Portfolio-based Assessment Research Articles

Using Portfolios to Teach Teachers About Assessment: How to Survive

In this article I respond to a call for inquiry into the teaching process using one's own teaching as the object of inquiry. A focus on the dilemmas faced by an individual teacher acknowledges that teaching is, as Wineburg (1991) put it 'a complex activity fraught with pitfalls, problems, setbacks, failures, errors and disappointments' (p.278). Single cases have value if they contain elements that can be generalized beyond the specific personalities and contexts of the given situation. In this article I describe the evolution of a portfolio-based assessment course in a traditional teacher education program. I describe the elements of the course, the aims of instruction, and the potential power of portfolios and authentic performances to enhance student learning. I also describe the problems that may arise from the use of portfolio and performance-based assessments. The various adjustments made during a 3-year period to make the course workable for both students and the instructor are described as an evolutionary process. The problems and their solutions can be generalized beyond the given assessment course and show the kinds of decisions teachers must make for their students and for themselves when using portfolios in teaching.

Portfolio-Based Exit Assessment: A Progress Report

Portfolio-Based Exit Assessment: A Progress Report

Fellow of The American Dietetic Association credentialing program: Development and implementation of a portfolio-based assessment

This report has described the measurement and operational procedures used for the design, development, and implementation of the newly inaugurated Fellow of The American Dietetic Association credentialing program. The program was established to identify and certify registered dietitians who possess the characteristics of advanced-level practice. The main features of the Fellow program are as follows. It is based on the results of an empirical study that identified the characteristics of advanced-level practice. It is guided by the Fellow Assessment Plan, which specifies the content and level of dietetics practice involved and the psychometric and operational requirements for sound measurement. It is a performance-based portfolio assessment of six professional characteristics (education, work experience, professional achievement, professional roles, professional contacts, and approach to practice). It uses objective automated computer scoring and independent peer-review grading of candidate materials in relation to an explicit scoring rubric. It requires statistical analysis of the database of candidate scores, which is conducted to ensure that the scoring of candidate materials is accurate and reliable and that the assessment, as a measurement instrument, is psychometrically sound. It involves a standard-setting workshop in which a panel of subject-matter experts establish the lowest level of acceptable candidate performance on Approach to Practice; the passing standard for the other five characteristics was preestablished by the empirical study. A careful review of all evidence on the development and implementation of the 1994 Fellow assessment suggests that these procedures are technically sound and produce psychometrically defensible results. Our evaluation and commentary from CDR and CTB staff, subject-matter expert participants, and the candidates themselves suggested a number of ways to improve the Fellow program in subsequent administrations of the assessment. Changes have been implemented and CDR will continue to consider all data in its ongoing improvement efforts.

A Portfolio-Based Assessment Model For Teachers: Encouraging Professional Growth

Does a portfolio-based assessment model, incorporating degrees of self-assessment consistent with the research on adult learning, represent the best means by which to nurture the sort of professional growth that is the ultimate objective of teacher assessment programs?

Portfolio-based Assessment Practices

The uses of portfolio assessment for students with behavioral disorders or learning disabilities

Using Portfolios to Assess Student Performance in School Health Education

Outcome-based education is a topic of growing interest in educational circles today. More performance-oriented than traditional learning approaches, outcome-based education requires students to demonstrate what they know and what they can do. Because of this emphasis, outcome-based curricula will require new methods to assess student achievement. One approach is the portfolio, a repository that enables students to document authentic examples of academic work and presentations as well as nonschool accomplishments. The possibility of using portfolio-based assessment as a viable mechanism to promote comprehensive school health education is examined. Practical recommendations concerning portfolio development and evaluation are offered.

Questioning Assumptions about Portfolio-Based Assessment

Interest in and commitment to portfolios for assessing college writing have swelled enormously in the past decade and are still growing. In Using Portfolios, Pat Belanoff and Peter Elbow wrote extensively about the benefits portfolios brought to the freshman composition program they ran at SUNY-Stony Brook. Anson and Brown have written, in Large-Scale Portfolio Assessment in the Research University, about the efforts of faculty at the University of Minnesota toward large-scale portfolio collection at entry which, while they ultimately sank under the weight of campus-wide politics, inspired similar efforts at places such as the University of Alaska (Wauters). As the use of portfolios for purposes ranging from entry-level writing assessment (at Miami University: see Daiker) to campus-wide curriculum development (Larsen) becomes common, evaluation by portfolio method is increasingly accepted as an enriched evaluation and thus a better evaluation. Our own experience with portfolios at the University of Michigan (Condon and Hamp-Lyons) confirms that portfolio-based assessment does enrich the process of assessing writing; further, it enriches the process of teaching writing, of developing curriculum and faculty in a writing program, of collecting data about the program's effectiveness, and much, much more. The benefits of portfolio assessment are real, and the indications are that its potential has hardly begun to develop. We write, then, from the perspective of a commitment to portfolio assessment, but also from the perspective of teacher-researchers who seek to understand all we do, even when it is successful. A great deal is still unknown about what portfolios do and, perhaps even more interestingly, about the nature of the role and activities we, as teachers and readers, engage in during portfolio assessment. In order to explore some of the issues involved in how teacherevaluators use, perceive, and react to the portfolios they collect in their classes,

Questioning Assumptions about Portfolio-Based Assessment

Questioning Assumptions about Portfolio-Based Assessment

The Development and Use of Literacy Portfolios for Students, Classes, and Teachers

Portfolio assessment is one of the most interesting and widely discussed of the new alternative assessments. In this paper we explore the portfolio metaphor as it is applied to literacy portfolios. We suggest that portfolios provide a powerful tool for the enhancement of instruction and assessment, addressing educators' concerns about authentic assessment, documentation of academic progress, and teacher and student involvement. However, we caution that there are many important and unresolved issues that must be confronted if portfolio assessment is to succeed. Fundamental issues of validity and reliability must be addressed as well as practical issues of implementation, standard setting, sufficient resources, and teacher expertise. We argue that the ultimate success of portfolios will rest on our ability to communicate portfolio-based assessment information to others. We offer the teacher's class portfolio as a promising strategy for aggregating and reporting information, while preserving the integrity of individual student portfolios and teacher judgment. Whether the emphasis is on individual student portfolios or classroom portfolios, educators must be committed to the staff development and additional research that portfolio assessment demands.