Using Portfolios to Assess Students' Academic Strengths

Using Portfolios to Assess Students’ Academic Strengths

Data is an important component in determining student and school success. When you think of data the first thing that comes to mind is standardized tests, but there are various kinds of data. Since data helps identify problems, make diagnoses and is the foundation for policy making in the educational arena, teachers must understand that they play a key role in the process of assessment and must use data wisely.

Assessment is defined as the process of gathering evidence of learning. This evidence or data is used to make educational decisions about students, to give feedback to the student about his or her progress, strengths, and weakness, to judge instructional effectiveness, appropriate curriculum and to inform policy. There are an assortment of assessment techniques, such as formal and informal observation, paper and pencil tests, work samples, discussions, oral questioning and analysis of student performance and records.

This article discusses performance-based assessment (portfolios) as an alternate or supplement to traditional assessment such as standardized tests. Karoly and Franklin use a case study of a ten year old African American boy to list the advantages and effectiveness of performance based assessment and accentuates a teacher’s responsibility to use best practices for ongoing assessment.

Because of teachers’ growing roles in education and policy decisions beyond the classroom, they must understand the role they play in the process of assessment. It is important for them to acquire skills to create assessments that give valid and reliable data. Teachers must also be able to collect and interpret the data and have the ability to communicate to others what the data results mean. This can be done by collaborating with other teachers, psychologists, diagnosticians and having dialogue with administrators and parents,