This article reports on the development of the literary portfolio as an alternative to standard written tests in summative assessment of literary competences in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. It is argued that traditional class tests put a too narrow focus on those aspects of literary competences that are more readily…

This research attempted to categorize reflection in a Web-based portfolio assessment using the Chinese Word Segmenting System (CWSS). Another aim of this research was to explore reflective performance in which individual differences were further examined. Participants were 45 eight-grade students from a junior high school taking a computer course.…

This study examines the effect of a Web-based portfolio assessment system on the performances of students undertaking project-based learning (PBL). The research targets were 60 students from two grade-8 classes taking senior high school computer courses. The experimental group comprised 30 students, who used the system to perform PBL and…

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent digital portfolios would affect mathematics achievement, attitudes, and self-perceptions of themselves as mathematics learners of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students. The study analyzed the effect of digital portfolios on the students' performance on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills.…

This paper reports on an analysis of large-scale assessments of Grades 5-8 students' writing across 10 provinces and 2 territories in Canada. Theory, classroom practice, and the contributions and constraints of large-scale writing assessment are brought together with a focus on Grades 5-8 writing in order to provide both a broad view of…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of engineering design classroom activities on conceptual change in science, and on attitudes toward and knowledge about engineering. Students were given a situated learning context and a rationale for learning science in an active, inquiry-based method, and worked in small collaborative…

Type and quality of revisions made by students between first and final drafts of a state writing test were scored using a revision taxonomy. Scorers categorized revisions first by unit (e.g., word, phrase, sentence), and then by type (e.g., addition, substitution, spelling). They then evaluated the impact of each revision on the readability of the…

This article shares the results of a 3-year study of the use of threaded discussion groups within intact eighth-grade classrooms in a middle school in Southern California. Using mixed-methods data collection and analysis, it addresses questions about how technology may be used effectively to create engaged writers and how student access to…

This study considered middle school mathematics teachers use of rubrics to score non-traditional tasks. A group of eighth-grade teachers attended a two-day workshop where they evaluated assessment tasks and discussed the use of an associated scoring rubric. Scored samples of student work submitted by the teachers indicated that they had difficulty…

This study explored the effects of portfolio assessment on locus of control among 90 eighth-graders with and without disabilities. Results indicated that all participants scored more internally oriented in terms of locus of control than those not involved in portfolio assessment. (Contains references.) (Author/PB)

The authors examine the results of introducing electronic portfolios in teaching and assessing English as a Foreign Language in Taiwan. The research participants were 37 eighth-grade Taiwanese students from one class at a public junior high school in a middle-range socioeconomic community of Taichung, Taiwan. Results show an overwhelmingly…

As digital portfolios become more prevalent in teacher education, the purposes and processes for creating them have become contested. Originally meant to be critical and reflective spaces for learning about multimedia and conceived as contributing to professional growth, research shows that digital portfolios are now increasingly being used to…

This report, submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, contains summary details of Delaware students' growth in the areas of reading, mathematics, writing, science and social studies. The results reported herein are part of a long-term effort to gather data on Delaware students' educational progress and use the data to inform decisions about…