Reports on an ongoing evaluation of the Vermont portfolio assessment program. Indicates that the positive news about the instructional effects of the assessment program are in contrast with the empirical findings about the quality of the data the program has yielded. (SLD)

Portfolios are the centerpiece of Vermont's statewide assessment program in mathematics. Portfolio scores in the first two years were not reliable enough to permit the reporting of student-level results, but increasing the number of readers or the number of portfolio pieces is not operationally feasible. (SLD)

This booklet is designed to help parents and community members answer questions about assessment in the context of the Vermont Framework of Standards, the Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1997, and other statewide initiatives. Assessment is changing in Vermont in response to new legislative mandates that call for standards-based assessment…

In the initial article by Edward Roeber, performance assessment is defined as an exercise in which the student demonstrates specific skills and competencies rather than selecting one of several predetermined answers to an exercise. Such as assessment contains four components: (1) a reason for the assessment; (2) a particular peformance to be…

The 1992-93 school year saw the second statewide implementation of the Vermont portfolio-assessment program, and RAND continued its ongoing evaluation of the program's implementation, effects, and data quality. While the first year's study found evidence of the impact of the assessment program and low reliability of portfolio scoring, this year's…

This article examines one of the challenges to the integration of classroom and large-scale portfolio assessment, a challenge posed by the use of a student's classroom portfolio for large-scale assessment of his or her individual competencies. When work is composed with the support of peers, teachers, and parents, whose work is being judged? The…

The results of an evaluation of Vermont's statewide assessment initiative are presented, with information about the implementation of the program, its effects on educational practice, the analytic challenge presented by the portfolio scoring process, the reliability and validity of portfolio scores, and the tensions between assessment and…

Since 1988 the Vermont Department of Education has been developing an innovative statewide performance assessment program. In 1990, the RAND Corporation began evaluating the Vermont assessment program, focusing specifically on the portfolio component of its assessment system. This report presents results from the evaluation in the 1992-93 school…

In 1991-92 Vermont initiated a statewide portfolio assessment program in mathematics and writing in grades 4 and 8. An evaluation of the program found mixed results--although the portfolio scores were unreliable for individual or school-level reporting and teachers had concerns about implementation, the assessment had marked positive effects on…

For the past five years, Vermont has been developing an innovative statewide assessment system in which portfolios of student work in mathematics and writing are a key element. The use of mathematics portfolios, particularly in elementary school, is a novel aspect of the assessment system. This study examines the elementary school mathematics…