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At Friends’ we are interested in the potential of each child. We are not interested in comparing one child to another. We want every student to work to his or her own highest potential. In the Preschool we have two parent/teacher conferences a year to discuss student progress. At the end of the year teachers compose personal narratives which capture each child’s progress and development. In addition, parents and teachers have opportunities to meet throughout the year to review how things are going for an individual student. In the Elementary school, we use portfolio assessment because we believe that portfolios give a rounded picture of each student, and success is measured against his or her own potential. This means each child sets goals with his or her teacher and works towards attaining those goals. Portfolios include samples of work which reflect student learning, as well as teacher narratives and progress reports. Teachers, students and parents meet two times a year for conferences to review the portfolios, discuss student progress, and make decisions about strategies for the future. 
What is Portfolio Assessment?
The use of "portfolios" offers an alternative method to traditional classroom assessment procedures by having both student and teacher reflect on samples of the student’s work. It offers a useful, and generative picture of student development. It is a method that provides a lesson in learning long after the isolated moment of assessment has occurred. Portfolio assessment gives students the responsibility to function as learners; the view of what students learn is enlarged, because portfolios contain a wide range of work; it provides a place to see progress, and offers a developmental point of view as students construct a long term account (story) of what and how they learn.
Why Use Portfolio Assessment?
As an alternative to standardized testing. Teachers, parents, and administrators want evaluation methods that address their educational concerns and consider their intentions. A child’s personal and intellectual growth should be supported by evaluation and should offer some potential for improving the quality of classrooms and schools. In general, standardized testing addresses only one aspect of learning, and does not fully address the concerns or intentions of teachers. In some cases it can limit a child’s quality of learning by forcing the teacher to "teach the test." To help students become respondents to, and judges of, their own work. The basic nature of traditional classroom assessment has often served to hinder a student’s ability to evaluate their own work, because: a) it has been an extrinsic (outside) judgment on the student, not an intrinsic (internal) responsibility; b) it does not examine a student’s full range of knowledge, but focuses on his/her performance on specific skills appearing on the tests; c) it promotes the idea that first-draft work is good enough; and d) promotes the idea that achievement is more important than development; e) it is age appropriate.
Goals of Portfolio Assessment
- Offer one way for students and teachers to evaluate student learning, while providing information to school systems as well.
- Model personal responsibility in questioning and reflection on one’s own work.
- Show growth over time so that students can become intelligent and reflective assessors of their own progress as learners.
- Create a comprehensive picture of student development.
- Assist educators in providing individualized plans for each student based on knowledge of patterns of growth and learning recorded from year to year.
- Offer the opportunity for students to learn and demonstrate who they are as human beings.
Portfolios In Practice
Documentation of student work for portfolios can take a variety of forms, including, but not limited to: - student products (such as drawings, paintings, photos, written stories, math work)
- teacher journals and reflections
- weekly teacher records
- classroom observations
- reports to parents
- information from parents
- curriculum documentation
- teacher assessment of student work in math and reading activities
- student assessment of their own work
- student notebooks and journals
- audio and video tape samples of student performance
- interactions with peers and adults
References
Carini, P.F. (1973). Documentation: An alternative approach to accountability. From Evaluation Reconsidered. New York: Workshop Center for Open Education, New York City College. Perrone, V. (1977). Documentation: A process for classroom/program evaluation and personal/professional learning. From C.A. Pederson, Evaluation and Record Keeping. Center for Teaching and Learning, University of North Dakota. Wolf, D.P. (Dec. 1987/Jan. 1988). Opening up assessment, Educational Leadership. pp 24-29. Wolf, D.O. (1989). Portfolio assessment: Sampling student work. Educational Leadership. Pp. 35-39 |
