delta Kappan, October, 129-136.
Portfolio Content Source: Adapted with Permission by LearningFront™ from the eLearningTeacher.com LearningLayout for Student and Teacher Portfolios - Copyright © 1997-2006 LearningFront™ - All Rights Reserved.

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