ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College

Module 8
PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

What is a Portfolio?
❖ it is a purposeful collection of student’s works that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress and
achievements in one or more areas (Carter and Spandel, 1992).
❖ it is a process that enables students to become active and thoughtful learners (Burke, Fogarty and Belgard,
1995).

What is Portfolio Assessment?

Requires a representation of a collection of students' work essentially constituting a dossier or a portfolio.

it is like a scrapbook or a compilation of significant work of the students in a particular subject.
it demonstrates the student’s best work to an “expanded student record” that holds a full representation of
the student’s work, from Math equations to essays on literature.
they are far less susceptible to being faked and manufactured than are transcripts and diplomas.

Implications of Portfolios on Some Elements of Education

1. Curriculum
Some people believe that using portfolios enables teachers to broaden their curriculum to include
areas they traditionally could not assess with standardized testing. How will this work depend on how
much a curriculum is developed “to the test” in other words, how much curriculum is geared towards
achieving a high-test score rather than learning for its sake.

2. Instruction
Portfolio assessment appears to compliment a teacher’s use of instructional strategies centered
around teamwork, projects, and applied learning. Portfolios are also compatible with more individualized
instructions, as well as strategies focused on different learning styles.

3. Assessment
A portfolio can be used as an assessment tool. External assessors-employers, evaluation panels,
and so on can benefit from them. Teachers can also utilize them to judge students’ performance. Plus,
students can use their portfolios for self-assessment and reflection.

Portfolios typically are created for one of the following three purposes; to show growth, to
showcase current abilities, and to evaluate cumulative achievements. Some examples of such
purposes include:

Growth Portfolios
a. to show growth or change over time.
b. to help develop process skills such as evaluation as self-evaluation and goal-setting
c. to identify strengths and weaknesses
d. to track the development of one or more products/performances
Showcase Portfolios
a. to showcase end-of-year/semester accomplishments
b. to prepare a sample of best work for employment or college admission
c. to showcase student perceptions of favorite, best, or most important work
d. to communicate a student’s current aptitudes to future teacher
ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College
Evaluation Portfolios
a. to document achievements for grading purposes
b. to documents progress towards standards
c. to place students appropriately

What are the Possible Contents of a Portfolio?

➢ A Creative Cover. It gives the subject area, author, title, and the general theme of the portfolio.
➢ A Letter to the Reader. It welcomes the reader and explains the cover, the title, and/or the theme.
➢ A Table of Contents. This shows how the entire portfolio is organized.
➢ The Artifacts or Evidence. These may vary depending on the type and purpose of the portfolio.
➢ Reflections. This is meant to reveal student insight.
➢ Self-Evaluation. This encourages students to assess their own strengths and weaknesses and monitor their
own learning.

Why Use Portfolios?

• To allow students to show their best.

• To show change and growth over a period of time (Vavrus, 1990)
• To invite students and teachers to be allies in the assessment process.
• To provide an opportunity for richer, more authentic, and more valid assessment of the students.
• To form an intersection of instruction and assessment (Paulson, Paulson, and Meyer, 1991)

Creating a Portfolio Assignment

7 Questions necessary in the development of a portfolio assignment

Purpose– What is the purpose(s) of the portfolio?

Audience– For what audience(s) will the portfolio be created?
Content – What samples of student work will be included?
Process – What processes (e.g., selection of work to be included, reflection on work, conferencing) will
be engaged in during the development of the portfolio?
Management – How will time and materials be managed in the development of the portfolio?
Communication – How and when will the portfolio be shared with pertinent audiences?
Evaluation– If the portfolio is to be used for evaluation, when and how should it be evaluated?

Types of Portfolio:
▪ Best Work Portfolio– showcase the student’s best works selected by the student and the teacher.
▪ Process Portfolio – presents the progress of certain work from the first draft to the final form to show
growth.
▪ Working Portfolio – supplements traditional means of grading and is used for ongoing informal
assessment of students’ progress and evidence of their learning.
▪ Integrated Portfolio – gathers different disciplines in one piece of work in line with a thematic approach
to learning.

Other types of Portfolio:

▪ Writing – dated writing samples to show the process and product.
▪ Literacy – a combination of reading, writing, speaking, and listening pieces.
▪ Unit– one unit of study (Egypt, angles, frogs, elections)
▪ Year-long – key artifacts from the entire year to show growth and development.
ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College
▪ Career – important artifacts (resumes, recommendations, and commendations) collected to showcase
employability.
▪ Standard – evidence to documents meeting standards.

Best Work Portfolio

Process Portfolio

Working Portfolio
ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College
Integrated Portfolio

Writing Portfolio

Literacy Portfolio Career Portfolio

ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College

Year-long Portfolio Standard Portfolio

Why Should We Use Portfolios?

Wolf (1989), Vavrus (1990), Paulson et. Al. (1991), Lazear (1991), and many others recommend using
portfolios because they can be used as:
• Tools for discussion with peers, teachers, and parents
• Demonstrations of students’ skills and understanding
• Opportunities for students to reflect on their work metacognitive
• Chances to examine current goals and set new ones
• Documentation of students’ development and growth in abilities, attitudes, and expressions
• Demonstrations of different learning styles, multiple intelligences, cultural diversity
• Options for students to make critical choices about what they select for their portfolio
• Evidence that traces the development of students’ learning
• Connections between prior knowledge and new learning.

Content selection may be based on the following criteria:

• Best work – selection for showcase portfolios will typically focus on samples of work that illustrate
students’ best performance in designated areas or the culmination of progress made.
• Evidence of growth – selection for growth portfolios will focus on identifying samples of work and work
process (e.g., drafts, notes) that best capture progress shown on designated tasks, process or acquisition
of knowledge and skills.
• For example, students might be asked to choose:
- Samples of earlier and later work highlighting some skill or content area.
- Samples of rough drafts and final drafts.
- Work that traces the development of a particular product or performance.
- Samples of work reflecting specifically identified strengths and weaknesses.
• Evidence of achievements – particularly for show case and evaluation portfolios, selection might focus on
samples of work that illustrate current levels of competence in designated areas or particular exemplars of
quality work.
• Evidence of standards met – similarity, selection could focus on samples of work that illustrate how
successfully students have met certain standards.
ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College

• Favorite/most important piece – to help develop recognition of the value of the work completed and to
foster pride in the work, selection might focus on samples to which students or parents or others find a
connection or with which they are particularly enamored.
• One or more of the above – a portfolio can include samples of work for multiple reasons and, thus, more
than one of the above criteria (or others) could be used for selecting samples to be included.

PORTFOLIO SCORING RUBRIC (Analytic)

Portfolio Owner: _______________________

Evaluator: _______ Self: _______ Peer: _______ Teacher: _______
Directions: Tick (/) the box below the score that best describes the indicator. The legend below describes each
score.
Legend: 5 – Outstanding 2 - Fair
4 – Very Satisfactory 1 – Needs Improvement
3 – Satisfactory
Criteria 5 4 3 2 1
Visual Appeal (20%)
[Link]
2. Lay-out
3. Tone/mood
4. Creativity
5. Resourcefulness
6. Neatness
B. Organization (20%)
1. Order of entries
2. Coding technique
3. Readability of entries
4. Correctness of form (e.g. grammar)
C. Content (30%)
1. Statement of purpose
2. Completeness of entries
3. Diversity of Selection
D. Reflections (30%)
1. Depth of understanding
2. Application of ideas
ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College

PORTFOLIO SCORING RUBRIC (Holistic)

Directions: Read the entire portfolio carefully. Examine the entire work in terms of the scale indicators below.

SCALE INDICATORS
Scale 5 (Outstanding)
• Presents a variety of work done individually or in groups
• Uses many resources
• Shows good organization and a clear focus
• Displays evidences of self-assessment such as revisions, a letter on why one chose a certain entry, etc.
• Includes few, if any, errors in grammar, usage or mechanics
• Reflects enthusiasm, creativity, extensive investigation and analysis of information

Scale 4 (Very Satisfactory)

• Presents a variety of work done individually or in groups

• Uses many resources
• Contains minor organizational flaws
• Exhibits some errors in grammar, usage, or mechanics
• Reflects enthusiasm, creativity, self-assessment, extensive investigation, and analysis of information

Scale 3 (Satisfactory)

• Presents fewer work and some resources

• Includes confusing organization and an unclear focus
• Reflects enthusiasm, creativity, self-assessment, extensive investigation, and analysis of information

Scale 2 (Fair)

• Contains problems in mechanics that interfere with communication

• Reflects poor organization
• Lacks focus, enthusiasm, creativity, and analysis of information

Scale 1 (Needs Improvement)

• Consist mainly of ditto sheets or pages copied from a textbook

• Contains no evidence of student thinking

Criteria for Portfolio Entries

The following are suggested by Steffy (1995).
• Reflect genuinely useful skills and knowledge
• Allow flexibility in student preparation and presentation
• Allow time for serious, comprehensive work
• Prompt students to stretch their minds and make connections
• Place knowledge in a context, which supports the value of what has been learned.
ED 87 – Assessment in Learning 1 La Carlota City College

Possible Portfolio Organizers

Organizers must be durable and economical. Some of the possible portfolio organizers are as
follows: clear book, album, bag, envelope, box, bound sheets.

The Portfolio Process

Burke (1995) outlines the portfolio process as follows:
❖ Orientation
❖ Planning
❖ Gathering of evidences
❖ Selecting evidences based on criteria
❖ Connecting and conferencing with others
❖ Injecting and ejecting artifacts continually to update
❖ Respecting work and exhibiting with pride

The steps can be simplified into three basic steps.

Collect Select Reflect

Students' Reflection of Evidence