Chapter 9: Portfolio Assessment

1. Chapter 9: Portfolio Assessment Lecture by: Chris Ross

2. Understanding the Need for Alternative Assessment & Reporting Systems • Using Alternative Assessments Appropriately • Used to present a child’s profile of progress

3. Understanding the Need for Alternative Assessment & Reporting Systems • Limitations of Letter Grades & Report Cards • Letter grades can reward students for correct answers and discourage risk taking/experimentation • Letter grades only measure achievement • Reports are changing to be more meaningful and felxible

4. Portfolio Assessment • Purposes for Portfolio Assessment • Using portfolios for assessment and evaluation • Uses for self-assessment and reflection • Uses as a reporting progress mechanism

5. Organizing Portfolios • Types of Portfolios • Working portfolio. Collect examples of student work for future evaluation • Evaluative portfolio. Teacher is able to make assessment of the student’s progress both formative and summative. • Showcase portfolio. Exhibit the child’s bets work. • Archival portfolio. Follow students from one year to the next.

6. Organizing Portfolios • Organizing Portfolios Using Developmental Approach • Meisels and Steel (1991) Suggest: • Art Activities (Fine-Motor Skills) • Movement (Gross-Motor Development) • Math & Science (Concept Development) • Language & Literacy • Personal & Social Development

7. Organizing Portfolios • Organizing Portfolios Using a Subject-Area Approach • Batzel (1992) Recommends: • Required test & accountability measures • Samples across curriculum • Teacher observations & measures • Inventories and other forms • Additional items

8. Setting Up Portfolios • Steps in getting Started • What is the purpose? • How will it be organized? • Where will it be stored? • What will go in the portfolio?

9. Setting Up Portfolios • Collecting & Organizing the Material • Periodically during a grading period, pieces will be selected for the portfolio • Sometimes materials might get replaced over time as new materials are added depending on the portfolio’s purpose.

10. Setting Up Portfolios • Selecting Portfolio Assessments • Try to keep a balance between process and product. • Process being work that reflects their developmental/cognitive skills. Product being the mastery of the skill • There should be traditional assessments available.

11. Setting Up Portfolios • Analyzing Portfolio Assessments • Periodically parents, teachers and students will review the portfolio to view a student’s progress • The teacher must analyze the information that is in the portfolio to prepare. • Teachers can use the portfolio to reflect with a student about their development and their interests

12. Setting Up Portfolios • Strategies for Developing Successful Portfolios • Buschman (1193) suggests teachers who begin the process do the following: • Start small & emphasize quality, not quantity • Use photographs, drawings and reflect descriptions to document projects that don’t fit inside the portfolio • Make sure each portfolio has a table of contents • Be sure students date all their work • Select a few work samples yourself • Give parents the opportunity to review their child’s portfolio.

13. Advantages & Disadvantages of Portfolios to Report Student Progress • Provide evaluation above and beyond letter grades • Include input from the child • Organizing and maintaining • Accountability and grading portfolios • Is there validity Advantages Disadvantages

14. Developing Quality Portfolio Assessments • Herman, Aschbacher & Winters (1992) provide six suggestions to help: • How representative is the work included in the portfolio of what students can really do? • Do the portfolio pieces represent coached work? Independent work? Group work? Are they identified as to the amount of support students received? • Do the evaluation criteria for each piece and the portfolio as a whole represent the most relevant or useful dimensions of student work? • How well do portfolio pieces match important instructional targets or authentic tasks? • Do tasks or some part of them require extraneous abilities? • Is there a method for ensuring that portfolios are reviewed consistently and criteria applied accurately?

15. Developing Quality Portfolio Assessments • Hanson & Gilkerson (1999) propose meaning portfolios: • Be clearly linked with instructional objectives • Be an ongoing assessment system • Avoid becoming a teacher-manufactured document • Be performance based; emphasize purposeful learning; be ongoing in all cultural contexts of home, school and community.

16. Strategies for Reporting Student Progress • Writing a Narrative Report • Horn-Wingerd (1992) described a narrative report as having: • Descriptions of examples of the child’s behavior • Examples of what the child can do • Concerns the teacher may have about the child’s progress • Goals and plans for the child in the future

17. Strategies for Reporting Student Progress • Writing a Narrative Report • Horm-Wingerd (1992) suggest the following procedure when writing narrative reports: • Open with an overall statement describing the child’s progress in a broad development area since the last report or conference • Give a specific example of behavior to serve as your global description of change and to help parents understand exactly what you are describing • State your plans • If appropriate, note what the parents can do at home to facilitate their child’s development.

18. Model Assessment & Reporting Systems • Project Spectrum • Work Sampling System • Preschool Child Observation Record • Teacher-Designed Systems