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Portfolio-Based Assessment

Purposes of Portfolios

A portfolio is a systematic collection of student work that both you and the student choose to reflect progress in one or more content areas. A portfolio is more than just a file folder filled with the student's work, or a notebook compiled at the end of a unit of study. A portfolio is a collection of work gathered over time that reflects processes, products, achievement, and progress. It is valuable to the teacher, the student, and to the student's family/guardian.

Portfolios have many purposes, including self-reflection, self-assessment, and a way to establish communication between you and your student. One major purpose for portfolios is to assist you in curriculum and instruction decisions. Curricular and instructional programs can be validated, improved, or even extended based upon information gained from a critical look at classroom portfolios.

Portfolios also provide opportunities to assess not just end products but how students arrived at their end products. When portfolios play this role of showing students' processes for learning, they can be used as a diagnostic tool for the class as a whole as well as for individual students. You can become aware of student learning difficulties and uncover problems needing attention in many areas, such as skill development, written expression, collaboration with others, and growth in ability level.

In addition, portfolios provide another means for dialogue between you and your students so that you can better support your students' needs in both the affective and cognitive realms.

Benefits of Portfolios

Few other traditional assessment practices of the past or present have afforded students the opportunity to assume such an integral part in their own learning. Students set personal goals as they create their portfolios. The student work found within portfolios reflects the accomplishment of these goals.

Students feel a pride of ownership for their work, and they see the personal and academic relevance of the work they have completed. Most importantly, students value themselves as learners as they proceed through the portfolio process of selecting work and reflecting on each piece. This assessment process emphasizes what students can do, not what they cannot do.

In summary, portfolios help students to:

• determine meaningful work.
• reflect on their strengths and needs.
• set learning goals.
• see their own progress over time.
• think about ideas presented in their work.
• see the effort they put forth.
• feel ownership and pride in their work.
• realize their work has personal relevance.

The Family Role

Parents, guardians, and family members assume a key role in the portfolio process as they review, respond, and recognize the work of students. They can provide the recognition that students need and help them foster self-esteem.

The family-school connection is enhanced when students and family members come together to review portfolios. This connection is vital to student success. Portfolios allow parents the opportunity to see their children's progress throughout the school year or over many years.

There are a variety of ways for you to invite family members to review their children's portfolios.

• Arrange meetings to talk with family members about the student's portfolio.
• Create formatted response sheets for family members to complete.
• Conduct parent conferences and have the student lead the conference, using the portfolio as the focal point.
• Have a "Back to School Night" so that family members have a chance to look over the students' portfolios.

Tip: For more information on family involvement in the portfolio process, see Sharing Portfolios.

Setting Up a Portfolio Program

There are two key factors to consider when setting up a portfolio program as an assessment tool. The first is the structure of the school, and the second is the administrative requirements.

The structure of your school affects how you will use portfolios as well as how you will manage the logistics of collecting and storing them. You need to consider the following questions:

• Is your school organized by self-contained classrooms, single-subject classrooms, core (two subjects joined together and taught by one teacher), or interdisciplinary teams?
• Does your master schedule consist of single periods or block schedules?

Self-Contained Classrooms

If you teach in a self-contained classroom, you may want to begin using portfolios simply and focus only on one subject.

In addition, there are many opportunities to show work in progress. Each student can collect his or her assigned projects and papers in a working portfolio, or workfolio. Students can then choose favorite pieces from their workfolios to put into their showcase portfolios. In subsequent years, you can incorporate other subject areas in the workfolios and showcase portfolios.

Single-Subject Classrooms

If your school is organized by single subjects or is departmentalized, you might create separate portfolios in designated subject areas (e.g., math, science, history). During the first year of portfolio assessment, you should move slowly and concentrate on developing and experiencing the process of portfolio assessment. Have students select pieces from their workfolios in each subject area and then compile them into showcase portfolios housed in one classroom, such as the language arts classroom. You will need to work with several teachers to create showcase portfolios.

Interdisciplinary Teams

If you teach on an interdisciplinary team, you can devise a procedure within this team. The suggestions described above work well for a team configuration.

Final Advice

You have many different options for creating and coordinating a portfolio program depending on how your school is organized. Review some of the possibilities below and determine what kind of portfolio program best suits your needs:

• a portfolio that targets one subject area within your classroom
• a showcase portfolio of all subject areas taught within your classroom
• several individual portfolios for each of the subject areas within your classroom or school
• a showcase portfolio of all subject areas within the school
• a showcase portfolio for your interdisciplinary team

Portfolio Contents

Because portfolios have a number of purposes, there are many types of work than can be included in them, such as:

• student writing (first drafts and polished pieces)
• individual and group products
• investigations
• diagrams, graphs, and charts
• work written in the student's primary language
• photographs of student work
• audiotapes, videotapes, and computer disks
• related assignments completed at different times

Both you and your students can be involved in the process of selecting the contents of portfolios, and there are a variety of approaches than can be used. You may only give general directions as to what students should include. You may ask students to include at least one sample of work from a specific unit. Or you may create a list of required items for students to include, such as units of study, particular assignments, and specific skills. You may allow students the option to include other samples of work as well.

Another option is to allow your students complete autonomy in selecting meaningful work. Simply remind students to include completed work that evokes pride, shows their progress, or is meaningful to them.

It is important to keep in mind that portfolio assessment is not summative but formative; it is an ongoing process that starts at the beginning of the year and continues until the year's end. It is important to remember and remind your students that portfolios show process, not just final products. The portfolio process can actually be carried on throughout multiple school years as well.

Besides the actual content pieces, essential components of a portfolio include:

Unifying Theme: Have students choose a unifying theme or style to tie their portfolio pages together. They can do this graphically by using a consistent border design or logo and/or verbally by using quotations. Provide students with time to think about this theme.

Cover: Have students create a cover. Give each student a list of requirements for the cover (e.g., that it should incorporate the unifying theme, be attractive, and include specific information such as title, name, school year, and subjects).

To the Reader: Have students write a letter, poem, or other piece of prose that serves as an invitation to read the portfolio as well as an explanation of the purpose and contents. Writing this piece gives students an opportunity to reflect on what they have accomplished and to celebrate the learning that has occurred.

Table of Contents: Ask students to list the titles and page numbers of everything included in the portfolio. This procedure enables students to check their organization. It should be completed at the end of the process.

Content Reflection: (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.) Ask students to include a content reflection page for each content piece in their portfolios. Reflecting on the work they have done lets students draw insights about themselves, and in the process, leads the portfolio reader into insights about the student. The content reflection page may include information on why the student chose the particular piece of work, as well as what the student has learned about herself or himself as a result of this effort.

Reader Comment Page: (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.) Remind students that the reader comment page is sensitive for a number of reasons. First, the reader must be guided through the comment process so that negative comments do not appear on the page. Letters home, comments to parents during meetings, and articles in parent newsletters are all ways to communicate that negative comments should not be made. Second, students may have included some particularly sensitive material in the portfolio that they do not want to share with parents. To avoid this problem, encourage students to not include such material in their portfolios. If students insist, materials can be removed before the reader begins reviewing the portfolio and then added back after the reader has finished.

Teacher Comment Page: (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.) Tell students that you will model constructive criticism. (Be careful not to include negative remarks in students' portfolios.) Comments should be in the form of questions to help students evaluate their efforts. One way to establish the kind of supportive tone needed for this page is to write your comments in the form of a personal letter to students.

Sharing Portfolios

Once a portfolio is complete, it needs an audience. There are a number of ways for your students to share their portfolios with family and friends. Here are a few ideas.

Portfolio Review at Home: Suggest students take their portfolios home and present them to their parents or guardians. Be sure to attach a letter that directs the reader to fill in the reader's comment page. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document.)

In-Class Portfolio Day: Students present their portfolios to each other during a special day scheduled just for this activity. Explain the day in advance, and give students time to plan and rehearse what they will present. Because it can be somewhat cumbersome and uninteresting for everyone to listen to everyone else's presentation, divide the students into groups of four. Students can then take turns presenting their portfolios to the members of their groups. After these group presentations, students can display their portfolios so that all of their classmates have the opportunity to see each other's work.

Portfolio Presentation Night: Reserve this special event for an afternoon or evening. Students create and send invitations to whomever they wish: parents, friends, siblings, or former teachers. They can then present their portfolios to their invited guests.

Parent Conferences: Arrange parent conferences and have students lead them, using their portfolios as a springboard for discussion. This activity brings a positive atmosphere and focus to the conferences. Before the parent conferences actually occur, discuss with students the purpose and agenda of a conference and give each of them an opportunity to role-play a conference.

Tip: Students are often very enthusiastic about presenting their portfolios to former kindergarten or primary grade teachers. It is a wonderful way to show those who got them started how far they have progressed.

Evaluating Portfolios

Finally, you need to address the question of evaluation. Should I grade portfolios? There are many schools of thought concerning the grading of portfolios. There is no right or wrong way, but it is important to thoroughly examine the options and hold serious discussions with colleagues to determine your approach.

Endemic to portfolios is the notion that they serve as a self-assessment tool. If this is indeed the case, portfolios are undermined if you assign grades to them. Why? Once you assign a grade, the portfolio shifts ownership from the students to you. Grades are evaluative by nature, and by grading portfolios, you evaluate for the students instead of having the students evaluate and reflect for themselves.

There are some schools that have displaced grades with portfolios and provide a non-graded report card or report student progress using portfolios during parent conferences.

It is also essential to consider that you have already evaluated the work that your students have collected. Once this is done, your students overtly or covertly choose work that is meaningful based on your assessments.

You may opt to provide students with a portfolio rubric so that they can assess their own portfolios. Teachers can assess portfolio progress and completion using a assessment rubric as well.

For information on how to introduce technology to the portfolio process, see Electronic Portfolios.