Setting Standards in the Language Arts and Literature Classrooms and the Implications for Portfolio Assessment

Abstract

Based on a series of working sessions with teachers who elaborated their implicit standards for student performance, this article makes a case for portfolio assessment in the English and language arts classroom. Portfolios, created by student and teacher, consist of exemplars, which are products that have been rated by a jury according to public criteria. These are arranged to illustrate the agreed-on dimensions of performance in the subject and the established standards or levels of performance within those dimensions. The portfolio can thus portray the student's performance across the domain. Such dimensions and standards can be generalized beyond the classroom for the purposes of large-scale assessment, but the portfolio's use is primarily, if not entirely, at the individual level. A sample set of dimensions and standards is elaborated and implications for reporting are discussed.